Flexible preferences

Fair enough re staleness - but the scone isn't a CCR offering! You are applying your expectations of CCR standards to a product from a different lounge, which they were happy to source for you despite not being on the menu. Another way of looking at this is the excellent service that the staff provided in seeking to please you by accommodating your request to have an afternoon tea which isn't a CCR offering. What's the expression? Don't look a gift horse-lamp in the mouth

rossmacd

Whilst we know the CCRs are not the "epitome of elegance" (Source: BA.com) that BA try to market, but overall the food provisions are not bad, just lacking in variety for those that are there more than once a month. Whilst I may only visit 2 or 3 times per month personally, the repetition does get a little tiresome. On the other hand, show me a dedicated First lounge anywhere that doesn't suffer the same issue (and this is including the LH FCT, LX ZRH E, QF LAX etc etc).

The starters, for me, are basic, and the stuffed peppers are poor (think they've been on the menu twice now). On the other hand, the tomato and burrata started served I think in JFK during July was truly excellent ^. Fish based starters for me are not my thing really (personal taste) but I do recognise that the fish/seafood platter has been popular.

Mains generally are wholesome and of a decent quality that. I do like the Sunday Roast option - it shows that BA are trying to be varied in their menu, so I did appreciate the attempt (even if the gravy I was served on its launch day was cold ). The lamb triangles they served last month were poor in my opinion, but then again got decent reviews here.

Deserts are the strong point of the CCRs, and the ice cream they serve is of good quality (and let's just say I know a thing or two about ice cream). The varied takes on different styled deserts are generally very satisfying.

What I'm saying is, a lot of it comes down to personal tastes. Some people want/expect fine dining, others who may have been on the go for 20+ hours just want some comfort and peace. I appreciate that BA cannot cater for everyone here, especially due to the size of their F cabins/density versus other carriers.

Overall, I'm just glad I don't have to go into the school dinners canteen that is the GF, with suits striding up and down bellowing into their mobile phones. The CCR is a solid lounge, and provided you go in with expectations that you will not be dining 3*, but a filling meal in a timely fashion, then it meets the job. The staff are usually good, but I do not enjoy my time in the LHR CCR when there is one specific supervisor on duty since he is directing the traffic, so to speak, and the staff get pushed and pulled in different directions (regulars will know what I mean) and the service gets somewhat disjointed. Other times, it can be calm and natural.

AnaTravel

It is a CCR offering whether it is on the menu or not. BA tell people that afternoon tea is available in the CCR. They have done so as long as I have used the CCR. I've ordered it only once and got the toasted stale scone with dried up sandwich fingers that I mentioned. A gift horse-lamp would have bolted at the sight of it.

I was fond of the CCR. The changes over the last years have not impressed. If it improves, I'll be the first to offer praise. I've read some points I agree with in the above posts. Some I don't. I don't have high or unrealistic expectations. The things I would like corrected are very basic.

orbitmic

Well, no, that analogy does not work. My point was precisely that their restaurant does not do scones so all they offer is the convenience to source it from another restaurant! So here, your room service menu - if that is the analogy you want to use, is merely offering to get you scones from the next door hotel if you want.

You say that BA tells customers that they offer afternoon in the lounge, but if they do, I do not know where. I have never seen BA advertise that. A few of us know that BA will source tea from the F lounge if you ask (fat chance that I ever would but that is another matter!) but to my knowledge this is not publicised/advertised and certainly not well known, and it is just that - the convenience of getting you something from other lounges if you want. The same was true by the way of ice cream before it became official on the F menu.



Yes, the burger and the club sandwich have been here for years. Not that I order the burger more than once a year at most myself as I am not a sandwich person, but I suspect that those are the two most popular items of the whole menu. Somehow, a lounge is also about offering diversity to frequent customers like us whilst maintaining some staple offerings for those who are a lot more occasional. A few years ago, the QF F lounge tried to replace the club sandwich on its menu at SYD/MEL and there was the closest thing to a revolution in Australia. However, there is always at least one further sandwichwrap option (the wrap you mention now but there were others before, they change every 2 months).



