Since the introduction of return catering, the CE cabin regularly runs out of bottled water (and often other soft drinks) on the band 4s. Every LCA I do has run dry of water part way through the flight. They simply don't have room to store enough for 50-80 CE passengers on a return 4.5 + 5 hour flight, and they can't upload more at LCA, except in an emergency.

With the complete meltdown of BoB, the crew were offering tap water (so, didn't impact on CE bottled water) + juice + tea/coffee from the CE supply. So naturally the juice ran out. And the bottled water ran out, as it always does.

Thank you Angela + team (particularly Damir, Clare, Gaetano, Russell) for an outstanding job on two very difficult sectors. You are all complete stars and don't deserve this.

I hope someone at BA recognises the fantastic cabin crew doing an amazing job. Especially a super-caring CSD, who - on her day off - goes and buys bags of biscuits with her own money, to offer to the hungry passengers.

That did make me laugh! ^

I think this will all settle down eventually and that we're stuck with this and free catering won't return, but they may make some concessions to Golds. Or (more likely in my view) they will ride it out, which may result in some lost revenue but I expect they are happy to take that hit.

And slightly OT, but for those discussing ET>CE operational upgrades above, this happened to me ex-AMS recently and I was clearly informed at the gate there was no food for me, but the v good cabin crew member serving CE (to LCY) plied me with champagne to make up for it. Only a short flight admittedly, but I survived the experience.

I disagree, watch this space, maybe for 2-3 years. It will come back. Most US airlines are bringing back free snacks on their domestic routes. And this complete circle will come to Europe as well, and BA will be giving away free food as well. You see, the current CEO is the flavour of the week, they are following Norwegian, not realising other airlines that are doing it better.
I just flew 13hrs in Iberia in Business. The food was horrible, presentation and taste, and they offered complimentary wifi with a 4MB voucher. Yep, 4MB of Download data (that is less than 2 minutes of use on a mobile), and this my friend is IAG blowing their trumpet. We now have wifi, and well it is not competitive. I had free wifi on Turkish in Economy, Norwegian has free WiFi and even AA now offers $19 wifi for the whole flight. Iberia wanted me to pay 25EUR for 25MB (I am talking data here, not speed).
So eventually, things will change, BA and IAG airlines will do a turn around. The like of of the ME3 and even threats from KLM, LUFTHANSA and far east flights like Singapore and Garuda looking to set up more routes, will change the status!
In fact look at the low costers, they are becoming full service airlines. Everything from Lounge, to priority to loyalty programs are being made available. Why the hell should anyone fly BA!!

I agree and it's very telling to see that a valued (by crew at least) GGL will now stop and think before making any personal travel arrangements in ET .

I am going to add a little back round to the cashless option and why BA may have chosen to go down this route. This is not from BA but from a crew prospective.

Before BOB we have had on going issues with Tourvest and the IFR, this manifested it self when we changed our IFR a number of years ago. Many cc were being told that they had cash discrepancies it was an unusual as it had jumped form an occasional report to a externally high amount. BA had stated this was due to extra audits and checking hence picking up the errors.

Crew and our representatives believed that this was not the case as the vast majority of the errors were round figures such as £20 £40 and rarely £16.26 etc . And it was not single individuals but random across the crew community. Many crew were formally disciplined and had the money recovered from the wages even if this was down to error, no crew hang been dismissed for theft.BA are adamant this is crew error .

At no point was tourvest or our shambolic cash handling process investigated. This is why many crew had stopped taking cash sales while doing IFR against BA policy and breach of our contracts. I can tell you that the vast majority of the crew are more then happy with the cashless system. As we do not want the added worry of an invisible hand dipping into our already depleted wages. BA may have thought that as they cant manage to sort this problem out on IFR that a cashless system would solve there issues and stop them having to address the shambolic cash handling when the roll out BOB.

I agree a cash option would be easier and more of a service to our customers, but not at the expense and worry of the cc community. We have enough worry and stress to our job security as it is, without the added concern of being dismissed over a cash error. I feel we would only be happy with this if the process was totally transparent to the cc.

I can tell you 100% that although it's safe to drink, I do not know of one cc who would drink water straight from the tank . And I know for a fact the engineers won't even touch the stuff.

I guess the odd glass would be no harm but keep in mind the tanks are chemically cleaned every now and then.

Safe flying

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My username is not original I have used in memory of poster somewhere else who was a true hero to many at BA .
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The information posted here are my views and opinion . They do not reflect the official view or opinion or any other individual or company.
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LHR - MAN yesterday.

Crew clearly and vocally frustrated by the introduction of BOB; "I'm sorry, it's an embarrassment" said to one passenger.

2 POS machines on board. CSM said they had been told during training that two would never, ever fail at the same time; they both did on their earlier BUD rotation, having to resort to manual transactions, only they had just a handful of slips and therefore could not offer BOB to most of the cabin.

Man a few rows back ordered 2 coffees, not realising it was now BOB (already descending into MAN). Very unhappy (and loud about it), made worse when they refused his offer of a fiver to pay for them. No sooner had he been served that the trash cart came down collecting rubbish; "You've only just ******* served me!"

