PUCCI GALORE

OK I am going to add my 2p worth.

I think that matters have gone from fair to worse. I was in the First Lounge T5 on Friday 17th May and again on Monday 20th May. I was not impressed on either occasion.

Once again there was not a single can on Slimline tonic (by way of a change) and not much interest in sorting the problem either. In fact on Monday I did find a couple of cans among the depleted stock in the fridge. There seemed to be a deficiency of staff and those who are around are so laid back that there are practically horizontal.

After it took over thirty minutes to order a breakfast sandwich Him Indoors went to speak to a Manager. This was the Lounge rather than the Catering Manager and he was charming. I understand that under the new arrangements food cannot be ordered after 09.30 - thus I suppose that this explained the wait. I really did not know but had actually seen menus on tables at 11.30 so I assume that the staff just had not collected them.

Of greatest interest was that the Comments Book has become absolutely poisonous since the new caterers arrived. It would seem that the users are complaining in droves. The new crowd have 30 days to shape up or they will be shipped out. The gentleman really wants opinions in the next 30 days as that will be crunch time - and yes - he monitors us here! Now I am aware that a certain amount of what gets written in these books and elsewhere does need to be taken with a pinch of salt - indeed I am sure that some could go to Buckingham Palace and find cause for complaint. However, the theme seems to be the same in terms of insufficient staff and running out of things,

Frankly it needs a good shake up and a well delivered boot. It's meant to be for our top tier passengers for God's sake and I could care less what ticket they are using. They did not qualify by flying on cheap tickets so I see it as pay back time. I have not seen the scones and cake but it looks like the rubbish in the Diamond Lounge and that did not impress me at all.

Could do better if tried!

FenLandK

One thing I find totally perplexing is why reduce the number of flavours of crisps down to just one. I can't think it is on cost - I would like to bet that the unit cost for any flavour is the same. So is it that customers were "confused" about the choice of crisps? Really??

itsmeitisss

I was in the GF lounge on Saturday, and while it wasn't bad in itself, it is no longer a flagship lounge in my opinion. The buffet is terrible, none of it looked anything like as appetising as it used to. If I had been short of time and unable to order from the menu, then the gloop that portrayed itself as beef bourguignon would have been awful. You would have had to send out a search party for the beef, there was so little there.

GF is one of the few advantages of Gold membership over Silver. I hope that it gets improved again ASAP. I will be feeding this back to BA myself, too. If this had been JFK, YYC, or any other Long Haul destination it would be fine. The truth is that the Club predining in Toronto, is much better than what is served in Galleries First at BA's own terminal at its home base.

Henry9210

No black pudding with my Flounge breakfast any more?

That must have saved heaps on the catering costs.

BushwoodCountryClub

My two pence worth........Frankly I rarely eat anything other than breakfast in lounges, either GF or GC - maybe some salad/rolls at lunchtime. The quality was/is never really up to the level I would choose for a whole meal, and I really don't understand the orgy of eating that seems to take place on some trips - seems to be more for the sake of it than any real need, but that's just my opinion and I am in general quite a careful eater.

This being the case, I personally WOULD rather there was less food in total, but higher quality/freshness of what there is - from my perspective this is a perfect differentiation from other airlines than just having a buffet you'd normally find at a low grade all inclusive.

On the basics of presenting what it's been decided to offer, it's not difficult to get cleanliness and appearance right really, you've just got to have managers who get out and get their hands dirty and sort the staff out. If it's not spotless then they're not doing their job properly - simple.

globalste

Does this mean that the peppered beef will be gone for ever?!?!


What really galls me is that with all this "new catering" and "fresh healthy ingredients" it seems that BA have made the situation for those with wheat or dairy allergies even worse. The offering is pretty much zero for those who have either of these allergies and it is so frustrating for the likes of my wife who has to take her own milk and own food to sit in the First Lounge at T5, what a total joke What is on offer? Pasta, sandwiches, cakes, biscuits, creamy soups. Brilliant.

It would have been so easy to put out a gluten-free cake or some gluten-free bisuits, and a jug with some non-dairy milk. I can even supply a recipe for an amazing chocolate cake which contains no wheat or dairy and costs pittance to make.

Complete own-goal for BA in my book. People pay Business Class prices (or even worse, F prices) and have the option of choosing special meals on board, yet when they come to the lounge there is sod all on offer. Even the soup can't be touched by those with dairy allergies because most of the time it has cream in it. The only thing someone with a wheat/dairy allergy can have is some salad or a box of cornflakes and nothing else.

csutter

Tried the hot food in GC on Friday for the first time since the catering changes (last time I went was bang on in the no-we-can't-be-arsed-to-serve-you-hot-dinner-before-your-6:30pm-flight-anymore time of day).

