I wonder how much of this is down to commodification of long term travel and price being the only differentiator. Customers rush to book on airlines which have enhanced free seat selection from the time of booking and whilst they whine online about being charged, most cough up and deal with it. I wager the same will happen with meals, despite that as in the seat selection case, there are plenty of choices that include it in the headline cost.

Which was the airline that used to say "We never forget that you have a choice" ......?

Afraid the answer is simple.

Despite I like T5, I have sacrificed my BA Silver for *A Gold as BA is IMHO not worth the money they charge for overcrowded lounges with awful food. BoB I can't stand as well.

I am sure they still have enough BA Gold's who will fly whatever it takes but it's not my personal cup of tea anymore - so I have exchanged my BA AMEX into the MBNA Platinum Skywards card, etc.

I might come back if the reduce the prices by 30% :)

Personally, I think they ought to keep some differentiation with DY. If they are no baggage, no meals, then they have pretty much become a DY clone in Y.

However, there is room to cut the product and/or generate revenue:

1. Bring back the second light meal as BoB only and extend the BoB to routes up to 12 hours;

2. 9 p.m. and later departures could be BoB for dinner but with a decent (but cheap to deliver) breakfast option - I might not want to eat dinner on the 2135 departure LAX-LHR but once I've had my five hours' sleep (if I'm lucky) I still have four hours before the 4 p.m. landing;

3. Get rid of free alcohol - the US airlines had chargeable booze on TATLs for years although it seems to be back again. This also drives the EI buy-up model with (cheap) wine included in a relatively expensive meal.

4. Offer reduced baggage allowances with the very cheapest tickets - not sure how popular this would really be as a lot of the cheapest tickets tend to be sold to people who are travelling with the kitchen sink - backpackers, once-a-decade family reunions, etc. Baggage could be packaged with upgraded catering, etc. too - but "all you can drink" booze would be perceived as such, and abused.

You can survive a short-haul with no/insufficient catering loaded. If the catering goes wrong on long haul, it will cause significant reputational loss and possibly duty of care issues, so there needs to be a policy that everyone gets *something.*

Also, if catering is 'enhanced' away then there has to be a free option in WTP that is at least as good as the premium option in economy. The second meal in WTP, etc. therefore needs to come back.

BA under Alex Cruz is becoming a sick joke. As things stand, FR look more generous than BA on SH Y. At least they don't 'understock' their BOB!


Come on now let's be serious. Why do you think the US airlines are bringing back free booze? Because they feel they need to offer it to compete!

I will tell you right now, if BA do not offer me food for free on LH, then they will not be used. On the US routes, it is very easy to live without BA, as there is so much competition. NZ to LAX, AA to JFK, etc, and i am not even mentioning the possibility of a layover!

+1

Like why pay ££££ for BA to get the same ULCC experience as D8.


US carriers are bringing back free booze and free meals on longer domestic flights because they have realized that they've been skimping too much.


I hope this is April fools with this whole BA ULCC transformation.

Absolutely! And for those of us who don't live in the UK the choice is endless. BA will miss us, whether they think so or not!

It is slightly amusing when you see how the US carriers have started to reintroduce snacks and decent meals but BA is heading in completely the opposite direction. Totally behind the curve!

I'd want to see Cruz go on undercover boss within BA...

Usually the CEO's will acknowledge the issues from an employee standpoint but I'd bet Cruz would still claim everything is going better than ever.

I said EXACTLY THIS. The moment they introduced a two finger Kit Kat as the second meal in Y, I knew they were intending to enhance a long haul BoB. Screw you Cruz, there are better options nowadays.

I think the two fingers were representative of something! :D

Mark my words, the days of free booze in LH Y are numbered. 12-24 months max. I have a feeling they will offer one free drink to silver and golds to help contain some of the backlash.

Food will possibly go the same way as short haul, removing and reducing meal options now allows them to give the same argument as they did for SH.

My (ever so slightly educated) guess is that they will not remove free food from LH, but will add a BoB M&S option to flights at the same time as further reducing the free options, think along the lines of heated panini, served in a pocket, not tray with salad/dessert. Hence, they are still "full service" but in reality the free option is so small/limited that you will want to buy an M&S sandwich to get you through a flight to the West Coast. To be fair, I think that if I were on a long haul in Y and was hungry the option to buy a sandwich or snack would be welcome.

Now we wait for BA to charge for meals in First and Club using the "Choice and quality" argument...

My educated and informed guess is that genuinely no decision has been made. That's in the context of the various announcements already made, such as trying to expand the pre paid meals, onboard upselling and reviewing the second short service (East Coast) in the light of competitor positioning. The latter could be good news.

If there was a development in this area, my uninformed guess is that as mentioned by Prospero, it will be like Level. So a food free, baggage free, unreserved seat fare, purely for the bulk comparison scrape websites. As soon as you add a bag, your meal will get included. I actually doubt that many people paid just 99€ to get to LAX and not a centime more.

I would happily pay €99 to LAX and nothing beyond that ;)
I could even just about survive a middle seat at that price!

So that is one cabin bag, no checked baggage, no lounge even with status, no Fast Track or priority boarding, no Wi-Fi, no IFE, no food, no drink, no seat selection, rear row of an aircraft filled with very special millenians. But you do get some IB+ Avios. In which case, why not book a ticket and give it a go? I am sure people would read your review.