Afternoon tea....without any tea
May 16, 2019, 5:27 pm
#256
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: DTW
Programs: Alaska, Delta, Southwest
Posts: 1,663
...
The menu lists a scone for GBP5. Yes, you are right, there is no other explanation. What press release? What receipt? One orders from the menu. There is no other offer to buy but what the menu says. The menu is very specific, but some here are trying to bring out the press release or the receipt as a way to justify that BA is actually offering afternoon tea. Suit yourself of course.
The menu lists a scone for GBP5. Yes, you are right, there is no other explanation. What press release? What receipt? One orders from the menu. There is no other offer to buy but what the menu says. The menu is very specific, but some here are trying to bring out the press release or the receipt as a way to justify that BA is actually offering afternoon tea. Suit yourself of course.
Yes, I grant you, in hindsight, I can see the interpretation that “afternoon tea” is the category, with items offered a la carte. But it certainly isn’t clear or intuitive, especially when the scone is the only item under the category. It’s also reasonable to interpret the item as being called “afternoon tea” which includes the scone. It’s hardly as clear as you claim.
May 16, 2019, 5:48 pm
#257
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
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Posts: 7,691
May 16, 2019, 5:50 pm
#258
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
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Imagine it. I could send a press release to the media to saying that to celebrate my centennial, I'm selling specially designed "Dream House" for £500,000 in the pure tradition of the great dream of any British family's beloved home, including a beautiful garden and swimming pool in a desirable part of Surrey, or why not upgrade to a luxury version. with a separate house for your grown up teenagers. The media would pick up on the story, people would go to the shop and on the listings page, the expected "The Dream House" in big letters with a background photo of the beautiful grounds and picture perfect surroundings with photos of the house on the next page. At the bottom of the left page, it would mention that the parcel is 10,000 sq feet and situated in Surrey and give the postcode and confirm the price of £500,000. The next page also shows various groundless modular homes for £150,000-250,000 and the next few pages have more big titled sections entitled "Parking places" and "rentals".
All excited when it's your turn to meet an agent, you ask if there are any of the dream homes left, and the agent thankfully answers that yes there is just one left. You excitedly confirm your interest, give your credit card (well, you know what I mean) the 500k transaction is processed, and you are given the receipt reading: "Dream house: £500k" and deeds to a nice empty piece of land whilst the agent asks: "By the way, would you like us to build a house on this?" We can sell you one for £250,000 if you want!
You look blankly at the smiling agent with ghastly butterflies in your tummy and a sense of having been played for a sucker. The media get hold of the story, and the estates agents confirm excitedly: "To celebrate our centenary, we are delighted to offer customers their dream home for £500,000 in the pure tradition of every British family's dream. Pair it with a beautiful modular house, a garage, or a fish tank."
In this great world, this would all be your fault as the customer because the bottom of page whatever does not explicitly list a home despite the page title reading dream home. A beautiful world, without customer protection, any liability for your own framing and advertising of the products you sell, the right to call an empty piece of land a dream home if you want and to have people then rub it in a little to suggest that the customer really is an idiot or that there are also castles for sale in Surrey with large grounds swimming pools and horse stables that sell for £5 millions so what exactly were you expecting?
Now don't take me wrong, I'd always encourage the customer to ask why the small print at the bottom of the page doesn't mention the make of the house, its size, and its number of bedrooms, but even if the person doesn't do it, it does not exonerate the seller for the dubious way in which it has described and marketed its product across supports. That small print does not serve as an insurance policy against any other aspects of potential confusion that arise from the seller's repeated and unapologetic claim that they are selling a dream house, despite people on an internet forum repeating, however many times, that the seller never proposed to sell you a dream house because there is one document where "dream house" and item description and price do not appear in the same place on the page nor in the same font. As it happens, some of us do feel some sympathy for the people who, in good faith, thought they were buying a house, feel that consumer protection is also about protecting the weaker of the two parties against the company, that the company's reasserted confirmation of its own marketing even after the complaint counts for something, and also understand that perhaps, people don't read the details of a tea menu as carefully as they would the description of their dream house.
