Tourvest also run BA's IFR (High Life Shop) and cash is accepted.

Had my first BA economy class short-haul flight in quite some time this week, and the whole "pay for everything but 'tap' 'water'" struck me as cheap and made me miss the BA of old. And given the awful seat comfort level, I am wondering why BA should get any of my economy class business unless it's cheaper and/or more convenient than even the Ryanair type carriers.

And given this came in conjunction with a connecting flight with inoperable in-flight entertainment -- of four seats, two had no video and the third had no reliable audio -- it's clear BA is not the kind of carrier it used to be for me. That just means BA will get less of my money than it used to get. No skin off my back, as LHR T5 connections are just too lousy still.

Cash is only accepted on mid and long haul routes where the older Kestrel machines are used. On short haul witht the Tourpos machines, it's credit or debit card only for HLS purchases.

Service seemed pretty efficient from Gatwick to Nice this week. No hardware issues, still clearly people getting caught by surprise and making "oh so the same as easyJet" type comments to the crew. And people still surprised at no cash, despite announcements early in the flight.

I was in the 5th row of economy. Asked for a bacon roll but was told this flight was too short.

me: oh, are those only on long band flights?
crew: yes, and I think maybe mid band
me: ok makes sense, isn't this mid though?
crew: mumbled something and went on her way

I mentioned to CSM later on (only because I was already talking to her about a basically non-existent exit row briefing / check for take off) and she said there should have been be hot food and went to investigate.

CSM came back and told me there was hot food, but they'd only loaded two bacon rolls, which had been grabbed by somebody who went to the rear galley and ordered as soon as seatbelt signs were off (lesson number 1!)

I like to give benefit of the doubt and assume I wasn't lied to. But seemed like two people working the BOB, so unsure how one could be taking orders and heating a bacon roll while the other has no idea hot food is even being served. So that seemed disappointing. Hopefully I'm missing something, but even if it's just a misunderstanding it's a pretty basic one.

On a positive note, CSM was great and no payment issues as far as I could see.

This seems quite poor. You were on a flight where there wasn't an exit row safety briefing, and where you (at the very least) were given misinformation about the bacon rolls and where clearly not enough bacon rolls had been loaded (especially bearing in mind there is a return flight to cater for too).

Did a return trip to Copenhagen just before Easter, our first on 'basic' fares and with the BOB food.

Flights themselves both arrived early, weren't full (outbound early Saturday, return late Monday) so ended up with a seat next to me, which was pleasant. The BA app chose a window/middle pair for us near the front of the aircraft each time which was nice.

Ref the BOB, we both bought absolutely nothing on either leg as we ate prior in the lounges. Even without lounge access we'd have been happy with a giraffe brekkie or similar.

I'd say BOB take up was about 30% of passengers. Service seemed to be quite smooth with no obvious IT issues.

In summary, the flights were both very civilised experiences, I didn't miss the crap old ET free food (esp at breakfast time) and didn't feel the need to give BA any more cash for BOB.

I can only see myself buying something onboard if I found myself peckish on a band 4 length trip.

They loaded two bacon sandwiches for the return trip? It's obvious by this point this is not teething issues, they are deliberately undercatering. Sounds like Tourvest are taking BA for a ride, I'd love to see that contract, someone in BA really dropped the ball on this one!

They certainly have had long enough to sort these supply issues out now. I'm not so sure I see BA being taken for a ride, but I do wonder why it is taking so long to supply enough to meet demand. 2 bacon rolls is clearly not enough for a return LGW-NCE.

A little quirk yesterday on the BA235 to DME. Mentioned somewhere earlier about the BOB menus being on the mid-haul A321 aircraft. Gentleman sat on the opposite bulkhead seat from me yesterday and when the trolley came out for drinks, he reached into the seat pocket and pulled out the M&S menu and started pointing to something (not sure what it was). Looked positively let down when told no BOB and had to put up with the 'complimentary offerings'.

Also on the BA1475 ex GLA, from what I could see, looked like 3 or 4 orders maximum.

S

My colleague flew LHR-SOF a few days ago. Not a single purchase on the entire flight, confirmed with the crew upon disembarking. Several free waters given out though.

It would be interesting to see the routes where BoB is successful and those where it is not.

Well if they're only loading a couple of sandwiches on each flight, it's pretty likely that most are a 'success'! :D

SOF was of course one of the routes that had the full works before, so no doubt passengers on that flight are less than impressed. Did BA really think they'd be splashing out!?

I think 'successful' was maybe a poor choice of wording on my part, as I didn't mean it in a commercial sense.

All I meant was I would be interested to see if BoB take up varied by route, and by how much. (I'm trying to write a paper and as you can see am in avoidance mode and easily distracted!)

Last month was the first time I experienced the BoB for LHR-EDI round trip. It really is disappointing to see BA go down this road. LHR-EDI was BA1454 at 5:25pm. Hardly anybody ordering and the few that did took receipts which tells me it's a company expense. EDI-LHR was BA1435 at 6:55am. I'm used to getting a breakfast on this flight and really missed it because at that time in the morning who has time to have breakfast before leaving the house ?! Anyway, hardly any takers for BoB on that flight either. Service is horrendously slow and I doubt the people at the back were able to get anything. This is so stupid. I'm just not going to pay four quid for a can of beer. It's a 50 minute flight I can go without and keep my money but it's just seems so silly. Just charge an extra few quid for the ticket and lob a free drink at me as you pass by. It's way more efficient than trying to flog over priced crap, if it's available.

Wow and thats a fairly long flight; 3 hours no?