orbitmic

Don't want to go OT, but not because of the food. Because of the various changes to BAEC, OB, HBO, as explained in the relevant thread, I have decided to "diversify". In 2013 and 2014, BA accounted for about 60% of my air travel. Over the past couple of months, less than 25% of my new bookings have gone to BA.

Incidentally, I should also mention that the main meal on BA 1 has been one of the best I have had on BA in the past 4-5 years.

lorcancoyle

Am awaiting a response to a catering complaint on LCY flights as well. GGL team put query in to LCY catering manager on Monday. It does seem remarkable penny pinching at times - though quality wise I do find LCY streets ahead of LHR.

Land-of-Miles

Far be it from me to disturb the broadly accurate #baares..t and penny pinching narrative but I don't think this is entirely as it seems. CWLCY for some time has had a non bread alternative to afternoon tea (afternoon is rubbish on BA in all classes and I never eat it). This includes hot snacks and salad options which is a really nice feature of CWLCY over mainline.

I see many passengers besides me declining afternoon tea so in this context a 50% loading may be entirely reasonable. Only those opting for the poor sandwich based afternoon tea option would have the jam and cream on their tray. This is somewhat confused by the global scone pass however so anyone starting without the standard afternoon tea tray wouldn't have any accompaniments.

If however there wasn't jam and cream on the trays including sandwiches that is different.

orbitmic

That doesn't really make sense to me.

The way the menu is written clearly gives a choice of the cold plate option (it is what I always choose and I have never had hot snacks as part of it myself?) and the sandwich plate. Then there is space in the menu and then it mentions the warm scones with preserve and cream - quite clearly to every one it seems to me, and then there is a space again and again it mentions the small cake selection, again quite clearly to everyone in my view.

The cold plate is also the same size and a fair equivalent to the sandwich plate, not bigger as you would expect if it were meant to replace more than that.

This is exactly the same as longer CW flights (ie West Central and West coast US) which also give a choice between the sandwich plate or a salad and also offer the scones and cake. Only very short flights only offer the sandwich plate (no salad alternative) and scones (no cakes).

The crew themselves also clearly identified this as mis-catering and said that they did not know what happened. If this was based on option choice, I would expect them to have identified it as such considering that they are dedicated (and very senior crew).

shefgab

That is very poor . How much do those mini pots of c.cream cost? 20p? Surely you should load as many pots are there are scones?! When will BA learn that penny pinching like this generates a lot of bad feeling by customers.

Having got used to the cream tea at John Lewis, I was quite shocked to see that BA stocks the *tiny* pots of Roddhas, rather than the generous pots in JL (and also seen in the old BD lounge and the current Aspire by Servisair).

Land-of-Miles

Don't forget though that the crew do regular CW from LGW so may be confused with the service there.

I just don't remember having cream and jam on the non sandwich trays ever when flying CWLCY. I avoid flying mainline club world but dont't recall there being a choice when I last did about 20 months ago. The mainline option always has the jam and cream on the tray I thought?

Just looking at the pictures of my last CWLCY where we had the Japanese plate instead of afternoon tea there was no jam and cream on my plate but we didn't have the manky scones so it didn't really matter to Mrs LoM or I.

orbitmic

- Short flights (e.g. Eastern North America) have afternoon tea without a choice. It is sandwiches and scones with preserve and cream. "snack" without scones on evening flights.

- Longer north American flights (e.g. West Central and West coast USA/Canada) have afternoon tea which always includes 1) a choice between sandwich and salad (I quite like their oriental salad wrapped in thin cucumber strips which seems to come rather often!), 2) scones with preserve and cream, 3) mini cakes

- Longer non-North American flights (e.g South America, East and South East Asia) normally have a second meal.

Part of the "upgraded" service on CWLCY is to treat the afternoon tea like the ones on longer North American routes, which is part of why it doesn't make sense to me that it would be treated differently scones-wise.

I'll admit to never having paid attention to whether the jam and cream are already on the tray or put there by the crew. I genuinely have no idea.

On your other point, it is true that the CWLCY crew will do some LGW long haul, but all of them will also do lots of CWLCY as it is a small "elite" among them who do that service, so I would tend to think that if this was a regular occurrence it would be something they would be prepared for. As mentioned, I have also never experienced not getting the jam and cream on my CWLCY tea so far. I'd say this would be out of at least 10-12 trips where I have selected the tapas/salad plate.

Incidentally, on totally unrelated note, I was surprised to hear from the crew that on CWLCY flights they can get 1, 2, or 3 nights in NYC before returning! They didn't seem to know why so much variations but mentioned that the three nighters tend to be very popular with the crew!

lorcancoyle

So, DUB/LCY this evening - only 2 pax in CE. Had been allocated 1A originally, but with someone showing in 1B opted for 2A - mistake!

Really nice crew, took 1B's order (who moved to 1A for the window). Chose salmon out of salmon or chicken.

After delivering tray came to take my order - only chicken left... I will admit to asking about priority by status (was a bit miffed, the salmon at LCY is very nice and I hadn't eaten). Other pax was GGL too (we're everywhere...), not that it would have mattered, I wasn't going to demand that he forfeit the salmon if he wasn't!

Had a bit of a discussion on catering loads, seems to be causing issues on a very large number of flights. Never any buffer meals provided, and is raised regularly by crew.

Will put a bit of a moan in on the policy, a golden ticket for the crew, and resolve to choose 1A regardless of 1B occupancy from now on (unless E90 and 2D is free!)

(And now to see what's a) in my fridge, and b) in date)

MsCapricorn

I had the "enhancement" of a live mosquito with my tapas on a recent LCY-JFK flight

ttama

I was on a DUB-LCY flight on Tuesday, in row 3. A couple of people in front had declined meals. By the time it got to me (left hand side of plane so served first) there was no salmon. Luckily I wasn't too bothered and took the chicken. But I was intrigued to see that row 4, behind us in CE, weren't offered menus or cooked food. I heard the cabin crew offering them a choice of snacks (crisps, popcorn etc) off the economy trolley. So I'm not sure what the deal was there - had they been upgraded without food? I can't see the point of sitting in front of the curtain if that's the case, because the seats are the same size. Or wasn't there enough food for all the CE passengers?