T8191

The fountain of c-w-s knowledge overflows again! Do you know his Account # and his current Avios stash?

nwmgc

LHR MAN and return on Thursday - one week in - pretty hopeless! I was in 3F going up, no menus and whilst I had hoped to try the coffee, had no chance as the service got no farther than row 2. CC hugely embarrassed but despite all of them gathered around the cart, could not get the payment system to work. Apologised over the tannoy.
Returning, seated in 2F this time, the service came from the rear and reached me only after the captain had announced 20 minutes to landing! Again, CC really hacked off with the whole damn thing and full of apologies.

rapidex

Account no private.Avios stash 2158375000^

florens

Good evening folks,

my 2nd BoB flight, back to BSL at 7.10pm.

A319 with light load: 72/107 in ET (67%).

One of two sale machines not working, no hot food orders as far as I could tell.

Quite a few purchases, around 10 I'd say, all < £5. Noticed one gentleman who was not happy at all when he was asked to pay for his drink.

Let me add that I don't like the payment machine. It is really difficult to cover the PIN code entering process in order for people not to see the PIN code.

Note that there was no rubbish collection at all...

Talked to a cabin crew member while waiting for the lavatory and she said that many crew members are unhappy with BoB, but also that it was easier and less stressful than expected because not many customers buy something. She added that on most flights something goes wrong with the machines.

Not impressed, really. The menu looks ok (although I expected it to be in every seat), but the choice is still not great. Only sandwiches as 'substantial meals', really?

Will reduce BA ETtravel this year and try to be more in the CE cabin if on BA.

icegirl

BoB could be a success as a friend has popped to Gibralter and on her flight they ran out of food before they got half way down.

gms

Flying LGW-Marrakech this week, at the end of the flight the crew apologised over the tannoy for the fact that they had not been able to complete the drinks service in Y (full flight). If they can't achieve this on a >3hr flight, then there's not much hope for them!

I'm guessing BA management didn't stress test their payment systems to see if it would actually work to make the concept feasible on a short-haul flight! They just don't learn, do they!

noubliepas

This is due to the ridiculously low amount of food they load on the route. Has happened on all 5 flights I've taken on this route.

crazyanglaisy

LHR to Bucharest this evening. I'd guess 80% of people were making food and drink purchases on a flight that was 70% full. I was in row 12 and it took a couple of hours before they got to me. A few rows at the back missed out and the crew were working flat out the whole time.

I get the feeling that they really need to find a way to speed up the payment process. It takes forever. I caved in, much to my better judgment, despite bringing onboard a couple of cans of Tribute and some crisps from the First lounge. Paid using avios and my barcode had disappeared from the App. Reappeared again when I had Internet access upon landing, so not sure what happened there.

My experience has consistently been that, if there are more than a handful of passengers making purchases on short flights, between a third and a half of passengers will miss out entirely. Until they can improve the payment speed, a full service appears to me to depend entirely on low uptake (putting aside all the technology problems)

onlynik

Their decision to go with BoB has lost them my custom. Having paid over £4k for a business flight to SIN, then the pitiful breakfast offerings at the LHR lounges, I will never fly BA again. My next trip to SIN will be with MH or CX.

kaizenflying

Another Madrid service today where the crew could not complete the service and made worse by sandwiches probably amounting to 3 or 4 in a trolley for a full Y lunchtime service.

BoB could work but I don't get how BA has failed to invest in the right technology and understanding route catering supply and demand. It's not as if BA has just launched their EU flights and they should know the customer base pretty well by now. Their customer base is, however, complex and not EasyJet and Ryanair - particularly if you are a passenger connecting from First or business long haul to domestic services!

It's time to book EasyJet or consider connecting services via Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt if you want to be treated decently. BA is seriously failing to do this and is intent on antagonising regular and irregular flyers. If you do fly BA intra Europe or on a domestic service, try and get a seat in the first few rows if you really want that morning hot drink or take food/packed lunch with you if you have to rush off the plane to a meeting at the other end.

And finally, a few words of thanks to the crews on my recent flights. I do not know how you maintain your patience with your employer and the tools they give you to deliver what they consider is a premium service. Budget Airways should be the new livery.

bullroot

It's unbelievable there are so many issues with the payment system. Looks like zero testing was made. Not surprising really, as I bet the whole project was done on the cheap. It's hardly rocket science, many other companies figured out the BoB concept years ago. I really hope some people get fired for this debacle.

hungry

So my Mrs loves a Gin in the plane. Where possible we travel business class, so no problem.

Say we have to travel economy.. Now my GF drinks Gin n Lemonade, rather than Tonic (goes back to her student days, dash lemonade as a mixer is MUCH cheaper than bottle of Tonic)...

So if say she would get through 3 or 4 on a flight, could we instead of paying rip off BA BoB prices, get a 70cl bottle of bargain basement Gordon's from the duty free, and a few cans of simple lemonade from Boots or Pret?

We could of course bring with us some plastic disposable cups.

Anything to stop us on-board, mixing some lovely Gin and Lemomades and enjoying them throughout the flight? Thus, saving a fortune, compared to BA BoB prices??

KARFA

Discussed in this thread Bring on Board... The exact rules on alcohol? BA allows it? with answer from cabin crew

corporate-wage-slave

And in this thread there is another mechanism, using the mid sized bottles of gin. These would have 3 or 4 measures in them.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-services.html

Since I'm always full of bright ideas: You would save half the cost if you ditched either the Mrs or the GF.

HHarry

15:30 Salzburg to Gatwick yesterday. Nearly full flight.
Took off at 15:30, hot orders taken at 15:40 - 2 orders taken.
Trolley service started at row 4 at 15:50 - I'd say that there was a purchase made from 75% of the rows. When I looked back at 16:30 they were all done.

I said well done to the CC for the BOB service. I got a wry smile and a thank you!