RoseFPS

I agree. I have coeliac condition as well, and before the change, it was always easy to find a Gluten Free option. Also, at LGW they had a special tray of GF snacks on demand, and I suppose this has been enhanced away as well in the great cost slashing exercise which this is.

It means I'll be much more likely to order a gluten free meal on board, as I won't be able to rely on having something in the lounge first. This will cost BA a lot more. Previously I only ordered a special meal relatively infrequently.

And the buffet slop looks horrendous. If this is someone's idea of 'fresh seasonal high quality ingredients' they must have escaped from an institution.

colmc

TBH I have no problem with the adjustments in catering for different times of day. You'll never make everyone happy, and I generally consider lounges a place to snack and relax rather than eat meals outside of breakfast/dinner.

I think the bigger problem is the quality, service and presentation. I'd suggest (like earlier in the thread) that pictures be collected and posted. Showing bad quality, stock levels, presentation, cleanliness etc) say more than than words sometimes.

TeamStorm

Nicci (if you are still reading and not zoned out)

This was also discussed at the GGL lunch held this week, and the feedback from the GGL'ers there was very similar to the feedback here - that these changes don't line up with what people want/expect from the product.

I understand that there is now someone taking ownership of the lounges as a 'product' within BA, I don't know if these changes are them trying to demonstrate their value to the company.... but the suggestion that these are being done in line with customer feedback/needs doesn't seem to be borne out by the sample here on FT, nor anyone who attended the GGL session.

Happy to share more detail via PM of the GGL session direct with you - but although you are just the messenger in this case, I would hope that those messages flow two ways given the level of feedback that you're getting.

I would add to that feedback...... this is not the way to go with lounge catering !

Ed

squeeler

I join the other FTers who thank Nicci for putting her head above the parapet. My reading of the situation is that catering in GF will never in the future be top notch, rather it will be a variation on the theme of (alcoholic admittedly) school dinners.

Two points:

BA should send someone to eat in the Qantas First lounges in MEL and SYD to see what can be done.

I ate in CCR this week. It was all very ho-hum I am afraid. Fish cake, cold spud wedges, OK cheese.

"Ever backwards BA"

KenJohn

As a busy business traveller coming from the office, I find I have to work through lunch to get to the airport for an afternoon flight. Yes, I end up having a very late lunch in the lounge. Clearly the Executives at BA have time to have lunch and take tea at the appropriate time. GF is not for leisure passengers but for frequent flyers who rush everywhere and eat at odd hours. I had dinner at 11 pm last night and I am in the UK (not in London).

Not shooting the messenger here but putting customers first is the cornerstone of "To Fly To Serve". The BA Execs do not even care about this motto by their comments; or have not understood their customers.

Purim

I think buffets have to be manned, otherwise replenishment, tiredness and mess develops. it is unfair to compare the VA clubhouse at LHR because of size and demand, but their small buffet (which acts as a nice change up from the menu items) is manned and served. Everything always looks great and enticing. Earlier postings with photos of depleted buffet plates just show how depressing all day lounge buffets can be.

GLA

In T5 Galleries Club South at the mo. I must say, I would not have guessed there had been a change of caterer. The only substantial change at this time is that the Green and Black's ice cream is back: far superior to the other stuff!

If BA would start the hot buffet at 5 and spruce up afternoon tea I would have no issue whatsoever with what's on offer.

francismc

I recently travelled from Edinburgh to London and found the fruit-salad to be tasteless. Looked great, but all flavour was gone.

Went via LCY to JFK, so cannot comment on the lounge since didn't eat or bother looking.

Agree with other posts that I have no idea what the fascination with afternoon tea is about - I personally think its nice for visitors to sample; but not for people who are using BA service on a regular basis.

I'll be in the CCR on Saturday night in JFK and Sunday morning in LHR and have previously been in the lounge and was happy.

I was looking forward visiting this weekend, but bit more careful after reading the posts.

I'm personally not a fan of sandwiches; more of a wrap man myself

windowontheAside

I hit the arrivals lounge Tuesday and it seemed like there were several changes.

The selection of breakfast cereal was certainly reduced, and in open bowls rather than the large dispensers.

The gorgeous muffins have been replaced by much smaller, drier ones and there was no toast. I waited for a while in case they were just restocking but none came out so I asked and eventually some was brought out.

The hot buffet seemed rather light - I think the usual suspects were present but in small quantities. I was there at 10:00ish, so hardly the end of the shift and the lounge was moderately busy.

So overall, it wasn't a disastrous experience, but noticeably leaner than before.

GUWonder

The lounge catering changes are a negative for me.

.... and given that BA customers are often flying via LHR to/from a different time zone, the elimination of the continuous buffet is rather customer-unfriendly. Most of the lounge-using transit passengers at LHR have their stomachs set for GMT? Doubtful.

The lounge food arrangements were previously one of the few reasons I would choose to put up with the transit at LHR despite the additional hassles that come with doing a transit in the UK rather than elsewhere when flying into or out of the Schengen zone.

stevie

Gold Card member for 11 years. My own company, my own money spent. Live in both Ireland and Germany, and will re-qualify for gold within 10 weeks of reset. Have decided for the remainder of the year to use alternatives to Asia/North America and see how BA handles the remainder of the year.

