Buy on board: Information guide for BA shorthaul economy services
 

From Wednesday 11 January 2017, British Airways introduced a buy on board menu for most shorthaul services in UK and the rest of Europe, replacing food, snacks and refreshments services which had previously been free at the point of service.

This thread is an information based guide to this development, focusing specifically on information for what is available for purchase and how to buy items from the menu. Please feel free to ask questions which solicit information, or to highlight any corrections. This post and the information in this thread is likely to evolve over the next few days as more information becomes available. In due course this will form part of an update to the Short Haul Catering Guide.

This thread is not concerned with the rights or wrongs of the decision to introduce buy on board. There is, however a separate thread for experiences, anecdotes, reactions and related comments, which is to be found here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-services.html
If you have an opinion about buy on board, the right thread for your contribution is:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...s-concept.html


Services affected:

• All LHR and LGW services in domestic and EuroTraveller services will see theBuy on Board menu from 11 January 2017 onwards. This excludes Moscow - this is catered for World Traveller with free food and drinks; but includes the EuroTraveller route of St. Petersburg. Tel Aviv, despite some rumours to the contrary, is also fully catered for World Traveller and therefore isn't in scope for this thread.

Services not currently affected:

• LCY - the existing shorthaul menu will continue to be offered free of charge until the middle of the year (no specific date yet, rumoured 1 July 2017);
• SUN Air services - the BA franchise which operates services based in Billund, including services to LCY and MAN.
• Comair, the South Africa based franchise, is also not affected
• Longhaul services that have a World Traveller cabin are not buy on board, apart from DME.

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Menu
This is just a repeat of the information currently available via BA.com but it is repeated here as a record. The full menu is in post 43.

Food
Smoked British bacon roll - served hot £4.75 / 600 Avios - not served on short flights
Aberdeen Angus beef and red onion chutney bloomer £4.75 / 600 Avios
Harissa chicken and couscous salad £4.50 / 575 Avios
Farmhouse cheddar cheese ploughmans £3.00 / 375 Avios
Buffalo mozzarella and tomato focaccia - served hot £4.95 / 625 Avios - not served on short flights
Fruit salad £3.50 / 450 Avios
Yogurt with summer berry compote and crunchy granola £1.95 / 250 Avios

Snack items
Cashew nuts £1.60 / 200 Avios
Wasabi peas £1.60 / 200 Avios
Lightly sea salted hand cooked crisps £1.00 / 125 Avios
Sea salt and balsamic vinegar hand cooked crisps £1.00 / 125 Avios
Oat and barley porridge- served hot - £1.40 / 175 Avios - apparently served on all flights
Nut assortment £1.60 / 200 Avios
Oloves basil and garlic olive snack £1.20 / 150 Avios

Milk chocolate covered pretzels and popping candy popcorn £2.45 / 300 Avios
Soft apricots £1.95 / 250 Avios
The Whippy One - fluffy light mallow encased in creamy milk chocolate with caramelised walnut pieces £1.00 / 125 Avios
Mini oat biscuits £1.10 / 150 Avios
Brownie bar £1.45 / 175 Avios
Super nut, fruit and seed flapjack £1.45 / 175 Avios
Milk chocolate mountain bar £1.75 / 225 Avios
Percy Pig - soft gums made with fruit juice £1.85 / 225 Avios
Salted caramel hazelnut millionaire - gluten free biscuit £1.45 / 175 Avios
4 Finger KitKat £1.20 / 150 Avios
All butter shortbread - pack of two fingers £1.25 / 150 Avios

Drinks
Java Republic coffee - 12 oz - £2.30 / 300 Avios
Java Republic decaf. coffee - 12 oz - £2.30 / 300 Avios
Twinings English breakfast tea - 12 oz - £2.30 / 300 Avios
Twinings pure green tea - 12 oz - £2.30 / 300 Avios
Twinings pure peppermint tea - 12 oz - £2.30 / 300 Avios
Cadbury's hot chocolate - 12 oz - £2.70 / 350 Avios

