Nicoolio

Personally, I would never do it -- but it made me wonder --

A few years ago BA execs were saying they cut back on food loading - it might have been in reference to Club Kitchen - to cut back on food waste - apparently there was a lot.

Does the cabin crew in F make a report/record on what was ordered by pax, and how many pax are refused their first choice so BA will have a better idea on what 'sells' and can plan better in the future?

710 77345

Not the easiest thing to do in a cabin of two couples, and the first couple that's been asked for their order has been told 'OK'.

Can I help you

Can I help you

1010101

BA fly over half a million F seats each year. What some of our more frequent BAEC members forget is their 100 or so (being generous) F flights a year make them barely more qualified to judge the overall state of the cabin than the once a year Avios 2-4-1 passenger. They both see a tiny percentage of the overall flights.

Back to the thread, in my experience both sides have been true. I've had some very good flights and some very bad flights. Most have been about middle of the road. They make a decent representation of the BA product. However, relative to the other carriers i fly i really struggle to see how anyone can argue it is anything other than poor. For me it all comes down to the measuring stick you use.

DYKWIA

I maybe mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that this didn't used to happen in F? In J, all the orders would be taken, and then prioritised as necessary. In F, it was first come first served. Did this change when the the F food loadings were reduced?

xenole

It's a case of first impressions for a lot of people especially if F is generally something not deemed affordable or if you haven't a company paying for it.
If I've spent say £3k on a F flight to JFK and set my bar at a level that most of us would consider to be a first class experience with a price tag to boot, then anything less will disappoint and leave me with a negative opinion. I'll probably not repeat as well.

There are those here who know what to expect so don't expect the red carpet treatment, 5* food and being waited upon hand and foot, or suchlike.
But for someone not in the know who reads the blurbs on the website about fine dining etc. and sees rich people living a luxurious first class lifestyle, it's not hard to find many faults in what is presented.
It's like going to a fancy Michelin starred restaurant and paying £200 for someone to walk around with a bucket of gruel and slop it onto your plate - reality doesn't live up to expectations.

Well, maybe not that bad but as I've said before, a bad first impression is hard to change and you notice more and more faults which detracts even more from your expectations.

Even my last CX F flight wasn't quite as good as previous flights. Few things changed and left me not as enthusiastic as other times and/or my excitement for it wasn't maintained.
As nice as it was, I may look at other options should I be taking similar routings.

EsherFlyer

Of course they can, but sample sizes of each will have a big effect. If you flip two coins you have a decent chance of getting all heads. Far lower probability of that if you flip 10.

Apply the same analysis to a 5%, 1% or 0.001% chances of a poor BA F experience in any flight taken and it should help is all understand that there will be complaints - it's a matter of how many overall and the probability that one person will suffer multiple times consecutively (which will be especially noticeable if it happens in their first few flights).

My general view on this sort of thing is that given that failures all occur BA should be reducing them to an occurrence level where they can afford to offer compensation that will satisfy most reasonable customers, and actually offer that in a hassle free way. That may not be enough for some, but that's another stats game. If 95% are happy with the flight and 90% of initial grumbles are happy with the compensation that would see OK. If it's 80% and 10% that's poor.

xenole

Perhaps, but it does assume that after a poor initial flight, the customer will return and say take another 99 F flights in order to balance things out / improve the odds.
I would certainly be taking my money elsewhere should there be other options as I wouldn't want to be playing a lottery as to whether or not I get a good flight.

EsherFlyer

That sounds like a very odd suggestion if you mean actually had the food handed over. If at the point of having taken and verbally confirmed orders then it makes more sense, but if that's the case I'd expect crew to be applying that anyway without me asking.

Can I help you

Just like in CW we take a meal order after takeoff, if customers want to eat later if possible we also take their orders.
The crew should then see if we have to refuse anyone and if so return to the customer for a second choice, all of this is done before any customer is served.

EsherFlyer

Agreed that BA are then relying on them taking more to level things out, and it's probably going to take 3-5 more good flights before a typical customer sees their initial flight as an anomaly. Clearly a big ask of that customer, hence a need to keep the failure rate low, or price to constantly entice enough in to fill the gaps left...

EsherFlyer

Thanks, that makes more sense. I still see far more of the CE ask, serve, move to next style of service where it would be far harder to undo .

Sounds like there's no reason for crew to not make that prioritisation then without GGL having to remind them.

Can I help you

That’s why I recommend reminding crew as this shouldn’t be happening, I wonder if this is route specific?

BertieBadger

Thanks for that. A little OT, but could I quickly ask whether such refusals are done by individual or by party? (Purely out of curiosity)

I presume it is CIV scores that are being used - in the hypothetical example of a Prem travelling in the same party as Blue where would that Blue sit relative to say a regular Gold in terms of priority?
Thanks