DreamTrip

Anyone know if service on westbound flights start back to front and eastbound front to back on A380?

Can I help you

All flights on all aircraft start front to back, the only exception is the upper deck on the B744 which is back to front.

spikegall

Mrs. Spike and I thoroughly enjoyed the meals on our recent flight from LHR to PHL. This was our first flight on the upper deck of a 747 (63 A and B), and we found the entire experience close to the level of F on our original flight from PHL to LHR. We stored all the White bedding, other than the pillow, in the side storage compartments (I love those), as we both find the cabin plenty warm. We are not frequent flyers, but usually fly business or first, and we found the lunch as good as we have ever experienced. We liked the trolley displaying all the choices for starters and desserts. This was also a first for us after several Club World flights. The Braised British Beef was simply the best prepared, best tasting beef we have ever had on a flight, The dessert of chocolate, butterscotch, and almond sponge pudding with creme anglaise was heavenly. Again, we cannot recall ever having better. Afternoon Tea was just as always, but we like the BA tea, so no complaints there. All in all, one of our most enjoyable flights. Delicious food, professional cabin crew, storage space galore. What's not to like?

Oaxaca

Can I help you

Only with the trolley do they start at the back, without the trolley they could do either but officially it should be back to front.

BerksFlyer

KARFA

I hadn’t the trolley on mine. Service was back to front on UD (i.e. start at 64).

Spongthrush

Our first experience of NCW catering and bedding on BA268 a couple of days ago. BA's PR department understand that it's best to under-promise and over-deliver, right? Or surprise and delight? As promised by the large new menu, it was a new experience.

Nice to find the large bedding pack. Where to store it when the overhead bins on the upper deck aren't over-large is a minor problem. Then we were greeted, just like on Qatar, with a friendly welcome. My name is 'xxxx and I'll be serving you today'. Nice attempt. She wasn't built in the Qatar 'droid hostie' factory and the words came out ok, but one has to feel for young staff who clearly have not been trained to give excellent, genuine, oozing empathy service. Maybe they've never received it - as I hadn't at their age - but that is what training is for.

Drinks arrived. Note, this is before a sip had been taken and the champagne was equally sized (two sips and it's gone). The new glassware is larger than the old version. But....




Catering: when asked for her choice of main, my wife asked if she could have a salad. 'Oh yes, each tray comes with salad, we call that the express menu'.

This arrived. This may be 'mixed baby greens, shaved fennel, celery, roasted tomatoes, creamy ranch dressing' but it was the size that Hammy the Hamster would expect.



My beef main dish was OK. I just wish it was called beef and spuds rather than pan-roasted fillet of beef and petite heirloom potato. This is not The Ivy. Do the experts that BA engaged to enhance our dining experience not understand that aircraft ovens will destroy fine dining ingredients? By comparison, American Airlines food is no nonsense, a bit like some of their cabin crew, e.g. the sundaes and you seem to get a decent size salad. Maybe I am just not worthy of J and should go back to Y!

As far as the new glassware is concerned, did anyone test what is actually likely to happen during a real flight? My server cleared my meal tray by taking my glass of wine off the tray and putting it directly on the meal tray (the one that comes out of the seat) before taking the used tray away. 1 min later, the glass had vibrated itself into my lap. The A380 seat tray surface is fairly smooth and the enhanced wine tumbler very lightweight (=higher quality I'm sure they'd say). On Qatar I've always been fascinated how diligent they are about making sure every glass has a paper coaster underneath. Now I know why! BA have presumably enhanced these away, or maybe they have not trained staff to only put a glass on a paper coaster. As a result, 14 hours later I arrived in Cairo (no change of clothes) looking and smelling rather odd. I did suggest that the seat cover would need changing but this fell on deaf ears, but I did receive some green paper towels to mop up what I could.

The new bedding looked nice, but I probably needed a blanket of ice as the cabin was so hot there was no way to use the duvet/blanket. And the mattress protector was covered in wine so that was in the bin already.

Globaliser

At home, the new Club eyeshades have proved to be a hit. They're big enough to really keep out the light, and apparently they're very comfortable.

Geordie405

My most recent experience of the new CW experience was on Friday 4th May on BA290 PHX - LHR. I was the lucky recipient of an OpUp so ended up in 63J upstairs. We had the new menu, the new White Company bedding, the new amenity kit etc. The crew took orders for both starters and mains in the old fashioned way. There was no trolley. According to the CSD this was because PHX had supplied the wrong sized trays and therefore they wouldn't fit in the trolley. He was also rather forceful in his view that people simply want to eat and drink, that the new service is too slow, that no restaurant would ever showcase its starters on a trolley, that it may work for Turkish Airlines (from whom BA copied the concept apparently) but that they have more staff. He was also of the view that the only person who was bothered about the lack of the trolley was me, and that was because I was a frequent flyer, and knew more than most about what the service should entail. The corollary of that of course is that for the majority of fliers is that you could do the service any old way and no one would know any better!

In terms of the food, I had the soup (again) and this time it was a lot warmer. Still not piping hot but adequately so. I also had the pasta which was very nice. I skipped dessert. No breakfast cards were handed out (and according to the CSD they have changed format and don't allow people to actually specify what they want, but not having seem them I can't comment) but the breakfast service was slick and the full English was very nice.

I was actually frustrated to the point of being annoyed by the constant passing of the tray for the passenger in 63K through the divider. The female CC always lowered the divider whereas the male CC didn't. He passed the tray etc. around the side instead. The divider method is the service standard apparently. Usually I am travelling with Mrs G405 and so it's less of an issue for me as I'm usually in 64K.

All in all it was a good flight. The CSD was pretty forthright in his comments but I felt what he said was fair and balanced. Speaking with the male CC during breakfast I had to reassure him that I hadn't complained to the CSD about the service but that I was simply surprised at the lack of the trolley. It was simply more a case of managing expectations!

Can I help you

In my opinion what this CSD said was correct and most cabin crew agree, breakfast cards are being reprinted with the choice of a hot breakfast being removed from the card, the hot options will be offered after all the trays have been delivered.

botham

No tray was delivered to me, despite ordering the onboard breakfast. I expected some fruit or cereal and pastries. I was totally shocked not to receive any food.

sxc

What is the point of the card if you can’t choose what you want? I thought it was tonindicate whether to be waken earlier for a fuller service or not.

corporate-wage-slave

Something went wrong here, this is precisely what is supposed to happen - there are options about what to eat and when you want it. The breakfast card is shown at the top of the thread. It appears to be too complicated for some travellers, I've seen a collection of 30 of them and only about 10 of them were clearly correct, the others seemed to have some error on it. Most typically not ticking the side boxes. One person ticked milk (but not tea or coffee) , the cabin crew spotted this before he slept and asked if he really wanted a glass of milk for brreakfast and nothing else (some NL passengers do exactly this) - the passenger was horrified at that, he actually wanted black coffee.

Anyway the card is being redesigned to make it suitably simple for us CW travellers.

Ldnn1

A good idea. I spent a good while deciphering it a few weeks ago. I think I answered correctly in the end but was docked marks for failing to show my workings.