Highland Spring - still and sparkling - 500 ml - £1.80 / 225 Avios
Vita Coco coconut water - 330 ml - £2.70 / 350 Avios
Coca Cola / Sprite / Diet coke / Fanta orange / Appletiser - all 330 ml
£1.80 / 225 Avios
Pip Organic orange juice / apple juice - 200 ml - £2.70 / 350 Avios
Folkington's Elderflower pressé - 250 ml - £2.20 / 275 Avios
Fruit shoot orange low sugar - 200 ml - £1.80 / 225 Avios
Fever Tree tonic, also slimline - 150 ml - £1.50 / 200 Avios
Folkington's ginger ale / club soda / bitter lemon - 150 ml - £1.50/ Avios.

Following spirits are all at £4.50 / 575 Avios for 50 ml
Bacardi Carta Blanca / Baileys Irish Cream / Bombay Sapphire gin / Jonnie Walker Red whisky / Jack Daniels bourbon / Smirnoff Red vodka / XO Brandy.

Wines
Dry River Shiraz - 187ml £4.50 / 575 Avios
Shorn Sauvignon Blanc - 187ml £4.50 / 575 Avios
Belle Vignes Sauvignon Blanc - 187ml £4.50 / 575 Avios
Belle Vignes Syrah Rose - 187ml £4.50 / 575 Avios
Belle Vignes Grenache Syrah Marselan - 187ml £4.50 / 575 Avios
Prosecco Bottega Gold - 200ml £6.00 / 750 Avios
Heidsieck & Co. Monopole, Blue Top, Brut - 375ml £16.00 / 2025 Avios

Beer and cider
Heineken - 330ml £4.00 / 500 Avios
Old Speckled Hen - 330ml can £4.00 / 500 Avios
Magners Original Cider - 330ml can £4.00 / 500 Av

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How to pay:
1) Credit card or debit card - Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
2) BAEC membership card
3) BA App / My Account Screen (there should be a barcode)
Note that cash or other payment methods are not accepted. Payment will be charged in pounds sterling, so be aware of any forex charges (etc) levied by your card issuer. You are not required to show your passport or ID, unlike for duty/tax free merchandise. Contactless is not currently offered, it is expected in April 2017. Pre-paid debit cards are also not accepted (since they require online authorization). Cards require PIN and/or a signature as part of the transaction. There is on the screen a "voucher" payment option which is used for Highlife Shop vouchers.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...923/GwiOU6.jpg

Is water still free of charge?
Yes, potable water from the main tank is provided free of charge. If you want hot water you will need to bring a suitable cup for it. Cabin crew have been directed to complete the buy on board service first, before handing out any cups of potable water. Bottled water is available for sale.

Can I bring food and drink on board with me?
Yes, including alcohol, however hot drinks can not be carried on bus transfers for safety reasons. Note the ongoing restrictions on liquids going through security at some airports, particularly if security is done at the departure gate (e.g. Vienna). Also it is an offence to be drunk on a UK registered aircraft and the captain has powers to prevent this from happening.

Do I get Avios for buying items?
No, unless you pay with a BA Amex card or other card which provides Avios as part of the card's functionality.

Which is better value, cash or Avios?
Probably cash since the Avios value is in the 0.75p to 0.8p per Avios range, which is on the low side. However if you have difficulty spending Avios then this is better than throwing them away or some other uses (e.g. part payment with Avios on BA fares, hotel and car hire bookings). If you are paying a hefty forex charge for sterling transactions by your credit or debit card, it may be better to pay with Avios for some purchases.

I booked well before the announcement - will BA refund / compensate me?
See the resources threads from FT below, some FTers have either had refunds of their tickets or some Avios compensation.

Can Club Europe passengers have items from this menu?
Yes, if they pay for them. However CE will continue to provide food and drink as part of the service.

I hear Club Europe is being introduced to domestic flights, is this confirmed?
Yes it has been confirmed, but the date is not confirmed. Some speculation for the end of March 2017. This cabin will have food and drink provided as part of the service.

