BAAZ

On last night's 955 back from MUC, we were a full cabin in CE (12 pax in 3 rows). I overheard the gate agent apologising to one of the pax that he wouldn't have a meal because he had booked at the last minute. On board it turned out they had only loaded 9 meals in total. For 12 pax. And we are supposed to have a choice between the salad and the other option; if you're going to offer a choice you have to load more meals than pax, not fewer!

Then the poor purser had to explain to one of the uncatered-for people could, if he wanted to, buy something from the ET food trolley. He not unreasonably pointed out that he had paid over Ł500 for his single-sector ticket and that perhaps he deserved to be provided with some food, but she said she didn't have the authority to fetch something from the ET trolley for him.

Come on BA, you can do better than this. Give your staff some discretion!

Hoch

I agree that is really poor form. I am sure that the guidance sets out a clear policy, but in this instance more flexibility should have been exercised.

Then again, the BOB probably cost more than the CE meal

H

nufnuf77

Several issues here:
Crew not empowered to make things right;
Catering always loaded at or below pax numbers;
Ba website does not mention lack of catering if booked within 24 hours

Petrus

Ironic isn't it. Those paying the most yielding more profits get stifled. Great business idea.

corporate-wage-slave

The incorrect provision of food at LHR for the return from MUC is the sort of mistake that's happened since aviation began, though one would hope that technology (etc) should make this an increasingly rare event. I certainly think the cabin crew should be allowed in that situation to allocate some M&S food to CE passengers, unless (for the late passenger) they knew that there would be no food catering when they accepted the booking or rebooking. Usually what happens is that the combination of some passengers not wanting their food and reallocating food around the trays means that the cabin crew can muddle through, though missing 2 trays out of 11 makes this very tricky.

BA prefers to pay 2k to 5k Avios compensation to those who complain about not getting CE catering rather than any other course of action, and that level of Avios is a fair level in my view. Moreover since Avios can be used to purchase BoB food then it's probably worth bearing in mind that if it happens to anyone on this forum then there is a reasonably easy solution. The hot mozzarella focaccia sandwich is 625 Avios for example, and there shouldn't be a problem with drink provision. For those who don't collect Avios then the best solution would be to charge the credit card and send in the bill to BA, it's unlikely BA would challenge a reasonable invoice.

ahmetdouas

CWS what would happen if you ask for a refund from the credit card company on the plane ticket that you booked lets say with an AMEX card, given that BA breached their terms and conditions by not providing a meal on a CE flight?

lost_in_translation

Same conversation was had on my BRU-LHR last week, albeit it was 5 meals for 6 people.

corporate-wage-slave

My first thought is that would be unnecessarily messy, since I would expect BA to either offer Avios or repay the credit card bill without too much hassle. So it wouldn't be how I would start to handle this, given that a quick call to the Newcastle contact centre should resolve this. However in essence you are correct that this is within the ambit of Section 75 or Chargeback, so it is one way to get remediation, plus there is a free of charge escalation process to the Financial Services Ombudsman. [It's not a breach of T&Cs, but BA would not be providing the service that would have expected when booking a business class ticket]

ahmetdouas

I thought about it being the quickest way, because with Amex good service, I wouldn't have to pay to call the BA Blue line and wait for a long time and pay money for the call, or e-mail BA and wait weeks for a response!

Tobias-UK

To add to what CWS has said, you would only be entitled to compensation for missing service not a refund of the ticket. Buy from the BoB using the same credit card used to purchase the ticket and seek a refund from BA for the cost of the food items purchased. If BA refuse to refund the cost of the food items then approach the credit card company and seek compensation under S75.

Egoldstein

I would somewhat disagree with the assessment above. One of the issues that is causing this to recur, is BA's policy to cater CE meals only to the exact number and also to do 2-way catering from LON on most routes. As I mentioned in a previous thread, this leaves the service vulnerable to mishaps. Having a way to address this, either through the CSD empowered for BOB or picking up emergency catering at the outstation would go some ways to addressing this.

I disagree that paying some Avios is adequate compensation. While it might give sufficient Avios to purchase items (provided there is stock available), there should be a "compensatory" notion embedded, as the service was not what was marketed. Hence, the reason that most service companies offer an additional gesture of apology or discount.

I think BA needs to be careful as it continues its cost cutting ways, as a number of passengers remain loyal with them (as expressed by some of my colleagues) because the LCCs and some non-European carriers are acknowledged to have good standard products, but are perceived to be poor in service recovery. If BA passengers weather a poor service recovery experience, it may tip overall perceptions.

corporate-wage-slave

You wouldn't be calling the Blue line however: you would be calling the Customer Relations "for bookings that you have already travelled on", and though you may be waiting a few minutes in the queue, I doubt it would be a long time if done during UK office hours (09:00 to 18:15hrs). Moreover that call is local rate at least within the UK, if you use the correct number.

YacozA

Continental Airlines in the Robert Six days allegedly had on the bottom of each page of the employee handbook
'Under no circumstance should what is written here supercede common-sense'

Scots_Al

You would essentially be seeking to terminate your contract with BA. In order to do so, you would have to demonstrate that BA's failure to provide you with a salad constitutes a material breach of contract (a condition in English law), giving rights of termination. Without even looking at the contract you agreed to, I think the man on the Clapham Omnibus would say that fundamentally you had a contract for transportation from A to B - that is the basic condition of the contract; providing a salad en route is a warranty at best, and whilst it might be reasonable to seek some sort of remedy for the failure to deliver you that salad, it would not be reasonable to terminate the contract on that basis.

Further, if you were the pax who was informed of this before departure, and you decided to travel regardless, then by your actions you will have demonstrated that you were content not to terminate the contract.

Tobias-UK

That is an absolute non-starter.