Not entirely wrong:

- Low cost airlines are much cheaper than BA;
- Low cost airlines are far more punctual than BA;
- On the whole, to my surprise, several low cost airlines such as U2 have much better standard customer service than BA (it's a bit different for those of us with access to the GGL line). Bizarrely, even a recent experience with FR was much better too.

LH still feeds both FRA and MUC with 'proper' LH flights from GOT (Regional in the case of MUC, probably the first to go to Eurowings here if you ask me, DUS is already Eurowings). I'm not sure it's a conscious strategy by Lufty, or it's German conservatism at work.

Well, I find this very disappointing.

It's not so much charging for a wider / better food offering but the loss of a 'free' drink. That's part of BA's brand appeal, and part of its fly to serve mantra. Hard to distinguish now.

I disagree on both counts: It is completely different from 2U: first LH has kept full service on network flights and only moved part low cost on non-hub, while BA is moving low cost for everything, and second, 2U only is low cost on cheapest fares, BA on all of them including European connections from Y and W and domestic connections from J and F. In that sense, it suggests that BA is not focusing on long haul as the changes will impact long haul connecting customers even more than short haul p2p ones (when you fly as part of a long trip you are far more dehydrated, and with BA's recent changes hungry too).

Apparently conscious; also has to do with crew contracts etc. - I highly doubt LH is making any money whatsoever on the hub feeder flights if connections are taken out of the equation.

Even Air Europa answered the phone on a non-premium number within 10 seconds of me dialling... on at least 10 occasions!

I echo the disappointment about the BoB announcement but this has been a strategic Cruz step all along and it won't stop at catering. Food offering on short haul has seriously reduced in recent months to push us towards the "I'd like to buy on board, please" and has nothing to do with what customers have said.

The lounges are marked next and one muted Cruz option is to strategically decrease space to claim they are at capacity = deny entry for Health and Safety reasons.

And don't think all economy paid-for check-in bags is far, either. And then there's EuroTraveller Plus as the next marketing plan. Pay us extra and you'll get back your free crisps or biscuits.

We're not happy but I will say the M and S choices look good. Let's not start seeing Ryanair as the best thing. It's not. Easyjet is good but I hate LGW which cannot cope with the pressure of so many LCCs operating.

Time to move on from short haul BoB and to put pressure on BA to actually understand the word 'enhancements' in favour of its premium cabins. BA seems to understand enhancements as the positive spin on cuts. It should truly mean an improvement and they are failing to deliver on that in Club World and Premium Economy.

It is a conscious strategy from LH to keep EW away from the hubs. That said, EW is supposedly coming to MUC very soon so watch this space. For the moment, I'll certainly be sticking to LCCs and Star Alliance until airlines there follow suit. At least BA short haul remains in OneWorld (until it becomes Vueling) unlike EW with LH so that's one small mercy.

True; but BA might think that not many long-haul customers actually care about food/drink on their feeder flights to switch airlines altogether ... and the relevant margins are sitting in an "enhanced" CE cabin anyway.

Do we have enough old threads on here to build catering timeline? BA can get away with saying "people wanted better food", compared the individually wrapped crisp we know and love.

It doesn't seem that long ago though, we were getting a hot evening meal on Domestics and reasonably descent sandwiches for free. January's cold, paid-for carb fest, cannot be marketed as an upgrade from that.

Why would O&D passengers, with a choice of London airports, choose BA / LHR anymore? I used to pay the premium and spend hours on the Piccadilly line getting there because I liked GF more than than the PP lounges elsewhere. The drink / snack onboard was nice. Not anymore.

Hello FR :)

Will there be Euro prices too or will all our European cousins also have to pay an overseas transaction fee?

The loss of food and alcoholic beverages is disappointing though I can do without them. God knows we all eat & drink more than necessary in the lounges anyway.

But charging for water & coffee - that, in my book, is unacceptable.

He must be loving it all. Laughing himself senseless.

Time for another LH status match ☺️

Correct!

The average short haul flight is 2 hours so I am sure we will all survive it's not the end of the world. But like you say charging for water/tea/coffee is out of order.

Hiw many FTers actually fly BA Y SH
 

I must say I rarely fly BA SH Y as the offering has been poor for some time
I wobbled with CE when they changed the seats but continue to use if the price is good

For leisure SH I would always consider an LCC alternative if they offer a premium choice like extra leg room or pre order meals

I have recently flown flybe and i think their brand and offering now works ; love their 2 :2 seating

The question for me is what will they do with CE!

