ringingup

I POUGed my flight to BOD today.

No hot towels, no nuts, no drink service before the meal, no choice of meal (only a prawn salad), empty Elemis SPA containers in the toilet.

Obviously all these things are things I can survive without, however it annoys me slightly when I pay for something and I don't get the full service I paid for.

I made a joke to the customer service manager about the hot towels and he said there was an issue with catering so they didn't have any. I wonder if all the other "issues" are related to the alleged problem with catering.

I flew the same route exactly a year ago and I seem to remember we had food options, including a hot dish. Is my memory playing up? The salad was ok but I was really hoping for a hot dish, after the fish finger sandwich in the No1 lounge.

Lastly, is it common to go straight into food without a drink service first? My last few CE were on LCY services and I'm now unsure of what the usual service out of LHR and LGW entails.

corporate-wage-slave

On Band 1 flights it is usually straight into the food, if CE is lightly populated they might do a drink run, perhaps from the galley. It is usually salads in the afternoon, if not around Afternoon Tea time (when there is a drinks service first and then scones/sandwiches). The Short Haul catering guide in the dashboard gives the low down on this. It's not a hot dish at any rate. Some band 1 flights are barely 15 minutes in the cruise, which does constrain what can be done.

There are minor differences between all 3 airports. LHR has the biggest scones, LCY the biggest band 1 salads and so on.

I can't recall a choice on BOD outside breakfast time for years and years, other than that on the return they sometimes offer anything not eaten on the outbound - I don't think they are supposed to, but it happens.

From what you've said, the towel was the main omission, which I have seen before, but not often (well under 5% of occasions); and presumably the empty Elemis containers, not that I would know much about the frequency of that. If you wanted nuts (or biscuits) they probably could have provided them.

camdentown

My personal feeling is that Club Europe definitely offers a lot less that it used to. With the new aircraft seating where the seat pitch is the same as economy, and equally uncomfortable, there is no significant advantage in paying for Club Europe these days. Especially with the poor catering in the "extended breakfast" and "afternoon tea" menus. I've experienced the meal-before-drinks on several occasions and its a serious downgrading of the service.

MNManInKen

Band 1 is obviously limited in its offering, in fact I'm quite amazed how they manage to get a CE service into these short flights. The prawn salad is a favourite of mine!

The hot towels on SH do seem to be quite hit and miss though, I can't quite find a pattern in it but either I'm very unlucky or they are relatively frequently skipped. It doesn't bother me too much, but it happens enough that I'm noticing it as a repetitive issue.

ringingup

I hadn't realised that dinner offer for band 2 flight was just a salad. LGW-BOD is not band 1, according to the short haul catering guide :-)

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

I was impressed that they serve a hot breakfast in CE on the DUB-LHR route in the morning given the flight time^ ( Brunch is not so good however IMHO)

Regards

TBS