florens

Maybe FTers can report it in the wiki? Not sure how representative this would be though!

headingwest

Very well, but I've witnessed several incidents where passengers were unable to pay for items due to payment card issues. I also once witnessed a heated sandwich being taken to a passenger, only to have the sandwich taken away again when payment was refused. Painfully slow BoB services have been common on all my 8 Euro/Domestic flights this year, with obvious stock issues (except for GIB-LHR)...so no, I don't consider a 99% (or even anywhere near it) chance of a successful transaction to be the norm. I guess these are just alternative facts!

If I were unlucky enough to be a passenger who hadn't eaten before my flight, I might well consider BA to be a mess. But I suspect that for BA the penny has finally dropped.

xenole

If the penny has dropped, I can't see why it has taken this long.
It's not rocket science at the end of the day
and there has been ample opportunity to respond to feedback, check out the competition etc.

mikeyfly

Maybe the minimum investment / contract was 12 months and from January it can be reviewed / changes made...

Anyone I speak to outside of FT has a real thing about BoB being rather painful, my brother and his wife went to FCO last weekend, early morning flight, after waiting over 1.5 hour for the cart to reach them, they went off the idea and went without.

xenole

Whilst I've never used the BoB service, my experiences have been, initially, not getting really past the first through rows through to very little take up and the trolley being back in the galley quickly, generally in minutes.
It may be down to the 1-2hr routes I tend to fly and the times, but there doesn't seem to be too many apparent issues as no-ne is buying.

Bar Operator

Very much route dependent more than anything else; there is in fact now a matrix in place which compares "High BoB take up " vs "Low" against booked CE and ET loads and route length; if necessary, an extra Crewmember will be rostered in advance or on the day to help speed up delivery.

Generally, routes popular with leisure travellers tend to be busier - but it does vary.

I recently flew to Keflavik : small CE cabin, large ET cabin, lots of families on holiday = huge BoB take up, extra crewmember onboard. 1 working in CE, 4 in ET. Under previous matrix, only 4 crew would have been assigned to the flight.

NickB

CWS has a point, though. "Total mess" is, imo hyperbole, where problems are grossly exaggerated. That said, however, it seems to me that CWS falls in the opposite trap of underplaying the significance of BA shortcomings. Every issue is dismissed as insignificant, or one-offs. The bar is lowered to make poor performance sound not as bad as it actually is. Thus, it is broadly ok if 97% get "something" to drink or eat (rather than what they would actually want to eat or drink).

I do not recognise the catastrophic total mess that is painted by subject2load but neither do I recognise that nearly-faultless airline that is painted by CWS.

The BA I know is very far from being a shamble but very far from being a stellar airline either. The phrase that would best describe it, imo, is mediocrity: nothing extraordinary but nothing catastrophic either.

KeaneJohn

My experiences are mixed. I typically liberate a can of tonic and sometimes bag of crisps from the lounge but feel really guilty about this and onboard will buy 2xgins and 1 can of tonic and if I am feeling indulgent some Percy pigs. Recent flight no problem, even had Sipsmith gin, another flight only 1 Sipsmith gin so opted for 2 Bombay Saphires instead but no plastic stirrers or no wooden coffee stirrers. Not a major issue but cabin crew member embarrassed by the situation on my other October flight sales of Percy pigs declined as the crew member didn’t know if it contained nuts and there was a passenger onboard with an allergic reaction to so sales of nut products prohibited. Wasn’t going to have a DYKWIA moment over the Percy Pigs so just put it down to experience.

corporate-wage-slave

I certainly don't think it is near faultess, in fact - to abstract some points I made upthread - I think the current contractor for BoB should be terminated, the business brought in-house, the trolley logistics done at the airport rather than 30 miles away, the PoS device replaced with something better (though contactless is now fairly slick), pre-ordering allowed and complementary water cuplets issued to all customers. I think the arguments for reform on that basis are more plausible than trying to pretend it's all gone horribly wrong: BA are selling far more BoB than they predicted, which is a big part of the difficulties portrayed upthread, so I'd rather BA benefit directly and therefore have a vested interested in getting it right. After all, traditionally they're pretty slick with revenue management.

subject2load

I have to say that I am far from comfortable with the comment by CWS that I am peddling fake news ; and also the veiled implication that ‘anecdotes’ referenced by those who are particularly well-disposed towards BA are somehow far more worthy & reliable than those referenced by others with less favourable experiences of the airline.

In my view, it’s just not good enough to be so dismissive of critical comments, and I even find myself wondering (which I haven’t until now) whether a sense of balance & perspective is perhaps lost when so much time is spent on one carrier, and with close contacts within the management. The fact that I - like so many others here - attach great value to the insights, knowledge, and general guidance provided by CWS, on all manner of topics, does not mean that I’m happy about such an aggressive reaction to my thoughts on BoB.

There is so much else I could add on this, but for now I just feel it right to express my bitter disappointment.

wyddfa

I think a simple food offering in Y is crucial in differentiation between BA & LCCs. You can’t out Ryanair on cost.

headingwest

C-W-S used the term ''total mess''.

corporate-wage-slave

Correct, that's my wording, the original version being "the whole thing is still a mess".

subject2load

Yes, perhaps you misquoted me in your haste to defend BA, by painting a rose-tinted picture of just how well BoB operates - seemingly on your flights of course !

cme17

I fly LGW-GLA regularly on a Thursday evening. Last time there were three bottles of the standard wine loaded for the return trip. I have also flown to TLL and LPA in the last month and they ran out of alcohol. So not fake news for Me or my friends we have travelled with!