I'm not one for hyperbole usually, but for crying out loud, I have never encountered anything as mindblowingly utterly disgusting as The Gloop(tm). How anyone can even consider uttering the words "fresh food" in connection with this rubbish is beyond me. The "Mustard Chicken" in particular wouldn't look out of place in a North Korean labour camp.

dera

The chicken mustard slop is so thin today you can see through the sauce. Watery and looks disgusting.
Chili con carne tastes synthetic and I'm unsure about the con carne bit. I dont think that beef bourgoise has ever been in touch with actual beef.
Anyway, I've ranted enough about this garbage. I hope BA would transfer more flights to T3 so we would have proper lounge options instead of Galleries.

economyman

In First lounge in LGW at the moment. There are some healthy cold options which I appreciate but the meats have gone more or less as have all the packaged snacks except for lightly salted crisps as others have mentioned.

Just had a casual chat with one of the staff who said he has heard some things will be going back to what they were because there has been a lot of negative response.

BizFlyin

Well, the flounge is still awful. We popped in there earlier for a quick bite but it was just crumbs and glop. So we headed over to the CCR and sat down and ordered and did the whole scenario. We preferred to grab and go off to a corner and work and eat... but oh well. So we worked from the CCR "restaurant" - I hope that isn't a no-no.

The CCR service was good, and the food was good (I'd even say improved) over my last visit a couple months ago. So at least that hasn't been destroyed.

JIMCHI

VERY disappointed to see that the Eggs Benedict has disappeared from the breakfast menu in the CCR. Nothing on there seems appealing to me now.

Tobias-UK

Far from it, given the drastic downgrading of the Flounge offering the CCR card is a godsend. The CCR provides at least a reasonable choice of food throughout day.

If I wasn't fortunate enough to have a CCR Card I'd be seriously reviewing my options just now. I'm not impressed at all at the way BA have handled this, not just the downgrading of the lounge offering itself but also what BA have had posted in the OP and the content of the flyers handed out in the lounges. Does BA really believe we are that stupid?

MarkLHR

Agreed. I intend to do just that and write to BA and have taken a few shots of the breakfast offering to send. In particular the scrambled egg looks very industrial today- thought it was porridge to start with! When I work out how to add photos here Ill post the pics.
Sitting in the flounge now waiting for my boiled eggs. Asked for them to be done medium and in reply was asked how many minutes is that. I said the chef/cook should know and the old company never asked. Waitress replied that the cook would ask her how many minutes I want...been a long time since I cooked a boiled egg.
Anyway, she was polite and friendly but that's as far as I can offer a compliment.

BA may think this will blow over but the brand will be permanently diminished in many people's eyes if they allow this BS to continue in this manner.

BAAZ

The hot buffet is still there today and it's 16:30. I had the beef bourgignon with rice, which was actually quite good. Has the ban on afternoon eating been lifted? (I landed at 4pm and am connecting to a 6pm CE flight which doesn't offer much in the way of on-board catering, and I had missed lunch, so was pleased to have something hot.). The rest of the offerings looked a bit gloopy still.

And yesterday morning there was muesli (still no blueberries though).

The champagne today is a bit mixed (Taittinger; Bollinger rosé; and another which name I've forgotten, and which I didn't like much) - nothing vintage - and the red wine selection (3) has taken a giant leap backwards.

A couple of manager-looking people walking around checking that all is properly stocked.

I still miss the slow-cooked beef ribs which seemed so suitable for a buffet - they don't spoil if left out for a time, and cost very little.

Bloomsbury

Bit late to the party, but might as well chip in should BA take customer feedback seriously.

I agree with a lot that's been said here, there's certainly been a drop in quality and the availability of good food. The hygiene issue also bothers me having seen the bad habits of my fellow passengers in the rest rooms and in the lounge.

I can understand why BA bought into the 'afternoon tea' concept... for leisure travellers it's probably been well received and tweeting/facebooking 'having afternoon tea in the BA lounge' (as this suggests) sounds better than anything with the word 'buffet' in it.

Personally, I would have done 'proper' afternoon teas on cake stands, but on request like the champagne. Customer satisfaction would have been much higher for very little extra effort and (as with the champagne) costs would be reduced from wastage... you'd also no doubt get lots of facebook/twitter/instagram photos too, as well as blog and column inches.

The all-day buffet worked very well for business travellers and those with delays not knowing when they might next eat a 'proper' meal. If there was high wastage or bad feedback, then you really need to look at the menu rather than totally removing it. I would have kept the buffet, but looked into the menu and been a bit more creative - maybe even run a competition to come up with new ideas, rather than just pulling it without giving advance notice.

BA have good lounges, but there's been times recently when the food offering has actually been worse than I could get at the lounge pass places I get free with my Amex. I'd like to think that BA is listening to feedback and will see the light, but given that the breakfast muffin still exists, I'm not holding my breath.