bisonrav

I've been brooding on this for a week or so, and have finally decided to go public. I think it demonstrates the lamentable inconsistency of BA service standards these days, and just how far standards have slipped even on the smallest items.

I did 6 BA CE flights last week. I was in 1C for all of them, and in the IDEAL controlled situation to do a comparison of the lemon scented towel experience. And very inconsistent it was too.

On only one of the flights did the FAs manage to get out towels in a suitably incandescently hot state for effective skin refreshment. That is an 83% dissatisfaction score. On the other flights, the temperature ranged from frankly tepid to upper luke warm. I observed various techniques being employed to heat them up, with the most successful seemingly being the right hand oven in "dry heat" mode; in contrast some MF crews seemed happy to wave a kettle in the general direction of the towels.

In comparison, I have NEVER had a lukewarm towel on QR. Now the quibblers may say that I have never taken a flight on QR, but that is beside the point really, the simple fact is that I imagine they are far better. Even Norwegian are perfectly capable of supplying a sauna grade and rather luxurious towel at a very affordable price.

In short, BA are in danger of losing the lead in pre-snack amenity towelling that they have hitherto enjoyed. I can't see the NPS coming back from this. Obviously I have raised my concerns with the customer care line directly, though I didn't get the impression they were altogether taking me seriously. I am emailing Alex Cruz directly.

Any other related experiences to share?

hypercrypt

Well, we didn't get any towels from Rome to LHR on Wednesday night 😕

bisonrav

Seriously? I'm not sure the plane should have been allowed to leave the stand in that condition.

ppp909

They should go for those little towels in plastic bags you get in some Indian restaurants. They'd be equally pointless.

Not used them for a while, but QR always handed out a choice of hot or cold soggy towel. They're useful for wiping your table top or TV screen.

bisonrav

My position is very simple on this. If you can, using standard onboard equipment, superheat the contents of a cherry "on the vine" tomato to a level where fusion reactions start spontaneously taking place under its surface, you ought to be able to heat a lemon scented towel to an acceptable level. It's not rocket science. Well tomato based fusion probably is rocket science, but you take my point.

Sealink

On a recent flight, the hot towel took off the first three later of skin, the pain was intense. Well done that purser. Took years off me!

Barnaby100

lemon? I have never noticed any lemon.

MFCC

The way we’re meant to heat the towels is to pour hot water on them from the brewers, and compress them with the bottom of a paper cup. If the crew manage to switch the brewers on and get the hot towels out quickly then they should be perfectly hot enough.
Frankly, I’ve never seen them be warmed in an oven and not sure how this would work considering they come wrapped in plastic which I’m not sure is particularly oven friendly.

FlyingScientist

Indeed, this is one of my issues with QR. They only offer cold or hot towels, not lukewarm ones.

All She Wrote

4 flights between LHR and CDG in CE in the past 4 weeks, all 4 times they were fine. 1A for all so I was 2nd or 4th to receive one on all occasions. Other things like the boarding groups on the other hand........

EsherFlyer

I often decline them as the frequent (but not universal) soggy, lukewarm offering is useless and disappointing.

But I accepted last night's proffered rag and it was a wonder. Hot and moist, and truly refreshing at the end of a long day of a long week.

But still inconsistent .

Dave Noble

We are currently awaiting the loading of our compliment of small, lemon-soaked paper napkins for your comfort, refreshment, and hygiene during the flight, which will be of two hours duration.

Meanwhile we thank you for your patience.

The cabin crew will shortly be serving coffee and biscuit again.

Jambon87

gms

Lemon scented? I've never noticed a hint of lemon on any BA towels.

flyuk

What I want to know is how they can go from the temperature "Surface of Venus" to "Ex Wife's Soul" in less than 4 seconds. Is that even scientifically possible at room temperature?