Simply put BA (Willie Walsh) has been eroding product quality for some time now and it has got to the stage whereby they have made lounge food either inedible/unavailable. For those of us that tend to want to sleep on the (excellent) BA CW seats this is a major blow to the BA value proposition. The final nail is the bullcrap spouted by BA about giving the customers what they want, when it is patently obvious this is a lie. It is a cost cutting exercise, do not try to implicate your top tier customers in pushing to downgrade the product.

Perhaps this is the future of BA, just look at Aerlingus, an excellent no frills budget and profitable airline.

Good luck BA, I will find out very soon about those far away hills very soon.

travellinglight

I don't quite agree with the sentiment that the lounge should somehow make up for someone missing their regular meal hours and dashing to the airport. An appropriate sandwich with salad buffet would more than make up for that if it truly was what you need. What is disturbing is the supposed enhancement of more cakes. Why not a truly proper sandwich offering, rather than the pitiful triangular sorry messes on white bread? And a *good* soup, rather than watery veg of some kind or goulash with more sauce than meat, well...

Incidentally, I for one don't mind the afternoon tea on the plane one bit, but find it a nice touch.

corporate-wage-slave

What should be done?
As may be obvious, I've spent a lot of time in the last few weeks lounge hopping. The funny thing is that because I fly more than most I generally try to time things so I don't have any time in lounges, otherwise I'd spend my whole sentient life in one. Since 28 April I have made 34 lounge visits and the only BS serviced lounge that I have not yet visited is GC Gatwick.

As is always the way on FlyerTalk you have to reach for the sodium with some of the comments made here. It really isn't that bad and a sense of proportion / reasonableness would make some arguments go a lot further. But that's just my view. I see the hygiene argument, but it doesn't bother me - we are in close contact via seating, magazines, air vents.

So what should be done?

Domestic lounges - NCL, EDI, GLA, ABZ, MAN: These are all been improved enormously since the changeover. We should recognise that and say "well done BA". There is very little I would improve other than ensure that stock is available at all times. This isn't always perfect, even though lounge usage domestically follows well known patterns which are easy to predict. I put this down to teething issues.

GF Gatwick - the offering there was weak before the changeover and not much has really changed. My proposal here is:
1) Offer one or two other hot items apart from bacon baguettes. E.g salt beef sandwiches, lasagne.
2) The lack of snack options needs to be improved since there is very little else. So maybe some nuts and one or two savoury crisp items.

GC T3 and T5 - I think it should be recognised that there have been some improvements here (notably better breakfast options such as porridge), but the lack of hot food in the middle of the day is an issue. So again I would suggest one or two hot items (apart from soup) should be available. Perhaps lasagne, and keeping the potatoes and beans going through the afternoon.

CCR - I don't actually see much issue there. The impact of BS is largely neutral, I don't think many people knew about the pre flight supper. By all means return the eggs benedict at breakfast and perhaps the Belted Galloway beef. On the other hand the staff are more better managed now, on the whole.

First Lounge!
Breakfast - let's get real - it has not much changed. OK black pudding has gone, but the tomatoes, sausages, Danish, bacon are all much better than before. For probably half the users of Flounge there has been no significant difference in their lounge experience.

Cakes, biscuits, fruit and desserts - again generally improved. We should recognise that. I guess there is a case for having at least the new fruit loaf available for 11 o'clock, but there are viennessories and biscuits available.

Snacks - I can't get too excited about this, bearing in mind we now have nibbles, but OK, why not at least a second flavour of crisps.

Order menu - the simple return of beef rendang would mean that the order menu would be as good, if not better, than before.

Buffet - the definite weak spot. My suggestion would be to keep the chilli con carne, that's fine; get rid of the mustard chicken, it's not working; and replace it with something like individual meat pies or fish pies. Anything which is not in a sauce basically. Also keeping soup permanently available. Part of the problem is that the kitchens and level of staff training/expertise is hampering BS' ambitions and delivery, but there are relatively easy answers. However BA need to release BS from the 6 month menu fix that was put in the contract.

In short, a relatively small number of changes would make a big difference to this situation, that's my view at least. Only one thing has gone drastically wrong, the Flounge buffet, it is just bad luck for BA and BS it was that lounge.

thebestbf

Well,this is opinion and probably depends on the time of day and maybe the day itself - but this wasn't my experience - the bacon was dried up, there was very little of it and there were no eggs of any description. In addition, bizarrely, there was no muesli - on two separate days - and no wild berry compote. I happen to love both - so my breakfast experience had been very significantly degraded.

Again I disagree. The separately packaged Walkers selection was excellent and very handy to slip in your packet for an in-flight snack. Try doing that with the dessicated biscuits in the glass jars!

I agree.

I've never used this much, so won't comment.

Agreed that the drastic mistake is Flounge - I think that is what the overwhelming majority of posters on here are complaining about. The changes to the CW lounge seem retrograde but proportionally minor. The point is not only about the buffet vanishing for half the time, but the quality is MUCH worse than it was under the previous regime - and almost identical to the old CW lounge. Hence everyone wondering why they should bother to try to make the now much higher Gold threshold. A really brilliant marketing ploy by BA - take those who travel most on your airline, and give them a great reason to wonder whether they should stop trying to travel with you as much as they can. There is still of course the champagne bar - but how long before it goes the same way? Unless of course we can convince them that their current course is simply counter-productive.

BahrainLad

Well a friend of mine is off to JFK on AA this afternoon so popped into Galleries Club to have a look, to be presented with "Afternoon Tea."

Unsurprisingly he's now off to CX.

Sort it out BA you are making yourselves look like a bunch of amateurs. What is the standard now, an Admiral's Club???