Another Mediocre CE Flight
 

Hey folks,

Another not so nice CE experience this morning.

BHD-LHR (departure 0930), flight time only 50 minutes due to strong tail winds. 6 rows of CE. 2 cabin crew working in CE. Cabin crew started slowly with drinks service, individually served from the galley. Didn’t get a meal until past Manchester (row 1!) when we had already started our descent. It was a “brunch” flight but cabin crew asked whether I wanted breakfast. I was surprised and confused and asked what was on offer and the answer was “we have ten minutes to landing, sir” :confused:. No bread offered either because there was no time. Shambles. :td:

Overheard a conversation as well and apparently there was an issue with the payment machine in ET for BoB.

Why in God's name they thought they should do a drinks service first is beyond me (especially on a flight of such a short length). Hope you managed to wolf down whatever you got in time and weren't left with too much indigestion!

I don't understand it either. I appreciate that the crews are very busy on such flights but with some preparation this could have been avoided. By the way: They started heating the ovens when above the Isle of Man, whereas on other flights they do it even before takeoff!

Poor show :td:

Do complain, BA need to know about this.

Breakfast is sometimes available on so called brunch domestic flights if the LHR-BHD sector before it was before 09:30 hrs. They often have a few trays left and are happy to give people the third choice. But in reality I think you were being offered the domestic "extended breakfast" of the past namely this (which isn't my idea of breakfast but that is how some crew describe it):

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...924/m1yUqp.jpg

Personally I'm not sure I would have noticed Manchester as being late into the cruise from BHD, they sometimes have to back around the Irish Sea a bit before they get settled, and at that time of the day the crew will be wanting the seat belt signs off so they can serve tea and coffee.

Still, they shouldn't have greeted any indecision with "ten minutes to landing", not least since over Cheshire (?) it wouldn't be true. Plus it's somewhat lacking in customer service skills.

Drinks rounds are good to have on Domestics provided there is the time and the crew really know what they are doing, but I agree on morning flights it's probably best to do a single tray and hot drink offering.

Why people persist with the very poor short band CE product is beyond me. The exit row in ET are the best seats on the aircraft (A320 family), and as a Gold 9 times out of 10 you get the middle seat blocked (thanks TS!) :)

Surely a system of one crew member does drinks then the other one does food would work better ? Crew really need to come on with their game face on for theses flights. BA/Comair crew on the JNB-DUR sector are like ninja's , even they have a more elaborate club service offering to serve.

Ah, ok. But it wasn't the case on this particular flight. I think the cabin crew used the term breakfast as in 'meal'.

This was my meal:

https://s19.postimg.cc/obz3vq3o3/Full_Size_Render.jpg

Agreed. I think we had left the cruising altitude for about 2-3 minutes when I was served, so probably at about FL300.

After so many mediocre flights, I tend to agree with you now, and nearly all of my upcoming flights are actually in ET. Still, it doesn't really matter, as I or anyone else could have been on this flight connecting to longhaul.

I’m not sure TS blocks exit row seats (could be wrong?), but otherwise agreed!

It absolutely certainly does :)

Let me start by saying that I don't know what was going on behind the scenes...

On a short, busy sector such as the one described above I would be out in the cabin pretty quickly after wheels-up and delivering the service from a trolley - combining drinks with the brunch service. I certainly wouldn't be delivering the service by hand with 6 rows of CE...a recipe for potentially running out of time and having to rush to finish on such a short sector.

What you have described is not in line with the Service Standards for this sector. The response you received from the crew is also unacceptable .

Complain. The SCCM will get an email and they will then have to explain their actions (there could be a good reason, who knows - perhaps the equipment/trolley was defective). If not, they will be reminded of what they should have done...

What I find strange is that less than 48 hours separates those two meals, albeit mine was NCL, and yet the content is somewhat different. Mine was the shorter flight too.

I've never been gold (and, irritatingly but not unexpectedly, have just been demoted to bronze!) but one of the nice things about being silver and booking an emergency exit seat on my BSL-LHR flights is that I often get a goldie sitting in the same section, so I get to leech off their empty middle seat. Thanks goldies!

Yes it does, but if you are a Goldie and facing only middle seats since everything else has gone, which row are you going to go for? And if you have been irrop'd at the airport, regardless of status, or you have simply sweet talked the ground staff, then the middle seat in exit rows is prone to being captured. Still, one would go for the exit rows if long legged, if you are nearer average height and actually prefer the empty seat next to you, you best go down the back a bit. A321s are different, since they have 2 sets of ET exit rows, and the back one isn't so popular, so you're almost always going to get an empty middle seat there.