Yes I agree. I like gin and tonic. It's great that I can look forward to paying for it.

I couldn't agree more with this.

I've always avoided Austrian in the past, as although flights are similarly priced to BA's, the pretzels and drinks always seemed a bit stingy - how things have changed! :D

Also, their freshly produced, beautifully presented DO & CO à la carte meals are fantastic value at just 15 EUR. Much better than a manky old mass-produced, over-priced sarnie from M&S. Plus with Austrian the drinks are still free. It's amazing how much BA have gone backwards!

:D

It so happens that we have to pay for things that we want in this life.

Just hope you don't get a bus gate ...

I received my latest response this morning. I've got 2 affected bookings, received the 1k avios about a month ago, and I told them that wasn't good enough. As of this morning:

Dear Mr Deltus

Thanks for coming back to us about our new catering offering. I apologise for the delay in replying to you. You’re clearly unhappy with the compensation we’ve offered you and I understand why, but please let me explain our position.

As previously mentioned, we cannot offer you any more compensation in this occasion. I hope you’ll understand we have to be consistent so we’re fair to all of our customers. This means we can’t make an exception this time and I’m so sorry to let you down.

We’re grateful you’ve taken the time to let us know what happened, as it’s only through your feedback we’re able to focus on areas where we need to improve.

Thanks again for getting in touch. We really appreciate your support as a Silver Executive Club member and I hope you enjoy your flight with us in January 2017. Please feel free to contact me directly if I can help you with anything else.

Best regards

[Mr Copy-Paste]
British Airways Customer Relations

I had to laugh at the "we have to be consistent" line - what happened to delivering a service consistent with that advertised at the time of purchase...?

I assume I need to wait until after the flights to go to the small claims court, since BA hasn't actually breached the contracts yet...

Yeah...

With apologies in advance if this specific point has already been covered ....but this thread now stretches well beyond 100 pages and I can't claim to have read every post.

Earlier today I happened to be in the food section of my local M&S store, and took the opportunity to have a look at their current range of sandwiches. It's one of the larger stores so the choice on offer was pretty wide.

The vast majority of sandwiches were priced around the £2 mark : there were many below £2 (as low as £1.50 or £1.75) ; and a good number a little above, eg £2.50. The most expensive I could see - a 'new' sandwich, said the product labelling on the shelf - was £3.25 (prawn with mayonnaise)

I believe the cheapest sandwich on the BoB menu will be £3.00. On the one hand there are, understandably, costs in organising, transporting and loading the BoB menu items ; but on the other, there will be significant 'bulk buy' benefits available to BA given the massive volume of their daily order requirements. And there is no new additional cost in handing out the sandwiches and collecting payment, given that CC salaries are already covered.

And so I wonder if FT-ers consider £3.00 for the 'lowest cost sandwich' to be a fair price point ....??

Perhaps there is regional pricing but most of the M and S sandwiches I see are around the £2.50 - £3 mark or higher. Their BLT costs over £3 (£3.25 IIRC). You can get some basic ones for less, eg ham and coleslaw or cheese and onion.

No. But then, I've never seen a BoB menu on any airline with good prices - I can't imagine ever deciding to buy on a flight shorter than 4 hours...

But let's face it, come 11th January there are going to be a lot of passengers who have no choice but to buy their sandwiches. How many still don't know about BoB!?

When I purchase duty free on board I earn avios.I presume this will not be the case with food and drink.

I wonder what mechanism BA will put in place to stop staff buying a bottle of gin,or whatever from the onboard duty free and selling it off as tots for drinks to BOB passengers.I seem to remember that was very lucrative for staff at a certain carrier BA bought.

With you on that (although my own personal 'limit' might be closer to 3 hours).

You're right that no BoB menus offer prices that would ever make you think "wow, that's good value..." (in particular, crisps sold onboard LCC's must be right up there with original ink cartridges as having the largest profit margin of the wider consumer world ...) BUT it was BA's comment that we won't be 'overcharging' like other carriers that struck me as disingenuous. There really was no merit in saying something that doesn't stand up to scrutiny or comparison.

Here's something else to think about. In the past I've had the CSM come down to 12A and ask me if everything's OK, if there's anything they can get me. I've always thanked them and said I'm quite comfortable with my G&T and roll and bun. Now what's going to happen when I tell them I wouldn't say no to a drink!? :D

@headingwest - it's just possible that those nice little visits from your friendly CSM will become somewhat less frequent .....:o