ClimbingCook

Having been served something that was supposed to be food in Club Europe on the LHR-ATH route over the weekend, I'd say you're better off without the meal.

ahmetdouas

simons1 it's not the cost of the meal that's the issue, its the fact that you don't eat for over 4 hours on a plane that's the issue!

Can I help you

I would be interested to hear what was the OP expecting from the CE product?

lost_in_translation

Intra-Europe business class is what it is - the onboard product is generally inferior to US domestic F but the ground product is better.

For future reference AA operates a direct flight PHL-ATH on an A330 during the summer; this is probably your best bet if you can get it.

JAXBA

Not entirely sure how, possibly by sheer luck. It simply isn't possible for a special meal to be booked within 24hrs - you may have somehow ended up with someone else's special meal, in which case good for you. Normally there will be no special meal in this situation; expectations should be set accordingly.

LTN Phobia

I'd like to see a BA Club Europe seat that is similar to domestic First class on JAL but none of the EU carriers offer anything remotely similar.

The EU business class 'norm' is basically the normal Y seat with blocked middle seat. If you look at Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France, Finnair etc., you'll realise this is what the business class is for intra-EU flights, with the exception of some flights which happen to be operated on long haul aircraft.

If you want to avoid those flights, you'd need to fly with non-EU carriers (in which case you'd have got no compensation for the delay on a flight to an EU member state).

EuropeanPete

Trust us that you would have been even angrier if you'd gotten one of the newer planes. Think of the non-MCE part of Economy on AA short-haul, but then reduce legroom and then make the seats less comfortable. Welcome to modern CE. As others have said though, that is what is in the market in Europe (unless you can fly Air Serbia).

South London Bon Viveur

Different seating comes with a higher prices and might make achieving status more difficult for many. I'm happy with the present concept, although the seating could be roomier at the front, like it used to be. I think the medium band meal service needs to be overhauled- then things will be looking up. CE is competitive with other European J products, and often better priced.

albpenny

i was rebooked on the last CE seat on a completely full flight and was the first to be served with a meal ("ah Ms albpenny, i believe you ordered a special meal") so it wasn't anyone else's. I hadn't expected a special meal for the reasons you suggest and actually didn't have it because i'd eaten in the lounge, but nonetheless it is possible, whatever the "normal" situation is.

EDDLEGLL

I agree with c-w-s; also in Australia (where Qantas operates a fixed 2-2 business class on their SH fleet), tickets for domestic business class are quite a bit more expensive (almost prohibitively expensive) I find.


I don't find the flexible European model too bad.

hakadaddy

No offense but I flew SWISS on a similar leg - ZRH/ATH and it was anything but the same. Seats newer. Seats reclined. Special Meal Loaded. Clearly not the same level of service other than the weird nobody sits next to you approach. Agree to disagree.

hakadaddy

This was our first experience of BA Club World. The transatlantic was OK in the 744 but not wonderful when compared to other OW carriers like QR & QF. BA did not offer a mixed class of service fare on the route so did not have the option of faring that way. BA CW is definitely not business class worthy hence my complaint to their management team.

hakadaddy

I was unaware of the booking reference but I wanted to be transparent. No big deal but I will abide by the form rules. The 763s might be getting ready to be retired but they are IMHO nasty. They are not even in the fleets of what I would consider other competing carriers like AY, QF, QR etc. Special meals were ordered 30 days out due to medical condition. When they rebooked us they knew there was a special meal need. Indeed as we boarded the in flight supervisor came and told us that they were not going to be able to load it. There was a 5 hour gap between original and rebooked flight in terms of time of departure AND they made the decision to rebook during our transatlantic flight; BA294 so they had an additional 6-7 hours notice on top of that. When we went to the PAX service area they said our special meals would be loaded - we specifically asked because of my daughter's needs. As far as quality of service in Business see my reply on SWISS that we used previously. Had we been able to fare that and be competitive I would have done that. I hardly think that is my lack of research.

I am an AA Executive Platinum with 130K miles last year on AA/OW metal last year alone. The issue of delay is separate from the horrific experience on the 763 flight. I mentioned it so that I gave a full picture of what went on. Initially there was some dispute w/ BA as to nature of delay but that apparently has been overcome. Had BA followed through on what they were supposed to perhaps this would not have been the issue it now is. I am irritated because the employees acknowledge the issue and thus far they all stand around and just shrug their shoulders. AA may well have its issues but it is light years ahead of BA and that's saying something. Perhaps my experiences w/ BA in prior years when service, equipment, customer orientation were important were no longer valid.

There won't be a next time on BA if there are ANY other options.

hakadaddy

600 Euro was for the misconnection NOT the problem with the LHR/ATH flights. Those are the rules that they put into play in Europe. We did not come up with them. Even if the LHR/ATH flights had been wonderful we would still be entitled to the compensation under Regulation 261/2004.

simons1

I would describe that as first world problems. Many people in the working day go 4 hours without food. OK so there may be some added time at each end but there are also lounges for business class passengers.

Annoying I can imagine but hardly the end of the world and if you are saying the OP should expect compensation for that then apart from a handful of Avios I'm afraid you are out of touch with reality.