David_Doyle

Thanks to Nicci for the update, but like others have already mentioned the lack of a hot buffet in the afternoon is not acceptable in my view.

Sandwiches, soup or stodgy scones do not constitute a reasonable meal if you are flying out at 5.00 / 5.30 / 6.00 and even starting hot food at 6.00pm is no good for people flying at 6.30pm / 7.00pm who will need to be at the gate. It will create a situation where people will have to think in detail about their flight times in order to get some decent food.

Though it may not be intentional I think that 'we chose to focus on a high quality afternoon tea offering' can be viewed in the same marketing-speak as 'enhanced' - cutting a useful service on cost grounds and making out the customer is benefitting.

I find it sadly highly believable that BA would think that cutting the service like this wouldn't be seen as a retrograde step by their most frequent customers.

Disappointing.

Fruitcake

Thank you very much for your most helpful and full response Nicci. It is great to see you are listening and responding. ^

However, and this is not your fault, I don't much like its contents. This is not just an aversion to change on my part, rather an aversion to lower quality and poorer service.

Like pretty much everyone else, I find the decision to remove the buffet during the afternoon astonishingly odd - it can only be a cost cutting measure, surely? To take out hot food at any stage, bearing in mind we are dealing with people crossing time zones, is absurd. By all means do a good afternoon tea, to suit the time of the UK day, but as an alternative.

For me, if I am arriving at LHR at 5 p.m. say to catch an evening flight, I want a hot meal - the same could well apply at 3 or 4 p.m. Others have made the same point, so I won't go on further about this.

I am sorry to see the demise of individual portions of cakes and biscuits, wrapped. Especially the fruitcake...

layz

Not to mention an example that happened to me a few months ago. Is shows even when on UK time sometimes people can't eat at 'normal' times.

I was working through my lunchbreak, needed to do that to finish early so I could catch I flight. I was still silver at the time and I depended on being able to get something in the lounge in the afternoon before boarding my flight.

If I wasn't able to get the food in the lounge I would have booked a later flight, but that would have been with a different airline as their schedules worked better for a later departure, but BA got me fed and away earlier than I would have managed otherwise.

I prefer buffets in these circumstances as you know you can just grab and eat, the food in a buffet is never going to be top class, but you know you can get something filling. Without the buffet, I'd either have had to make do with a sandwich from one of the sandwich shops, I wouldn't have had time to order in a restaurant.

Flying Doctor

Hi there,

I think that firstly we should all agree that the comments here have been reviewed in a constructive way and that things have been taken seriously. I am no great manager but if I recall all the staff were TUPE'd over to the new caterers and whilst this allows in some ways for continuity there are inevitably issues with these things and I suspect some are more easily sorted than others. I guess with a bit of space and time we shall see the full effects of this.

The move to everything being prepared has surely to be something positive overall and I guess it takes a bit of time to work out what will and will not work. Clearly the GF lounge needs work and this has been accepted so we shall again see how that works over the coming weeks.

As much as I know I will be shot down in flames I really don't get the need for buffets all day long. They dry out and look rubbish - they really do nothing for me. Accepted that I tend to use the GF more when I am in CE rather than Long Haul but I am only usually there for a short time and a drink and a quick snack is really often all I want. I cannot really say that I would want to eat much more than a few sarnies until late afternoon and in terms of dinner - I don't really think about it until 8pm or later so I have to say the changes (if the focus is on fresh food) actually might work for me.

I think that one theme that we have commented on is presentation and this does seem to have been taken on board as well so I guess we can see what transpires over the coming weeks.

FD.

themapelligroup

I personally would reintroduce a continuous buffet. I find it incredibly helpful before a long haul flight if you're not flying premium cabins and even after a long flight if you have a connection (my case as I live in Milan). Furthermore if you feel always peckish like me it's great to eat something after being stuck in the traffic jam or in a train.

Let me also say the cheesecake is absolutely fantastic!!

andrew72

Hi Nicci

Many thanks for the feedback. It is good to know that the Galleries First buffet issues and lack of glasses is being addressed.

