BA6948

I have switched my flights to Air France where possible and gosh the flying experience is great. It is relaxed, you get your food and drinks for free (even hot options on sectors more than 2 hours). You even now get a G&T which is new to me on AF. And I am glad I did.

markle

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subject2load

Yes, I think safe to say there definitely is space for more than just one sandwich.

But this does nonetheless continue to prove quite a challenge for BA and its highly-skilled catering /onboard services management teams.

And until such time as they solve this (incredibly complex ) conundrum of loading sufficient supplies, anyone who wants to enjoy a sandwich during their BA flight would be well-advised to pack one in their carry-on.

streetmagix

I echo the comments about the atmosphere changing since BoB. I think many passengers now see the CC as shop assistants rather than critical safety personnel. Along with the United incident I can see the relationship between airlines and passengers changing (and not necessarily for the better but we'll see)

A little off topic but I saw it at University too. We had to pay £3K/year to attend and we kept reminding the University of that fact, breaking down how much each lecture cost us when they decided to cancel one etc. Once there is a direct price attached it changes the way we talk about things.

I will be very interested to see what the reaction will be to BoB on my normal LON-VCE route this summer, it seems from past experience that most people on the flight only fly once or twice a year so may have missed the BoB news.

headingwest

And the fact of the matter is that each new day they continue with this BoB service BA are subjecting their product to more and more negative feedback and potentially lost future bookings. It's not rocket science.

miamiflyer8

Just look at Germany

I only have Visa Electron so this impacts my choice of carrier as well.

meester69

Eh, if that is a change it is from waiter/waitress to shop assistant, but hardly a major change.

mrow

I disagree, BOB has taken the ability for crew to use their discretion to give an extra service item or two away to someone who has had a bad day, is celebrating a special occasion etc.

Whilst only a small gesture, this type of thing was a great way for crew to show that they care and a great way for BA to differentiate itself from its LcC competition. Removing this ability can have (and I argue, has had for many passengers) a disproportionate affect on a passenger's perception of BA and in my mind this has fundamentally changed the dynamic between passengers and the crew.

subject2load

Your point is well-made, and I'm assuming (?) that - unwelcome though BoB was from day one - it is not so much the principle of its introduction that you see as the root cause of so much ongoing negative feedback & damaging publicity, but rather the wholly amateurish implementation.

And certainly no rocket science is needed to know that loading more than one sandwich might be a good idea for a flight carrying around 200 pax ; yet somehow this - based on various first-hand reports - is seemingly often beyond the wit of BA and its (expert, carefully-selected) partners.

A few weeks ago I took a very short sector with Air Asia (who of course operate a very extensive network) of around 1.5 hours (SIN-KCH). During the web booking process I was invited to pre-order a meal from a wide range of options, both hot & cold. I went for a vegetable biryani and this was duly placed on my tray table 15 mins after take-off, along with a complimentary glass of mineral water (my very acceptable meal cost me the grand total of SGD 4.00 ...... but that's another story ....!).

There are perfectly efficient ways of providing Y cabin food at additional cost to the pax, over & above the base fare. But the airline has to be minded - and sufficiently organised - to do so.

dakaix

Or Italy.

I was behind a couple of Italian lads trying to collect their hire car at BSL last week; they were refused because they didn't have any "normal" payment cards (i.e. V/MC/AX), only their Italian bank cards which Avis couldn't accept. They were left trying to work out how to start their holiday without a car.

BA6948

Very true. On my last flight before BoB, I had a G&T and the guy next to me didn't speak any English and the crew didn't speak any French. I helped the 2 communicate and it was a lot of fun cause the guy was old and was hitting on the girl F&A (in a nice and fun way). it was a lot of work but we managed to get him his Vodka drink. The CC then came back with another G&T and told me: enjoy it while it lasts. We both laughed. In other occasions I had the cabin crew recognize me from previous flights (not sure if that is a good sign) but they proactively gave me a double G&T and double crisps.

That's what is now gone. The little moments that are are welcome after a long trip or a day trip with an early wake up.

And people are still mad at the whole BoB thing. They were flying BA because of the brand, because it was classy, it made you feel welcome... not anymore. The BA brand is now tarnished and people associate it to Vueling, Ryanair or easyJet.

bot_beany

My opinion is very simple.
It's appualing. On a proud, flag carrying airline I expect to be fed in the price of the fare. End of.

On budget airlines like Ryanair I do not.

The fact that it's M&S is neither here nor there. If I wanted M&S food I could bring it with me.

Just another step down the rung for a once proud BA.

srbrenna

It is very simple. BoB was introduced to give you quality and choice. Fair enough. Now AC has admitted that that was a bunch of porkies and that you should not expect choice.

http://www.headforpoints.com/2017/04...ndrew-crawley/

Bluebirdnick

Indeed. Deutsche bahn don't even take payment by credit card at some stations for transactions under eur 20. On a recent trip to my old uni town, we had to pay with cash at about half of the restaurants we visited and the accommodation didn't take credit card either. I was surprised, but there was absolutely no evidence from that trip that Germany is becoming increasingly cashless.

streetmagix

I think things are slowly changing, I was in Offenburg (for Europa-Park) and Frankfurt last week and pretty much all the shops and food places I visited had contactless card readers and I saw quite a few people use them. All the stations had the 'new' DB/RMV ticket machines with card readers.

I'm off to Berlin at the end of the year, should be interesting if it's any different there. Last time I was there almost no where took cards.