If that was downgraded BA would have made the complete LCC transition

BOB food I can live with, but the loss of the free bar will be a big miss, as one of the many who are fans of a G&T on the shuttle back to NCL.

To think, it was only 3 years since 'The Friendly Lemon' advert...

Oh great, and what about all those US customers whose DC/CC don't have contactless.... .

So, given that I usually have a G&T and a snack each way, that's about $20 overall. Will the price I pay for the flight drop by $20?

I can see this coming next, too...

Hang on ... is booze being removed from LCY from January?

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...economy-dining

NO !
The money saved on cutting out freebies falls to the bottom line, the profit from you $ 20 will go to the bottom line.

Prices will not drop, share prices and bonuses will go up.

please everyone quote on the youtube ... :(

What is the impact on Comair, does anyone know?

Can't wait to see Alex again... The easyJet pilot between LGW S & N:D

Like every other BA cut back, people come on FT, complain and don't change their flying patterns.

BA profits continue to rise.

I'm sat in a restaurant in cluj not being particularly social as I work through this thread. This made me actually laugh out loud and I got some strange looks from my colleagues!

In seriousness, I've not got a single revenue ticket left with BA. I have some redemptions, some cityjet flights out of London city (still a complimentary drinks service) and some longhaul Qatar flights. We knew this was coming but I refuse to pay for a British airways flight because even in J you just don't know if you'll get the advertised service that you originally paid for.

I'll pay for BA flights when they make sense but after I hit silver again next year through Qatar I'll not chase it again. I see a PP on the horizon...

Yep Ryanair carries millions more people than BA

I guess the problem for me is that where i'm based in Bristol, Heathrow and BA are really my best options.

Luton & Stansted is a nightmare for me to reach. (3-5 hours) And luton is a mess right now.
Gatwick is all leisure flights mainly and does not have much use to me. and that's almost 4 hours away from me.

Bristol airport is useless and is all leisure flights.

So for me, even though I will miss the free food, BA still makes more sense for me and I really don't have much other choice to continue to fly them.

It only takes me under 2 hours to reach heathrow and a lot of the flight times work for me.

Guess I have to just suck it up.

The days of management teams thinking medium- long term with customers interests at heart are, very sadly, long gone amongst the multinationals.

We live in a business economy that require multi/corps to fulfil short term gains for stakeholders and high level managers to achieve bonuses, ROI and shareholder returns etc.

If Cruz signed a, say a 3 year CEO contract (hypothetically) then I imagine this is the start of how he can turn BA into a cash cow. Regardless of what longterm brand impact this has.

Clearly a tough market to operate in and I don't profess to know much about the market but from an overarching business strategy, in todays world this is all text book stuff.

The big impact has nothing to do with food. Regardless of how well the airline sells this change, with marketing like "upgrade" "improvement" "british brand alignment."

The "cash cow" in this case is the charging of drinks. This will drive potentially significant margins in revenue/profit. As any hospitality expert will tell you, alcohol has great margins for very little operational or if any man power costs (as crew are present for safety regardless of serving F&B or not). Food however has a very different financial model.

Alas, Cruz will revel in his pay packet and sign off bonus as margins improve for the short period during his tenancy.

Sad times for SH BA.

:D :D :D :D ^ ^

I am going to change my flying patterns, however I am a very very very small cog so I'm well aware it will make no difference to BA.

Might make me feel slightly better though ;-)

mine have ... next two flights are back with KLM ! ...

Looking at the order itself rather than the MSE summary, it does not state that this is limited to paying customers.

I think this is what easyJet charge for the same.

Interesting - in the pub game, my understanding is that it's just the opposite, in that food brings by far the greater gross margin.

Nonetheless, the overall point is well made - ancillary sales are a very important part of the business models for LCCs, where BA is clearly hurtling headlong towards under Cruz, and a very significant revenue stream. I wonder how long it'll be until we get the BA scratchcard?

Mine have changed, I now do my J/F flying on QR/CX for OW and EK/EY. These airlines are in a different class to BA. I really look forward to my next flight on these airlines.

If anyone here thinks they can do a better job of this, BA are now looking to hire a new Head of Catering. Laughable really timing wise. Unless of course the current occupant had handed in their notice due to this change being forced upon them.

for anyone with any status is nt it just a matter of taking the canned drinks, water, and food from the lounge in future?

I can't vouch for the accuracy of the comment, but this twitter response did make me chuckle.
I've had a bit of a read through and BA are copping an absolute pasting online.
I feel a little for the Twitterers (is that even a word?) because it can't be an enjoyable role, although I wonder if they have a dice they roll that they use to choose the reply. All of them are canned responses.