One question for you, if I may - do you have a timescale for these improvements ? In other words, when can we realistically expect to be at BaxterStorey's peak service level ?

BizFlyin

Nicci, I appreciate very much you choosing to address this issue head on here. While I'm sure "research" shows customers want something appropriate to time of day, given the fact that people are transiting through the terminals from all parts of the globe and from all timezones, it would only seem appropriate that food choices are available to all at all times.

Can you share with us, perhaps, how you gather feedback from those eating in the lounges?

BAGoldBoy

I hadn't flown from Heathrow since the changeover but had a mid morning MAN flight yesterday. The South FLounge was very busy and the hot food had pretty much run out. The "scrambled eggs" which I tried were vile.

I was also looking for a diet Coke but none were available and the only Kettle Crisps were Salted.

Not much better at the MAN Lounge either I'm afraid. I for one don't like the new arrangements.

HIDDY

The food on offer in the Galleries Club T5 isn't too bad.

Having just come off a CE afternoon tea service flight I wasn't really up for eating more sandwiches but I managed to stuff a couple down me. A coffee with a couple of those gingery chocolate coated biscuits satisfied my sweet tooth.They were putting out the hot buffet as we left so I never got the chance to try it but it looked okay.....there did seem to be an awful lot of baked beans though.

FlyerTalker688786

Agree with many comments here. No hot buffet in afternoon is a mistake. Terrible move.

If a customer is flying from London to somewhere in Budapest, Sofia, Istanbul or Athens at 6pm he/she would not be happy. For a 6pm departure it means the customer have to leave the lounge at 5:30. 4 hours flying on a ET seats with a petty wrap. By the time the aircraft landed it would be well after 11pm local time. Go to the hotel you would feel hungry and worse you have missed the @appropriate@ time to eat. That is not good.

Not to mention if you arrived from somewhere USA or Asia strange places to transfer to an afternoon flight...

Please reverse the decision on hot buffet.

If BA had done extensive research I am sure you would hear the opposition voice from customers. If customers means nothing to you and your catering contractor, I am afraid although nothing the customers can do in the end, Easyjet may find more people flying with them in afternoon on short haul.

dnajockey

I am pleased BA are responding to the situation.
I am very disappointed in the nature of the response.
This is the flagship lounge, the promotion of the whole BA brand at the home airport - and someone things no-one wants hot food all afternoon, in the major transit lounge.
Sorry but this is thin.

rapidex

I too am extremely disapointed with this latest turn of events.Removing the hot buffet in the afternoon is a poor decision.

Will this meen that BA will issue meal vouchers for early afternoon flights that are delayed,as hot food will not be available in the lounge?

jaguarpig

Afraid that sounds like a load of empty rhetoric and spin.No customers have given feedback asking BA for worse lounge catering and shorter hours of service it's totall BS. This isn't a little hick-up its a total degradation of the lounge catering driven only by cost cutting.

Betteronacamel

Er, is this a particularly good idea?

Think about it....

OK, hands up who eats baked beans and thinks they are a 'luxury' product. Its all a bit 'School Dinners' isnt it?

Nothing against baked beans on toast or fried bread as part of the Great British Fry Up at breakfast time, but at other times of the day its what you give children for high tea. (Guilty pleasure - cold beans from the can when you get home from the bar and can't be arsed to cook )

Happy trumping everyone

magyaar

I have to play devil's advocate on the afternoon tea point here. Most of us on FT are business travellers, so the lounge is typically somewhere to either wait and relax/work whilst in transit or grab a quick bite before a flight. 'Afternoon tea' is no more appropriate to most of us in an airport lounge that it would be at home or work.

My wife isn't a frequent flyer, so when she travels with me then going into the lounge is a 'treat' and part of the overall travel experience, and in general I think BA do this very well. And I can tell you she'd love afternoon tea, especially washed down with a glass of something bubbly.

So I think I don't think afternoon tea should be demonised, but of course as a business traveller in the main, I do really miss the buffets and can't really see why there isn't room for both.