Gold meal choice - first dibs?
#1
Original Poster




Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, *A Gold, Hertz President's Circle, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 546
Gold meal choice - first dibs?
Are Gold's meant to get first choice on meals in CW?
About to depart and they ran out of starter choice by the third row of the UD in CW. Should they have sorted out Golds first or is that a little DYKWIA?
About to depart and they ran out of starter choice by the third row of the UD in CW. Should they have sorted out Golds first or is that a little DYKWIA?
#2



Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: J15 M1
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL (OWE), SA LifePlat (*G), BD Gold to the end, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,155
Ive been offered first choice regularly in the past but on my last two CW UD flights I wasn't. I don't think it's a published benefit.
#3
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA GGL, AA 1MM LT GLD, SPG PLAT, National Exec Selc, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Plat, Marriott Silver
Posts: 8,278
I think its more apt to happen for main's but when starters are just delivered from a cart, its hard to sort...
#6




Join Date: Aug 2013
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Spire Elite
Posts: 1,779
In my experience the UD is usually fairly well loaded with high status people on some routes/flights. Certainly on my last UD flight lots of people were displaying shiny bag tags.
Now that CIHY has commented I do recall some upstairs/downstairs swaps going on in the past, which is great if you're the beneficiary!
Now that CIHY has commented I do recall some upstairs/downstairs swaps going on in the past, which is great if you're the beneficiary!
#7




Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: London
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold & GGL & CCR, HH Diam, Bonvoy Titanium, IHG Spire, Tastecard
Posts: 7,563
a fellow GGLer and I were travelling together on the UD not long ago and starter and main orders were taken early in the flight.
however, when it came to serving, the crew apologised and told us that he thought he had 12 shrimp loaded when in fact there were only 9 so told us we could only have the alternative (the goats cheese - which turned out to be very tasty).
given neither of us were addressed by name at any point, I sort of assume that the crew on UD didnt have a manifest or didnt look at it so they didnt do orders (or allocation) by status.
no big deal for either of us though.
however, when it came to serving, the crew apologised and told us that he thought he had 12 shrimp loaded when in fact there were only 9 so told us we could only have the alternative (the goats cheese - which turned out to be very tasty).
given neither of us were addressed by name at any point, I sort of assume that the crew on UD didnt have a manifest or didnt look at it so they didnt do orders (or allocation) by status.
no big deal for either of us though.
#8
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: London
Programs: plenty - ggl, ccr, etc, etc.
Posts: 1,704
Cabin crew can often not be bothered with this but if you are gold/have a high civ and it matters to you then ask the crew if they have taken status preferences and civ into account. If not get csm or csd involved and that usually gets it sorted out.
In theory this should not be necessary but in the new BA where the ZCruz crew unsurprisingly have no pride in the product I can't blame cabin crew for going through the motions as quickly as they can without bothering with status checks
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist




Join Date: Jul 2002
Programs: Mucci des Hommes Magiques et Magnifiques
Posts: 21,765
On the B744 the correct standard is to take all the orders for starters and main courses on the upper deck and the lower deck, the galley leads (one on each deck) then get together and count all the orders, if they are short of anything they should then refuse choices in the order of staff, upgrades and cardholders by level.
#10
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Argentina
Posts: 40,854
This topic has been discussed for many a year on this forum.....certainly years before Alex Cruz appeared at BA. The poor guy seems to get the blame for everything. Here's a thread from 2010 which explains the topic. There are ones going as far back as 2002 and probably even earlier.
GCH meal choice priority abolished
GCH meal choice priority abolished

