Jetstreamer

Pay for better food = fine by me. In my view though they should have a free basic drink option e.g. tea, coffee, water, juice. Very cheap to implement and gives a measure of differentiation compared with FR, U2 etc.

bisonrav

My last ET flight was part of a very extended itinerary via OTP - I was able to cash in some of the Avios gained on that for a bacon sandwich and a decent coffee. It was a lot better than the "croque-monsieur" I had in CE coming back from Nice. As I mentioned, I was actually looking forward to it. I also had a bottle of water in my bag filled up at the airport, though in the event I didn't use any.

The thing here is that some people like BoB. I do - I can eat if I want to, and if I don't I can ignore it. And the vast majority of passengers are at worst indifferent to the change. I can appreciate that if you're in the group that wants it abolished, that's not an easy pill to swallow, but that's the reality of how it's panning out I'm afraid.

ahmetdouas

IAN-UK

Good to hear! But Lordy me - they certainly took their time. And I think there's still some way to go....




But if you put imagination to work, these two outcomes are not mutually exclusive. No reason why refreshments can't be offered with a buy-up to something more substantial. It was the mean-spirited refusal to supply even water that finally rubbished the theme of To Fly. To Serve


Load factors are close to meaningless with out information of revenue yields. As you point out elsewhere, fares have been dropped.

I'm happy for your pleasure in being able to purchase food on board. But as I pointed out above, there's no reason why that facility shouldn't be coordinated with lighter refreshments for others.

And I'm not sure your enthusiasm entitles you to be spokesman for the vast majority of passengers. For all I know, they are simply stoically resigned to the current set-up.

icegirl

I personally don’t mind BoB as most short haul flights bearable without the need for a full meal service in economy. On my last flight with TAP Portugal to Porto earlier this year, who do still offer a meal service, this is what we were served which was certainly not nutritious and it was the only option on both out and inward journeys. Drinks were also included but it was not a premium offering and servings were very small.




BA may wish to perhaps distinguish itself from other carriers to offer GCH’s a complimentary drink on all flights and include a light snack on long-range short haul services of say 4 hours plus for all passengers.

bisonrav

And that goes equally for your lack of enthusiasm too I suppose.

I might also point out that the rise of this model via LCC could be seen as reasonable evidence that the vast majority of infrequent passengers aren't all that bothered about free food and drink but are shopping for the lowest headline fares to get to where they want to go. As are most businesses these days.

I go to Frankfurt reasonably often. I have the choice of Lufthansa and BA at roughly the same fare from the same airport. The fact I might get a tray of salad and a drink with Lufthansa doesn't even figure in my thinking, because I'll fill up in the lounge anyway, I find Lufthansa's strict cabin baggage policy a serious disincentive incidentally. If the choice were between Lufthansa and EasyJet, I'd choose the cheaper fare. I'm squarely in the profitable demographic of frequent SH business flier, and I doubt I'm unusual. In my mind food on board is not a key differentiator or even close to being one.

I don't say I have any special insight or represent the general opinion, but the fact I'm happy with BoB is indicative that it's not a clear cut situation.

gcuk

The frustration for me is that on a recent 3 hour flight, it was 90 minutes into the flight before BoB reached me. Economy started in row 6 and I was in row 12. Sandwich choices were extremely limited (only one left) and even Percy Pigs had run out. It took an eternity for the crew member to process purchases. The CSM said she would feed back my dissatisfaction as they needed an additional crew member to make BoB work. Despite what others have said, I'm afraid this does impact on my impression of BA. In my experience, other carriers do it a lot better and I do find myself less loyal to BA as a result.

ahmetdouas

Yes I love A3, but they are as expensive as BA. LH/LX are pretty much always cheaper, and I don't mind a 1-2 hour layover. The ATH route is almost always packed with the amount of expat Greeks, so A3 and BA are laughing to the bank.
I used to pay a bit more to fly BA out of loyalty, but that was pre-Cruz.

You get a hot meal from ZRH/MUC to ATH in Y if I remember correctly? I was on J last time I took it but I am flying in 2 weeks in Y with LX on the way out and LH on the way back so let's see what the latest is. On the LHR leg no you don't, but their sandwiches are very nice and unlimited drinks. Oh and I love chocolate, so I take like 5 of LX's chocolates when they offer them before landing. They don't seem to mind!

Can you imagine BA giving out free chocolates? That would be a laugh. I probably would take 10 GBP worth of BOB chocolates each LX sector I fly, assuming BA has them in stock of course = )

FR is cheap, but Stansted is far for me and I really would rather not fly them unless they are a good 50 GBP each way cheaper!

