markzz2

I agree

I love afternoon tea, and I certainly would rather a nice glass of champagne with some high quality sandwiches and scones and cakes between 3-5pm in GF than a plate full of gloop (the hot buffet standards like hunters chicken, curry and pasta sauce).

TRISTAR1979

Thanks for the update. I can't disagree with the new biscuits and cakes, they are very tasty indeed!

I do disagree with the removal of the all day hot buffet though. When i am returning to GLA from a long day in the office I will typically get the flight at just after 6pm (18.05 BA1492) so won't be able to avail of the hot buffet, however by the time I land at GLA, get my bags and drive home it is usually after 9.00 pm and so too late for dinner. This means if i want a hot evening meal I now have to avoid the lounge and purchase something at the airport, which makes lounge access much less attractive or useful to me.

Therefore I would strongly recommend the return of the Hot Buffet, unless of course you intend to reintroduce the hot meal on evening shuttle flights!

LondonAndy

Flying F last week I was really disappointed about the reduction in choice in the breakfast menu - bring back the Eggs Benedict! I think that the only substantial warm choice was a "full English".

nordic

I would accept the changes if BA admitted that the reason is that the owners want to get more savings in order to get more profit. The same thing happened with the change to Avios. Equal qualification levels for Londoners and other Europeans would be right. BA should have told honestly that their focus group is Londoners and that is why they get Tesco points etc which we don't. If you are happy with that please continue to fly with us, otherwise please quit. (Then again 80 TP btw HEL-LHR is rather generous).

klmml

In the past year (while silver) I've been in T3 GC a lot in the early evening (namely, 4-6pm). Having a hot buffet at that time was often a lifesaver, and it was on the strength of this food offering that I aimed for (and achieved) gold.

If I had walked into T3 GC at 4pm and wasn't able to get some decent salad and simple hot food I'd probably have walked out and never bothered with BA again. Certainly, not spent the requisite amount on J tickets to amass the tier points needed for gold. I always considered the welcoming and satisfying hot buffet and salads in GC the thing that set it apart from nasty J lounges elsewhere with four wilted lettuce leaves and a bowl of flavoured water labelled 'soup'. Oh well.

Flying SK and connecting in CPH (as I have done for my current trip to SVG) is not nearly as bad as I had expected. Time to aim for *G I guess. So much for BA.

heartybob

Straight from a BAngalore standard copy-paste reply

TravellerFrequently

Nicci, many thanks for your response to the many, many disappointed posts.^

Let me start by saying that I have not flown in the last few weeks but will be in LHR 5 (AM) and 3 (PM) in the coming two weeks, so will see for myself shortly.

I would be very interested to know more about the research/feedback that was provided to BA that has led to the changes, and in particular, the strong feedback from those who objected to the provision of an all day buffet. I would like to think that the powers that be will also be using the FT feedback along side the other feedback. Please note my feedback that I do want the option to have a hot meal between these times.

With so many travellers arriving from far away time zones, the provision of food needs to flexible.

The strong message on the various threads has been that the quality and choice has suffered, so it is good to read that improvements will be coming. I should be grateful if you would please keep us regularly informed?

I hope that the quality and quantity of feedback here is being considered fully in Waterside and that the costs savings, which are suspected by many as the cause of the changes, can be balanced with the potential loss of business - as reported by some posters here.

I am sure that we will all allow BA and BS some time to respond and get it right, although BA should not be under any illusion that a poor quality provision for its premium and most frequent passengers will be acceptable.

Fruitcake

Good thread. Points well, and politely, made. ^

I must be naive, or over-trusting, but I expect better than this from BA. Much better.

Dave_C

Nicci,

Thanks very much for posting BA's response. You personally do a huge amount for the community here and I wanted to take another opportunity to thank you for all the hard work you do.

I'm not going to repeat the criticisms of the offering itself as that has been clearly and eloquently done by many others.

To the British Airways management who have specified this level of catering, the message is simple, unanimous and unambiguous, it's rubbish. To Baxter Storey, I think your company initials spell out the new offering quite appropriately.

It will be interesting to see if BA or BaxterStorey come off worse from this débâcle.

RB211

Clearly? One has to wonder how that information was obtained / what the question was that was actually asked. As has already been pointed out, the question that was asked can be more important that the answers!

Anyway, let's not forget that just because it is 4pm in London, doesn't mean that everyone's body clock is at 4pm. Some have come from somewhere, and everyone is going somewhere! So while it may be 4pm in London, maybe it's much earlier or much later for me (because of where I've come from and/or where I'm going) and I'll want something appropriate for MY time of day, not London's time of day. This seems to have been ignored, which is pretty sad for a company that makes its money taking people from point A to point B!

The rest I won't comment on, I don't have the patience. But "improved choice and variety" should mean just that, not less choice and variety, which seems to be what we are getting.

I went in T5 GCS earlier this week (Tuesday) and walked straight out. It was a zoo. Was going to try GCN but couldn't be bothered. I'm wondering how much longer I will think Lounge access is worth it.

rb211.

Skipcool3

A friend of mine works for this catering company. They can only provide the product that B.A. are prepared to fund, of course.

For B.A. to continue to undermine it's premium offering is very shabby; just a few Premium customers choosing other carriers (anybody else been in the Emirates Lounge?) will easily wipe out the savings B.A. hope to achieve in lounge costs.

I also agree about domestic flights; I understood that BA's position on domestics was minimum service (i.e. drink and a snack) on board and full fare tickets, / business FIRST and card holders could make up for this in the lounge....~ Not anymore.

Another nail in the cabin. (Sorry, Coffin!)

Dave_C

The only other thing that I think remains to be said by me is that the corporate statement that Nicci presumably was given is probably the finest piece of corporate bull**** I've seen in a long time. The fact the BA think that providing something like that to people here shows how utterly out of touch and how little their catering management team understand social media. I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it's now abundantly clear, this is a cost-cutting exercise plain and simple.

Genius1

The statement doesn't read like Nicci's usual style - it reads like a corporate BA line written by somebody without any grasp on the situation or understanding of the concerns expressed on FT.

The main issue for me is the removal of the hot buffet between 3pm and 6pm. BA should be offering the afternoon tea in addition to the hot buffet.

There is absolutely no excuse for the removal of the hot buffet in the afternoon - people flying out in ET at 5.30, for example, will arrive at the lounge at 4 expecting to be able to eat before getting onboard.

Also, the removal of hot breakfast items between 10am and 12pm leaves a two hour gap of rubbish choice. This was generally the case with Compass Group, but now that Baxter Storey have taken over, the bacon/mushrooms/tomatoes seem to be disappearing from 9.30am with nothing other than bits of cold white toast left - at least Compass maintained a pastry selection.

The cookie jars are miserable - 2 different options, where before there were at least 6 different Walkers varieties to choose from, that you knew hadn't been mauled by somebody else.

There are also multiple hygiene issues with the new options - cookie jars and jars of nuts open to hands, preserves for all of that cold toast that are open communal pots with risk of contaminations, a lack of tongs.

Nicci's post makes reference to changes to come for the Galleries First lounge - but Galleries Club has the same, if not more, problems. Galleries Club, the most frequented premium lounge at BA's home hub, seems to be forgotten...

A picture paints a thousand words... Utterly miserable. Utterly unacceptable.

FlyerTalker6245

To be fair, and it feels almost traitorous to back BA here, there were 4 options when I was Glasgow and GC North the other week.

Genius1

You have crossed over to the other side. There's no going back now.