Do we know if the hot sandwich or salad are actually coming from the BOB selection? That wouldn't surprise me at all.

Following extensive customer research and feedback, British Airways have decided to enhance the choice of two hot main courses on OPO MAD BIO BCN PMI NCE MXP LIN VCE VRN SZG ZAG VIE PRG CPH GOT OSL etc.

Welcome to the new Club Toastie!

https://greggs.scdn4.secure.raxcdn.c...oastie_615.jpg

The proof will be in the eating, or not eating, if some of the above predictions are correct.

As usual, we should 'feed'back (:D) our comments (sorry) probably complaints using the usual channels.

While this may not be effective, we should not hesitate to make our feelings known, with positive comments, where justified. :)

There are some positives as lots of flights have moved to this new LONG group that no longer get Brunch and afternoon tea, like LIS, ARN, WAW, HEL and FCO etc. There are many more and they now will always get a hot meal.

A few of the shorter Band 3 flights are now in the Medium group and they will no longer get a hot meal. They will though get wine and champagne from the larger bottles.

Almost all flights, Short, Medium and Long now get a choice, so that is an enhancement. (LBA and MAN being the exception, I think).

Afternoon tea does lose the scones but for those who don't like sandwiches, there is a very nice ploughmans offering, so again, that is good.

New larger mugs for tea and coffee (same as CW) infact all the crokery is now the same as the new CW crokery.

Shame the BA Site is yet to provide the correct info...

For lunch and dinner you can choose between a fresh salad and a hot sandwich (on flights within the UK) or a tasty hot meal accompanied by warm bread and a full bar service (on flights within Europe).

Its not all bad as you say but unless these toasties are amazing, I think that's a pretty poor dinner offer for Medium flights. Less phased about lunch.

That said, I've often not liked the dinner service given that its a heavy main plus cheese and desert with no salad, etc. So the entree salad option at dinner on more flights is a plus for some.

Personally, I would be quite happy with some Greggs pasties or sausage rolls. Better still, how about a nice stottie with ham and pease pudding?

The one I saw looked quite substantial. It was not like a toastie. I'm not sure what the filling was but it looked like a large rectangle roll filled with pulled pork, but I never asked what the filling was, so I may be mistaken.

The new service starts this Sunday 26th with Donestics following on 1st April, so only two days until you can see for yourselves.

So based on the further details above, my list of the winners and losers are as follow from biggest winner to biggest loser:

1) Biggest winner: UK domestics: move from nothing to Club Europe. In practice, breakfast is really about getting in CE what all pax used to get (full breakfast on longer UK flights, bacon buttie on shorter ones) but meal the rest of the day will be a benefit.

2) Other clear winner: Longer half of band 3 flights: those effectively being upgraded to band 4 status so no more brunch or afternoon tea!

3) Marginal winner: Band 4: cosmetic improvements on crockery, china, etc supposedly better wine.

4) Mixed bag: Band 1 and 2 are least affected. Now they can get a 'hot sandwich' instead of their main course salad on "lunch" and "dinner" flights, but conversely they lose scones on afternoon tea. The service is effectively an 'all day snack' with variations (hot sandwich at 'meal' times or cold finger sandwiches in the afternoon). they also seem to lose the cold plate option on breakfast flights from the website description.

5) Biggest loser: Shorter half of band 3 flights: based on what Petrus and Littlegirl mention, seems downgraded from full meals for lunch and dinner (which arguably currently are the best C/J food BA has to offer, better than CW mains IMHO) to 'all day snacking' with salad or sandwich be it hot (meal times) or cold (afternoon tea). Brunch remains the same, not clear if the panini is making a return as an alternative to the cold cut plate? Cold breakfast option does not seem to remain. So yes, some choice in bits like the salad instead of sandwiches for tea (but tough on the scone lovers, although I personally do not mind that loss at all) but to me the loss of proper lunch and dinner outweighs this significantly.

If I hear anyone lamenting Afternoon Tea, I will come down there with my hairbrush. Never has any meal presentation attracted so many moans here. I did not disagree with this, but it looks to me as though this overhaul is way overdue. My own thoughts are that an exception should have been made in the case of Madrid, Barcelona, and Milan. There is a lot of Business Traffic on here - and this may be rather unwise. I do not fly these often so I have no axe to grind. This overhaul was long overdue.

What I am wondering is - at the moment on Band 3 and 4 - drinks are supposed to be served before the meal. What are the new arrangements?

Very true, but now for most people it will be the exact same albeit minus the scones. Personally I prefer a salad so I get a marginal improvement on that specific meal but I expect to be in a minority on that.

Just to add, those flights in the Long group get a starter now too.

Good point.

Although flight time is a key determinant, it would seem sensible for important routes, such as business heavy and likely to have passengers paying more for CE, to have better catering, especially if the competition is meaningful. Of course, this is no real competition on two of the routes you mention.

In all this seems like an actual improvement to me and a very welcome one at that! I'm especially excited about many of the longer band 3 flights getting actual food instead of the god awful "extended breakfast" and "afternoon tea".

Perhaps we can hope for something slightly more British.

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