Hmm. Now let me think about that one miamiflyer8 .......

(as good an example of 'rhetorical questioning' as one could hope to find ....;))

And I assume by 'media frenzy' you mean social media - which of course is not about tabloid headlines but about real, live people, very often tweeting immediately after their personal onboard experience.

I flew my first and so far only leg of BOB service last week, MAD-LHR on the 767. They did a hot food run first, drinks and cold food after that. I didn't see, hear, or smell anyone take them up on the hot food, and very little cold food. What I thought was notable given what else I've read on here is that for liquids, if someone asked for water they were proactively asking "do you mean a bottle, or a cup for free?" and if the passenger opted for the latter one of the crew went to fetch the cup immediately. The obvious availability of free water didn't stop several people buying bottles. (I bought nothing, because I wasn't hungry and there is literally nothing on the drinks menu I'm prepared to pay their prices for)

Well yes, social media.

Ok this is ridiculous because the only good food in ATH (McDonalds) is before you pass passport control! They should have it on the BA App, 'sorry we cannot serve you with BoB on this flight, please seek alternative means to feed yourselves.'

BA really need to get their BoB act together pretty swiftly.

Over six weeks in now, and yet still daily reports of aggrieved pax (not to mention those who quite happily survive without BoB but who, as interested observers, still witness occasional onboard chaos).

I fear this could become quite damaging, even in the eyes of the minority who may have been - originally - well-disposed to the general principle. People may tolerate an isolated flight, given exceptional circumstances, with no food & drink service ; but it's a different story once it happens on a repeated basis.

Other European LCC's seem to manage the logistics & implementation with virtually no public reports of similar disorganisation. Surely it is not beyond the wit (?) of BA managers to do the same.

Update on my experiences over my last few band 3 flights:

1) BoB delivery is now much faster and is typically completed quickly and efficiently. Some flights quite full others very empty, does not seem to make a difference to service speed;

2) On most of my flights, uptake seems low. BA says it finds it high so maybe different destinations. On my last two flights, crew confirmed that only 1 and 2 sandwiches respectively had been sold out of Y cabins of 18 and 23 rows respectively;

3) I've 'spied' on the food loadings over my last few flights all between 1000 and 1700 departures. The typical loading for a A319/A320 seems to be 4 focaccia, 4 yoghurt, 4 beef sandwiches, 8 bacon rolls, and 2 fruit salads. For some reason, none of them had the (cheaper) cheese sandwich;

4) A few grumpy comments, but the habit of leaving little disparaging anti-BA messages on the BoB menus seems to be gaining speed. I found such messages on three of my recent flights! On one of them, it was on all three BoB menus on the row with three different messages comparing BA to Ryanair (saying it is worse but in ruder terms). Another message was just a simpler well-known two words expletive that starts with an imperative form urging sexual activity, and finishes by 'you!'

5) On two flights, the crew was actively discouraging passengers from asking receipts or asking if they really needed them, I am not sure if it was because of a technical issue, to save paper or whatever else;

6) I am still to see anyone pay in avios (I know from FT some people do, but I have not seen/heard a single actual case around me);

7) I still haven't bought anything myself and certainly do not intend to, and personally, my complete/booked short haul travel on BA is down over 20% in the first three months of 2017 compared to the first three months of 2016 whilst my overall travel (including other airlines) is up.

What a joke! :td:
So potentially they can run out of one's first choice by the 2nd ET row and run out of sandwiches/bacon rolls by the 4th ET row.

Just off the afternoon LHR-MAD sector and after the trolley runs had finished I took a walk back to the toilet to see what the uptake was...pretty full flight.

Main observation was the presence of at least 8 or 9 people with likely lounge aquired crisps and cans of beer or further back it was pret sandwiches etc. I have been either doing likewise packing in a couple of cans of St Austell or on the way home 2 cans of diet coke, or buying a 65p bottle of water from Boots. I know it's not strictly allowed but I don't think BoB is the way to go so call it my protest.

The obvious solution for Gold and above is to go the AA way and offer a complementary beer/wine/soft drink. Easy to avoid any embarrassing situations by requiring a bar code swipe on the phone app. So far I bought 1 water all year.

First flight this year out of about 20 sectors where the CSD gave the welcome hello. She also offered a tea or coffee from club if I wanted it. Asked for a water and got a complementary 500ml bottle of Highland Spring.

Nice to know there is at least one frontline BA employee with a heart and soul.

AA does more than that. They offer a soft drink and pretzels to everyone. Then they come to Elite Plus and offer a drink (can be wine) and a sandwich from the menu. Had that on my last LGA-ATL. They were great and appreciated the little touch. When AA competes modernizing its cabin, I think they will also be my choice for longhaul flights to the US.

You mean Emerald, right?

Officially I think it's only Executive Platinum, however lots of other OneWorld Emerald card holders have reported being proactively offered.

That's my understanding.

Yes OneWorld Emerald. I am BA Gold and appreciated the little treat from AA. You know sort of a thank you for being a loyal OW customer. See I got to gold just strictly flying BA on Y (mostly Y, M, B, K fares) both long haul and short haul.

Sunday eve flight LHR - PRG. Bit of BOB activity going on. Bought G & T -775 avios. Quick swipe of the BAEC card. All done. Neighbor bought far more also on avios, but didnt have her card available so CC manually entered BAEC memb no from BP. CSM came by a little later to welcome me back on board; well it had been 2 days). Bit embarrassing really ( Neighbour - Oh you must be one of those gold card holders). Q a discussion on and a summary of some of the benefits of FT - another convert!

Strangely with an empty seat beside, it felt as though I had more room than up the front in 1F on the outbound flight.

I asked if they could shut the window next time as it was bit draughty in 12A!:D:D

OF