May 16, 2019, 6:03 pm
#259
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: LHR Air Traffic Control
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 875
No, the menu lists “Afternoon Tea”, and describes a scone (and nothing else before the page break), leading to the reasonable conclusion that afternoon tea is £5 and includes a scone. Passengers then request “afternoon tea” (and are surprised when a scone without tea comes, which presumably means the flight attendant didn’t clarify what was intended), and receive a receipt describing their purchase as “afternoon tea”. Seems pretty clear to me that BA does offer a thing they’re calling afternoon tea, and it doesn’t include tea.
Yes, I grant you, in hindsight, I can see the interpretation that “afternoon tea” is the category, with items offered a la carte. But it certainly isn’t clear or intuitive, especially when the scone is the only item under the category. It’s also reasonable to interpret the item as being called “afternoon tea” which includes the scone. It’s hardly as clear as you claim.
All of them got quite confused when the trolley kept moving back without their expected drinks. After being called back, one CC member actually said the words ‘yes, the afternoon tea is just a scone, no tea’.
Four annoyed, non-native English speaking passengers resulted.....
May 16, 2019, 6:06 pm
#260
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: DTW
Programs: Alaska, Delta, Southwest
Posts: 1,663
This is getting ridiculous - we already have. Obviously we aren’t going to agree on our interpretations, but the level of debate here proves that the way it’s written is ambiguous.
May 16, 2019, 6:41 pm
#261
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
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I am really sorry to point out the obvious once again, but the printed BoB menu only offers a scone and lists a price for one, while the online menu specifically lists what is included in whatever BA calls 'afternoon tea'. Telling me that it has been pointed out many times before is not going to change the fact that no such offer exists. I don't know how anyone, who can read, can get any other idea about what they're getting. I am just not sure what is it that you're trying to prove - that black is white? And I am supposed to following the 'party' line? I won't. There is absolutely no issue here unless someone really really wants to make an issue out of it. 'ambiguous' (as in I-did-not-care-to-read-the-menu) and misleading (BA is at fault) are two very different things. I acknowledged that it is very easy for someone who does not bother to read the menu to be confused as to what is on offer. So did other members who agreed that the menu was very specific.
Last edited by Andriyko; May 16, 2019 at 6:48 pm
May 16, 2019, 7:17 pm
#262
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 10,159
Lots of different views on this subject and some intense debates so how's about time for a small break and a light hearted story about Scones as a bit of a relief?
An elderly man lay dying on his bed. While suffering the agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favourite cheese scones wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining strength, and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom and, with even greater effort, gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs.
With laboured breath, he leaned against the doorframe, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for deaths agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven, for there, spread out upon the waxed paper of the kitchen table, were dozens of his favourite scones.
Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?
Mustering one great effort, he threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture. His parched lips parted. He could almost taste the cheese scone before it was in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life. The aged and withered hand trembled on its way to the nearest scone at the edge of the table, when his hand was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife...
"Oi!! Clear off" she said...……... "They're for the funeral."
An elderly man lay dying on his bed. While suffering the agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favourite cheese scones wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining strength, and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom and, with even greater effort, gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs.
With laboured breath, he leaned against the doorframe, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for deaths agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven, for there, spread out upon the waxed paper of the kitchen table, were dozens of his favourite scones.
Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?
Mustering one great effort, he threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture. His parched lips parted. He could almost taste the cheese scone before it was in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life. The aged and withered hand trembled on its way to the nearest scone at the edge of the table, when his hand was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife...
"Oi!! Clear off" she said...……... "They're for the funeral."