Is the Club Europe food and drink service going to alter as a result of buy on board?
No, not as far as we know. CE passengers will continue to be offered foor and drink without additional charge or any known changes. There is a revamp of Club Europe (and Club World) catering coming up later in 2017 but there is very little specific information on this.

Can the buy on board items be used for customer remediation (e.g. long delays)?
No.

If I buy a spirit item, is the mixer included?
No, this has to be paid for on top.

I am a oneworld Emerald/Sapphire, is there a complementary offering for me?
Unlike some other airlines, there is no complementary offering available. However on most routes there is a lounge available.

How do I find out about lounge access on my route?
In the Dashboard there is a guide for Europe's lounges, which includes in the wiki a list of locations without lounges. Mostly these are very small airports with very limited facilities, but the two perhaps surprising locations without lounge access are KRK and OPO.

My onward connecting flight is in First / Club - do I still have to pay?
Yes, if seated in Eurotraveller or Domestic.

When was this announced?
29 September 2016.

Are cabin crew getting commission for sale?
Yes, 10% of sales goes to the cabin crew on that flight, split between all cabin crew members, including those working the Club Europe cabin. Normally there are between 3 and 5 crew members on the affected services.

What is the announcement at the start of service in respect of buy on board?
Source: CloudGazer This message is slightly abbreviated for those flights without Club Europe or not offering hot items.

Does Marks and Spencer supply the drinks?
No. The arrangement is that Tourvest Inflight Retail Services are the main contractor to BA for the service. M&S provide the food, but the food and drink are shipped to LHR by DHL. The Point of Sale system is from Tourvest Duty Free, a South African company that also supplies Vueling and Virgin Atlantic with onboard retail services, as well as handling BA's Highlife Shop operation.

Are all items available on all flights?
No, there are 2 items, the bacon roll and the mozzarella and tomato focaccia which need to be heated up, you can assume it will take up to 15 minutes to get these items. These two product s are not served on short flights, however the porridge, which is also served hot, is apparently available on all flights.

Which are the short flights without the hot sandwiches?
These are flights with an Available Service Time below 30 minutes, so flights both to and from NCL, LBA, MAN, JER, AMS, BRU, CDG, ORY and RTM (in due course).

How does the trolley work on A319/320/321? Does it run from the top of the cabin and/or are there multiple trolleys
From a limited set of observations: Domestic - one trolley stored in the front galley, and then runs from the front, another from the rear. If the flight is lightly loaded, and there are 3 cabin staff, then just one trolley from the front with the second trolley kept in the back. Cabins with Club Europe: trolleys are kept at the rear galley and start their run from the first row of EuroTraveller. If it's an A321 or a heavily loaded A320 then there could be two trolleys, each with 10 to 15 rows to cover. If lightly loaded, particularly A319s with just 3 staff, one trolley is kept in the rear, rolled to the front of the cabin, there may well be a second trolley kept in the rear which acts as a parked stock location.

Under what circumstances can refunds be granted by crew after payment?

• Foreign object in food
• Product was spilt / spoiled by crew
• Sell by date has passed
• Opened and is "found unsuitable for consumption".

The latter is somewhat open to interpretation by both sides, but cold tea would probably be a good example.

I've got a long shorthaul flight coming up, will there be enough stock?
BA management have acknowledged to cabin crew that stocks on some longer services are insufficient (ATH and LCA were mentioned) and will be increased. It is unlikely that all items will run out, but sandwiches seem to be the first to go. Note that some airports have few facilities for buying food/drink just before the gate, particularly if non Schengen flights run from a dedicated area with few flights.
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Questions that still need resolving:

If I pay by BA Amex, do I get 3 Avios per £1? Or just 1 Avios?
Currently unknown.

Are the menu options for ALG, IST, RAK and TIA different from other destinations?
Currently unknown.

How long does it take for Avios payment transactions to get posted
Dunno, but it's at least a week and counting.
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Resources:
BA.com online menu - food: http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...nomy-food-menu
BA.com online menu - drink: http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...my-drinks-menu
Also see this forum's Dashboard for information on lounges and where to find drinking water airside.