Actually, I personally think that it was worse pre-changes but that may just be me.

orbitmic

It is very convenient! As others said, it is just pre-prepared elsewhere, and the CCR barely reheats it. Lazy. By contrast, they have to cook the steak and I much prefer that!

orbitmic

That's the one part of your post I don't entirely agree with. I think that the QF SYD/MEL lounges have menus which, whilst they stay longer (3 months) vary a bit more with fewer dishes being recycled over and again (bar their "classics" - club sandwich, salt and pepper squid, seasonal fruit plate, and pavlova in a glass) - admittedly less so at the LAX lounge. They also have daily specials which the BA lounge does not. Same with AF P lounge menus which are a lot more seasonal and also have specials that change all the time. In the AF lounge, everything is also cooked from scratch. It is - for all practical purposes - an actual restaurant so you can go off menu a lot more easily (but again I think it is not a 'fair' point of comparison. It's almost too good to be compared!!!)

AnaTravel

No, your analogy fails again. The First Lounge is next door to the CCR. It is not another hotel or a separate entity like McDonalds (the comparison you used). It is more like ordering something in a hotel from an adjacent restaurant (or room service). British Airways, as others here know, don't do everything strictly by the menu. You can go 'off-piste' as some have mentioned. Just because you have not been aware that you can request afternoon tea in the CCR doesn't mean it does not exist. Just because they might use the same scones as the ones in the First Lounge does not mean that it is not a CCR offering. Do you think there is no crossover on other items? There are accounts online of people having afternoon tea in the CCR going back years. Afternoon tea is also advertised as being part of he CCR offering:

"The Concorde Bar serves complimentary champagne and wines, as well as freshly ground coffee and afternoon tea."

https://www.loungebuddy.co.uk/LHR/br...uth-XJ1g7FhXMW

You can continue labouring a moot point but the fact is that the CCR does serve afternoon tea on request and has always done since I have been using it. I have heard others request afternoon tea and receive it without question. From a customer point of view, it doesn't matter where it is sourced from. It is a CCR offering and should be of a decent standard, not stale.

KARFA

orbitmic is correct, BA don't advertise the CCR as offering afternoon tea - it isn't on any of the menus. I am not sure a third party site is really something to cite to try and prove the opposite and it doesn't seem accurate anyway- what is "The Concorde Bar"?

Whilst you can post your opinion (and have done so several times now) on whether what you were served was up to standard a year ago, let's not get stuck arguing over something that is clearly isn't correct.

Flexible preferences

But that isn't a BA quote.

The CCR may serve afternoon tea, but that doesn't mean it is a CCR offering. I know of no menu, or BA marketing material, where the afternoon tea is offered as a CCR choice.

By your analogy, every product in the F and Galleries lounges would need to be up to your CCR standards for it to be acceptable, as every such product is available on request in the CCR. That seems unrealistic to me, and overly harsh an expectation.

Edited to add: crossed with KARFA

rossmacd

AnaTravel

I didn't claim it was a British Airways quote, did I? Not only that, I supplied the link showing the source. What I m saying, whether you know it or not, is that afternoon tea is supplied by British Airways in the CCR, on request. I didn't say it was on the menu, did I? Does that mean, according to your logic, that British Airways caterers have no responsibility for what they serve, if an item is shared across food outlets? Why do I care, as a customer, where the scone was sourced from? All i care about is that it is fresh and edible.

Does that mean the caterers should deliver stale food in the CCR? Of course not. Your arguments are pedantic on this issue. Why? I don't agree that the CCR offerings across the board are better now. I think the food is mediocre and the entire concept doesn't meet the needs of modern travellers. Mediocre, I expect with British Airways First Class. Stale food, no. I can agree to differ on opinion here. Can you?

Rubecula

Any scone which was fresh when this discussion started would be stale by now.

madfish

orbitmic

Mice. A few months ago, I did see two of them together in what looked like some romantic rodent stroll...

Flexible preferences

Awww - mice love