On BA BOB there is nothing hot that is anywhere near nice? When I mean hot, I mean like a proper pasta or curry dish like the good old band 4 days pre-Cruz, not the disgusting Starbucks style paninis or whatever you call those 'hot sandwiches'. Wow standards have fallen! For what I used to get for free, I cannot even pay for it now.

trueblu

I rarely fly BA SH, and can almost always (unless rushing from a tight connection) get to a lounge, so BoB has little personal impact in a material sense.

The prior free offerings were poor, so I actually support the notion of being able to buy a superior (except for the sarnie haters!) product (albeit cold). And a non-frequent flier friend recently mentioned they enjoyed eating a "delicious sandwich" that they had purchased.

But the lack of free soft drinks comes across as petty and inhospitable. Count me as one who believes that this aspect of BoB has cheapened the brand considerably, and one which presumably would have relatively cost impact.

tb

IAN-UK

The suggestion is not to do you out of the ability to buy food on board. That facility in no way prevents BA offering the very lightest of refreshments to all passengers.

Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

orbitmic

That is such a bold statement to make unless you have some actual evidence? Hopefully more than:

You might, but that would be a bit the same as saying that the rise of premium economy products means that a vast majority of passengers are willing to pay significant extras to have more legroom on long haul flights, or that the fact that all airlines now offer seat selection for a fee meaning that the vast majority of passengers being willing to pay to assign a seat. It's a non sequitur, or what would be known as a problem of ecological fallacy: the fact that there is a model can work within as segmented a market as the airline industry does not in any way mean that a 'vast majority' of the flying public support it.

The rise of the low cost model means that there is a market for people who look for no frills experience at a low cost on their point to point flights (mostly short and to a lower extent long haul) trips, just like there is a market for people willing to pay for extra for a seat in a separate cabin with more legroom, a market for people willing to pay for seat selection, a market for people wanting the opulence of first class travel, and a market for people wanting to fly legacy airlines in economy. None of those things give you much of a sense of proportions. The nearest you'd get to it would be to look at combined passengers numbers, in which case it would seem that at this point in time, a "majority" of economy class passengers actually prefer to fly on legacy carriers compared to low cost ones.

Nobody is questioning that the low cost market exists - indeed, it is strong on short haul point to point flights (though again, ignore my question above of connecting passengers who to my knowledge, happen to make a majority of legacy airlines pax overall).It is also worth remembering that for all of its successes, the low cost model has seen more bankruptcies in the past 10 years than the legacy carrier model, and several remaining contenders are still in dire financial situation. Finally, I understand that analysts are increasingly moving away from the very concept of "low cost" to look at more fluid elements - which is understandable: the FR model is completely different from, say, the EW model.

Now, I'd love to know what proportions of p2p and connecting y pax do are indifferent to being offered free F&B or for purchase one, but it is hard to find clear evidence. My questions to you would, be if, as you believe, a "vast majority" of them do not care, what is your theory to explain:

1) that BA's main competitors (AF, LH, LX, KL, etc) have not followed suit and imitated BA? They would have had plenty of time to do it by now and as I mentioned in an earlier post, airlines did align on things such as HBO fares, paid seat selection in Y, 10 across seating on the 777 etc.

2) the significant decline in reputational indicators for BA in the past two years as discussed in other threads?

As mentioned before, my guess based on the fact that 1) BA have not cancelled their move to BoB but 2) LH and AF have not chosen to emulate their move and 3) BA yields seem have not improved over the period is that it is probably something of a marginal, but again, that is only a guess.

Lefly

Personally I do not feel "cared about", but I do feel "nickel(ed) and dim(ed)" if not even water* is offered.

*bottled water, not from the aircraft tank.

I found always better to fill a bottle at a water station than fork out 2.50 eur for a 33ml bottle that costs 1 outside the airport (and even less if bought in a supermarket)

Sealink

There are now no British scheduled airlines who offer free food (with the notable exception of Loganair), why does BA get slammed for what we accept /expect from other airlines, especially since pax flocked to EZY and FR?

orbitmic

and VS (though not flying short haul), and CityFlyer, and Eastern Airways, and BMI Regional, etc...

All those are British and offer free food and drink. The above actually includes all non-low cost and non-charter UK based airlines apart from BA. Low cost and charter airlines do not indeed offer free food and drink.

BA gets "slammed" because it is a legacy carrier but they adopt the same product as those low cost and charter airlines. Yet, whilst their lowest fares may now be closer to those of their low cost competitors, many of the fares that they charge are several times higher than the highest fares that exist on U2, DY and the likes.