Main FT threads started before the introduction of Buy on Board (the first gives experiences of Avios compensation given to existing bookings)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...hort-haul.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...an-t-wait.html

I have two questions for 'inaugural BoB flyers':

- what is the new crew announcement? Previous was something like: 'our customers in all cabins will be offered complimentary food and drink' or something to that effect, just curious what has replaced it?

- also, are the BoB trolleys coming from rear galley, front galley or both? Previously all Y food trolleys came from rear but if I remember correctly, on some plane types/routes, some front row Y drinks were served from front galley trolleys.

Free hot water if we bring our own mug? has that been announced? I thought it was only cold water they were giving away free.

Funnily enough I heard only this week something along the lines of "you may use your personal hand held electronics on-board in flight safe mode, the safety video may not have been updated to reflect these changes"

Surely the safety video had been updated on all planes by now, it's a long time since I've seen the old version.

So based on that some people may out of habit say the old lines, but presumably they'd quickly correct themselves when a confused customer asks what's going on.

Thanks CWS!
Can someone be kind enough to take pics of the actual menu on board and post it on here?

I was informed by the Cabin Crew a couple of weeks ago that the World Traveller service to Moscow will be moving to buy on board.

It seems odd there are no Breakfast options aside from the bacon sandwich, I wonder what will be available on the IST route.

Old Speckled Hen is a welcome addition though.

Thank you, CWS, for this timely guide.

I would not take anything out of the lounge to use on the flight on principle [0].

So is there anywhere in T5 where one can buy small bottles of wine or beer? I know the duty free shop sells certain things, but they are usually in larger quantities and cracking open a litre bottle of single malt might give out the wrong message.

[0] - in case I get caught :-)

It seems to be the case if you want a proper breakfast you need to go Club Europe (which will annoy those in Scotland as they have no CE yet but BoB was introduced with inadequate breakfast offerings).

They could have done better than Old Speckled Hen though! I would have preferred Tribute (which is the current CE ale) or London Pride (which was in the original sample BoB menu). Also there's plenty of amazing craft beers conveniently sold in 330ml cans.

Anyone with a paper boarding pass on a domestic, is the cabin class still listed as 'C'?

Share it with those around you :)

Are BA going to allow your own alcohol to be consumed? I was flying home from BRU with Brussels Airlines last night and I believe the menu card stated that customers own alcohol could not be consumed on board.

I've picked up 4 questions that we don't have answers for just yet, and moved them towards the end of post 1. Though I don't propose to spend the rest of 2017 constantly restructuring that post, nevertheless if there are good questions that come up in the first few days it's probably best to capture them there.

That continues to be allowed, but see the note in the first post, it is an offence to be drunk on a UK registered aircraft.

Slightly OT perhaps, but according to The Telegraph, it is illegal to be drunk in any public place:

:D

Gins in miniatures through security won't be a problem, but is there anywhere T5 airside where you can buy tonic water?

It was yesterday.

Yes there is at the duty free shop, indeed there is at the other major UK and rest of Europe airports too. Often you will find these close to the main till, in the queuing area, a bit like sweeties in a supermarket, I suppose. In T5 the biggest selection is in the middle of T5A departure level floor between gates 10 and 16. Perhaps unsurprisingly the basic cost is the same as the onboard prices, give or take 30p or so, however there are better value options.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...922/wAMQJ3.jpg

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...921/f3Yy5O.jpg

In the picture above, the products are in 20cl bottles for £10, which suggests 4 drinks, so ideal for couples (ahem), and works out at half the onboard price. Mixers are generally, but not always, available at the same price as BA.

(my bold)

I've never been a big user of 'duty-free' airport shops ; but with such savings versus BoB prices, I think I might soon become one .....!

Is the £4.99 selection also 20cl bottles? If they match the big sign that is even cheaper although not necessarily great brands?

No, the top banner isn't fully aligned with the contents below. Essentially it's £5 for the 50ml meaures and £10 for the 20cl flasks. The photos are a subset of a wider banner, it's not so mismatched on the ground.