I really feel for the crew who were doing their very best to provide the new product and placate customers..

BA1479 GLA-LHR this morning was my first BOB experience.

Pre-flight, I spotted three instances or surreptitious lounge pilfering - all involving the mini-cans of soft drinks. First time I have seen this happening en-masse, not a big deal perhaps but maybe likely to increase as more lounge users become aware of BOB?

On the flight take-up of BOB was minimal in the front 5 rows (I was in 1A so could not monitor further progress). As this was a short mid-morning flight that was maybe not a flight which would have much demand for BOB anyway.

Chap beside me got a fizzy water and tried to pay for it in cash, but he had a card and the machine seemed to work quickly.

Next flight (BA0378 LHR-TLS) is a lunchtime flight and I am in an exit row so should be better placed to see how it is working on a slightly longer sector where many pax may well be expecting the usual free sandwich or wrap.

If this really is running at just £150 or so of revenue per flight the the maths isn't going to look good. Knocking off costs, and adding back the saving from not providing free stuff, doesn't get you much beyond £150.

With plenty of people paying that much for their one way ticket, you only need one customer per flight to flounce off and you're in trouble.

We already have domestics 'losing' 4-6 middle seats to introduce Club Europe, which is really only being done to protect connecting traffic in the BOB era.

I know that no-one will flounce off purely on the back of BOB, but everyone has a breaking point somewhere and the loss of free G'n'T may be it for many.

Many thanks (again!) Secretsquirrel.return for the useful background & context.

Some of the most interesting info from an insider that I have read since actively participating in the BAEC sub-forum ^

As to the matter of BA choosing to highlight Avios as the 'preferred' method of payment ....I guess their reasoning was that a) we would be happy (ahem ...!) to use Avios with a mindset that it's not the same as real money and b) Avios balances are gradually depleted on peripheral items rather than actual seats.

But then you hardly need me to spell that out !

Very disappointed so far. Had two flights since the new BOB has been introduced, sitting in row 14 both times. It took them around 50min to reach my row, and certainly 70 % of that time was spend between row 7 and 9. The payment (via credit card and Avios) took very long and cabin crew did not seem to be prepared at all. Poor execution so far, EasyJets BoB service is much better and friendlier.

I wonder if any crew have taken matters into their own hands if a customer has cash but no cards and has already ordered "sorry we only take cards, but if you don't have any I'll take the cash and use my card for you".

I doubt BA would encourage it but would be interested if someone would offer.

As a passenger I'd be happy to help out someone who had the cash but no card to pay.

Are duty free sales using the new tablets yet and is cash still an option to pay for these?

I'll tell you why they will resist that at all costs - it is about crew honesty and it is demeaning.

Once upon a long time ago before all drinks became free, cabin crew used to sell Club (or First back in the day) stock. Thus they would charge you for the miniatures (soft drinks and mixers were always free) and pocket the lolly. I know for a fact that on one flight to CPH the CSD gave the First bar to be sold down the back. On that round trip, each member of crew made £70 - this was when £70 was worth something. I was there and the crew member who I knew showed me. HI knew a Doctor who worked for BA. He was asked by security if an entire bar from First could have been drunk by the number of passengers who were seated there. He stated that they would have been dead had they drunk that much. Sabres were rattled and in some more outrageous cases people were fired, but not many. It was too hard to prove, and everyone knew who was security and would be more discrete.

When this wonderful scheme was dreamed up, I wondered how they would manage this, and this is the answer. It does not happen at Ryanair or the others as they have no premium cabins.

That they assume that the crew would do this is insulting, and although, they have not said this publicly because they dare not say this publicly, I have no doubt that this is the reason behind this. I cannot see any other. You refuse to sell product because you cannot take the money? Whoever heard of such nonsense??

Since hot water isn't free,

Can I have a free cup of ice?

Am pretty sure there was a post from one CC member (perhaps Secretsquirrel.return ..?) just recently, saying that the BoB trolley run on a particular flight(s) was so fraught & time-consuming that they didn't manage to even offer DF sales.

Yes, it's removed a differentiator. My colleagues and I regularly fly LHR-OSL; the main differentiators between SK and BA are service and timings. Prices are normally similar - SK usually a little less but not significantly. Colleagues would usually prefer BA for the service perks. Now that's gone, we're just booking what works due to timings. BA definitely losing business here.

I'm nowhere close to requalifying as gold next year; all my bookings are now based purely on convenience since there is no service differentiator.

So disappointing to see something I used to enjoy being systematically destroyed. Flying BA put a spring in my step on the way to the airport, since I knew through a few little perks I'd usually have a flight I found enjoyable. Now, a flight's nothing more than a bus.

I have my first flight since BoB coming up in a few days - I POUG'd to CE to avoid this mess - sounds like I won't :(

But the question is, if they have time to offer the duty free service (and presumably when the issues are ironed out it should be possible) will they still be accepting cash for these and will they be using the same tablets for this purpose?