May 16, 2019, 7:31 pm
#263
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: DTW
Programs: Alaska, Delta, Southwest
Posts: 1,663
I am really sorry to point out the obvious once again, but the printed BoB menu only offers a scone and lists a price for one, while the online menu specifically lists what is included in whatever BA calls 'afternoon tea'. Telling me that it has been pointed out many times before is not going to change the fact that no such offer exists. I don't know how anyone, who can read, can get any other idea about what they're getting. I am just not sure what is it that you're trying to prove - that black is white? And I am supposed to following the 'party' line? I won't. There is absolutely no issue here unless someone really really wants to make an issue out of it. 'ambiguous' (as in I-did-not-care-to-read-the-menu) and misleading (BA is at fault) are two very different things. I acknowledged that it is very easy for someone who does not bother to read the menu to be confused as to what is on offer. So did other members who agreed that the menu was very specific.
May 16, 2019, 7:44 pm
#264
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
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Posts: 7,691
May 16, 2019, 10:52 pm
#265
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: BAEC Gold, EK Skywards (enhanced Blue !), Oman Air Sindbad Gold
Posts: 6,399
Exactly this occurred on my last flight from OSL. Both the chaps next to me, and two in the row ahead of me, ordered ‘afternoon tea’. There was only an acknowledgement from the crew, no ‘we don’t serve that’ or ‘what would you like? Scone? Coffee? Tea?’. They just handed out the scones.
All of them got quite confused when the trolley kept moving back without their expected drinks. After being called back, one CC member actually said the words ‘yes, the afternoon tea is just a scone, no tea’.
Four annoyed, non-native English speaking passengers resulted.....
With four annoyed passengers on just one flight - whose experience seemingly left them with such an underwhelming impression of BA catering - then one can only imagine how many passengers are being similarly (yet needlessly) annoyed on a daily basis across the BoB network.
May 16, 2019, 11:14 pm
#266
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 537
It's called 'Afternoon Tea' on the mobile app. BA refer to it in press releases as 'afternoon tea'. The receipt says 'afternoon tea'. The printed menu, yes, if you read all the text, implies it's just a scone but still has 'AFTERNOON TEA' in capitals. People request 'afternoon tea' and get the scone alone. There are several reports here of passengers being confused. Two national newspapers have picked up on this. BA continues to insist that it is 'afternoon tea' in response. And it does not include tea.
May 17, 2019, 12:10 am
#267
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 1,866
The reciept shows 'afternoon tea' not scone. So presumably the option on the ordering system is also called 'afternoon tea'. If CC are accepting orders for AT without further clarification to pax this would seem to be clear false advertising. I'm sure that diligent crew will point out the issue (based on experience) for pax who order AT rather than scone. I doubt it is a deliberate attempt at fraud, just a poorly laid out menu and item naming strategy. Does anyone else remember the Iceland mince pies disaster?
https://mobile.twitter.com/muzikmeister/status/527904224768962560
(yes I know it's fake)
https://mobile.twitter.com/muzikmeister/status/527904224768962560
(yes I know it's fake)
May 17, 2019, 12:18 am
#268
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: UK
Programs: BA Blue, IC Spire Ambassador
Posts: 5,229
ambiguous' (as in I-did-not-care-to-read-the-menu) and misleading (BA is at fault) are two very different things. I acknowledged that it is very easy for someone who does not bother to read the menu to be confused as to what is on offer. So did other members who agreed that the menu was very specific.
May 17, 2019, 12:25 am
#269
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: London, UK
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May 17, 2019, 12:27 am
#270
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Programs: Mucci, BA Gold, TK Elite, HHonors Lifetime Diamond
Posts: 7,691
It's called 'Afternoon Tea' on the mobile app. BA refer to it in press releases as 'afternoon tea'. The receipt says 'afternoon tea'. The printed menu, yes, if you read all the text, implies it's just a scone but still has 'AFTERNOON TEA' in capitals. People request 'afternoon tea' and get the scone alone. There are several reports here of passengers being confused. Two national newspapers have picked up on this. BA continues to insist that it is 'afternoon tea' in response. And it does not include tea.
Last edited by Andriyko; May 17, 2019 at 1:35 am Reason: Spelling