So basically everyone will now try to steal drinks from the lounge to bring on board? - Can't wait until they introduce bag checks before leaving the lounge :D

CSM has just come to my seat with an iPad. I'm in Y to TXL

• Its a momentus day - are you aware of the change?
• The product is quality
• Any feedback at the end please come forward. She has a long report.

Everyone is on their toes.

Are we going to get a CWS walk-through guide for where to pick up the various components of your G&T airside? Anywhere selling ice and lemon? :D

Thanks!! ^

According to what I've seen on here no doubt some will. Then again, they've openly admitted to doing it well before BOB arrived anyway.

So bOB (bring On Board) is a new one to me, thought that was illegal under uk law....

Seems as if £5 for a miniature is a tad overpriced, what will security do if I fill up a 100ml bottle with Vodka and bring through in clear plastic bag?

What about a previous opened Smirnoff 50ml one, refilled with something like Morrinov (used to be the name for Morissons vodka)? So its clear the seal has been cracked? I know most security don't look at the bags, but will they have reason to go "eh?" or on a random pull?

Personally never really used BA shorthaul Y except for a couple of weeks ago, seems as I won't be in the future either, to me this was always about the booze, the loss of the shockingly tiny bag of nuts handed out wasn't anything to be mourned....

Sales of 100ml hip flasks going up?

1. Can you use contactless?
2. What happens if you have a chip-less credit card?

I know 2 is OK, since there is a PIN system generally. I don't think I've seen a confirmation about contactless yet, so I'll add that above to post 1.

Contactless is available according to a crew member today. I didn't see it tested though.

In fact, it should be preferred as PIN-entering and handing over of terminals is fairly time-consuming.

Thanks for that, it crossed over a post I directed towards ThatT1Feeling, but putting his reply and yours together I think we're safe to say contactless is there and preferred.

I wouldn't have thought security would know or care whether it was water, Chanel No 5, or vodka, as long as the bottle is less than 100mls and in the appropriate clear bag...

On BA (unlike I think all other UK airlines) you can consume your own alcohol on board but we can remove it from you if you are becoming intoxicated and it will be returned to you after landing.

The ipads can do contactless but it isn't working at the moment (surprise surprise😁). We can swipe, do chip and pin, and if that doesn't work, type the details in.

Contactless is a good question. That is the way I would expect to be able to pay, but it's daft they don't take cash. I just rejected a number of bookings in favour of SWISS and easyJet, simply because they were cheaper and provide better service!! Never thought I'd see myself write that about easyJet! Additionally, easyJet have an offer whereby if you pay in advance and buy a voucher you can save 20% on inflight BoB purchases. Way to go!!

From tonight's flight:

Thanks!! And the announcement is less over the top than I feared which is good! ('great' is mild comparatively).

ps: I presume the begining should read Club Europe! ;)

Re: LCY and timing of introduction of BoB. I've booked a flight for the end of May and it's telling me 'food and drink for purchase onboard', so I assume they're bringing it in during late Spring.

Regarding the question around triple avios if purchased on your BA AMEX card. Does one get triple points for duty free purchases? My understanding is the same partner offering duty free is also the merchant of record for BoB, so I would expect the latter to follow the former.

So debit cards after all? Confused.

Debit cards (as in visa debit, mc debit, etc) are fine it's just prepaid cards which aren't.

Ok. I thought to have read last night that debit cards were not fine. Not sure in which thread though. It's hard to keep track of everything!

Edit. Ah this was clarified here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/27745128-post2766.html

In the UK it is pretty hard for a merchant to distinguish between credit and debit cards if they are on the Visa/MC network.

I suspect that is a mistake.

Debit cards will mostly work, but banks have the option to disable payments by their cards when online authorisation isn't possible, such as on a plane. This setting is card by card and normally used for customers who are considered a poor credit risk such as those issued for basic bank accounts. Any such cards will not be able to be used on board. Nor, in all likelihood, will Apple Pay be accepted even when contactless starts to work.