vibguy

I think that BA organised this chaos on purpose. It is a well know technique in change management. As soon as the food/drink service will go more smoothly in a couple of weeks, pax will be satisfied that the service issues are gone and they will forgive the most important aspect of the enhancement : that they now have to pay for food and drinks without ticket price reduction. Furthermore they have included two important strategical aspects in the deal : the possibility to pay with avios and the fact that CC get a percentage of the turnover. Well done BA, you think you fooled a lot of customers.

T8191

An excellent conspiracy theory, but which IMO fails on one critical aspect ... BA being competent enough to conceive and implement 'deficient service' for long-term gain

vibguy

This is indeed the weak point in the theory.

JAXBA

I wonder why BOB items weren't simply added to the duty free POS device which crew already use? The payments are already handled by Tourvest. Not that the duty free POS device is much more stable, but still...

layz

No chip and PIN (or contactless when they finally get it working). I was told duty free is using the new devices too, but just before BoB was launched I had to show my passport for a £10 transaction on the old device.

dakaix

Perhaps an excuse for Tourvest to shift/force some new generation devices on an unsuspecting/ignorant BA management?

GlasgowBlue

Was a similar tactic not used in the years running up to the introduction of BoB? The food offering on SH Y become so poor and miniscule that it generated a large volume of complaints to BA, with passengers regularly feedback that if it meant getting a more substantial and better quality food offering they'd be willing to go as far as paying for it. Low and behold BA are able to introduce BoB, not because of cost cutting in order to increase profits, but because it was exactly what their customers had been repeatedly asking for.

orbitmic

5 would certainly sound like an anomaly...

ahmetdouas

Didn't I read somewhere that they would have an extra person on board to monitor how the POS were working?

Smid

Yes, but I very much doubt a single one of those complaints was about the quality of alcohol served.

That's my big bugbear about it, would not have had a problem with paid food.

Lewis King

Had my first BoB last night flying back from Prague. No hot food orders, I'd say about 10-15 people bought food/drinks total. Crew was actually pretty great, an older woman was coughing a lot behind us and a crew member proactively offered her some potable water to help. Took the entire flight to do the whole cabin, boy does that payment system look a pain!

Safe to say I was very happy I visited the lounge before with my gold card lounge pass, (will be doing this every time now). A few glasses of red wine and a few nibbles made the mood on-board a lot less depressing.

Tiffywren

The gent behind me on tonight's LGW-EDI was giving the CC a really hard time about BoB I get that he's upset about having to pay for a drink on top of his ticket price, lots of people are, but being rude to the CC isn't going to achieve anything.

elitetraveler

Doric String Quartet ‏@doric_quartet 15h15 hours ago

Seriously? @British_Airways You cancel our flight then replacement is delayed and you still force us to pay for a cup of tea! #notgoodenough

British Airways ‏@British_Airways 11h11 hours ago

@doric_quartet We're disappointed to hear this. Did you speak with the crew on board?

Doric String Quartet ‏@doric_quartet 11h11 hours ago

@British_Airways Yes but crew were embarrassed about it, told me to complain on twitter and seemed ashamed of the general decline in service


British Airways ‏@British_Airways

@doric_quartet with the quality and choice available as an improvement in our service. We are sorry you had a negative crew experience.

11:01 PM - 23 Jan 2017

Lefly

BA BoB is a thing too good to be at fault, so it must be necessarily something/someone else...

corporate-wage-slave

Ah, now that's an interesting point I hadn't spotted before, EC261, Right to Care, clause 9.1:

Now this kicks in at just 2 hours on sectors under 1500 km, which from LHR is as far as WAW, FCO, MAD. LIS and NAP are further, so they are in the next band which is a 3 hour delay. The start of the delay clause says "When an operating air carrier reasonably expects a flight to be delayed beyond its scheduled time of departure..." and the various time bands follow. Because the Regs talk about "a flight" and "scheduled" it's not clear whether the clock starts at the time of the cancelled flight or the rebooked flight, but if the passenger turned up at the airport for the cancelled flight and was told there, then I'm fairly sure the 2 hours starts at that point, otherwise in the Twitter exchange it would be from the time of the new flight.

This isn't optional, the airline has to provide this whether it's fog, ATC or down to their own logistics. So once a shorthaul flight is delayed more than 2 hours, I think it would be reasonable for a passenger to select a few items and claim them back from BA. The exceptions would be (a) if a voucher was handed out before travel and (b) if the passenger was delayed in a lounge and had access to food and drink there. But if held at the gate, onboard or if the lounge only offered crisps and nuts - often the standard at smaller outstations - I think a pack of sarnies would be reasonable.

You can't expect the crew to do this (though the Regulation implies they should) but I can't see how BA could refuse a request for repayment, particularly if paid with Avios.