Inadequate F Catering Levels

Old May 21, 2019, 10:07 am
  #31  
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Originally Posted by woglet86
The time I had to laugh the most was when I was told in First that enough soup had been loaded for everybody, but they accidentally poured too much for everyone else so there wasn’t any left for me. Can’t blame the crew, that’s an obvious system failing.

I’ve learned to pack my own backup food in all cabins now.
Please forgive me woglet86 but that genuinely did make me laugh.

Not acceptable of course but it's a very funny little story
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Old May 21, 2019, 10:11 am
  #32  
 
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Originally Posted by NickB
I would have thought that regular BA passengers would be even more baffled to have a huge quantity of food being rained on them.
In the words of Private Eye : Shome mishtake shurely
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Old May 21, 2019, 11:39 am
  #33  
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The crew proactively apologised and said 4 of one type had been loaded and one of each for the others. Ditto with dessert and not enough cheese for all passengers. Again, the same scenario with breakfast.

Is this normal?
Of course this is normal. This is done to protect cabin revenues.
Imagine a passenger wants to upgrade to C or F -> BA can always tell him (and not lying) that a seat is available, but catering is not available.
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Old May 21, 2019, 11:49 am
  #34  
 
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Originally Posted by tom139


They have just increased the budget for First meals with the improved catering but I’m told it’s still quite low compared to other carriers.
Having been one of only two P pax on Air France TATL I can assure you the choice was the whole menu "The choice is yours Sir, we have everything..." And at the time of flying the fares including the connection LHR/CDG were slightly lower than direct LHR/IAD BA.
So yes, "low compared to other carriers" is probably correct and nothing to do with "but on the other hand BA are cheaper, take your choice, meals or money.." which could be an argument if they were.
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Old May 21, 2019, 11:53 am
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Originally Posted by warakorn
Of course this is normal. This is done to protect cabin revenues.
Imagine a passenger wants to upgrade to C or F -> BA can always tell him (and not lying) that a seat is available, but catering is not available.
BA doesn't give free upgrades so I'm not sure how this 'protects cabin revenues' - if they don't want to sell an upgrade they can just price it at an extortionate price instead. However, BA's entire business model is built around encouraging passengers to trade up, that's why they have probably the highest proportion of longhaul J seats of any carrier and the world's second largest F-equipped fleet. Surely one of the worst ways to ensure someone pays to upgrade again is for them to not get any catering!
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Old May 21, 2019, 12:49 pm
  #36  
 
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Originally Posted by lloydah
So yes, "low compared to other carriers" is probably correct and nothing to do with "but on the other hand BA are cheaper, take your choice, meals or money.." which could be an argument if they were.
Well, the comparison would be 'save time and avoid the hassle of connecting at CDG' or 'go for the experience and have full choice of meals but waste time.' A direct flight will always be more expensive as that's what passengers value.
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Old May 21, 2019, 12:51 pm
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Originally Posted by warakorn
.....................This is done to protect cabin revenues.
Imagine a passenger wants to upgrade to C or F -> BA can always tell him (and not lying) that a seat is available, but catering is not available.
Not sure I follow your thinking here.

So a J class passenger rocks up at check-in with the impulsive thought of splashing out on an upgrade to F, ready & willing to pay the cash difference required. But your theory is that BA’s decision to save itself around fifty quid by under-catering is made with the express intention to be able to ‘honestly’ deny such a request..... ?

Losing out on additional revenue - potentially running into thousands of pounds - doesn’t strike me as much of a cabin revenue ‘protection racket’.




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Old May 21, 2019, 1:01 pm
  #38  
 
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Originally Posted by Andriyko
Well, the comparison would be 'save time and avoid the hassle of connecting at CDG' or 'go for the experience and have full choice of meals but waste time.' A direct flight will always be more expensive as that's what passengers value.
And what about a straight comparison between F class air passengers who are based in London, and those based in Paris ?? The cities are around 40 mins apart.

Why, one wonders, is it that those using AF should be offered a ‘full choice of meals’ (as you put it) whilst those using BA are not ??

(Actually, it’s a rhetorical question ).
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Old May 21, 2019, 1:05 pm
  #39  
 
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Originally Posted by rjn21
My understanding from cabin crew posts over the years is that the service standard is supposed to be, to take all orders from the F and J cabin. If there is then a shortfall in choice(s) when all orders are collated from the respective cabins, they are prioritised by status with the lowest ranking passenger in that cabin getting the "sorry, but we've run out of x, would you like y or z?". I have received suitable avios twice for that approach not being followed in F and prioritisation instead being done by seat row.
yes I thought so too until that day. Maybe the crew were having a bad day. The one taking the orders wasn’t exactly showing much enthusiasm. The other was only slightly better. There were a few people by the sounds of it who didn’t get first choice of starter or main. But I didn’t get a choice of either. Plus the toenail clippings on the seat it was far from my best ever BA experience. I complained to the CSD or whatever they are called these days and some token AVIOS ere posted.

Maybe everyone else was a Prem that day
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Old May 21, 2019, 1:25 pm
  #40  
 
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Sounds like a very unpleasant experience.

Originally Posted by leftorupstairs


yes I thought so too until that day. Maybe the crew were having a bad day. The one taking the orders wasn’t exactly showing much enthusiasm. The other was only slightly better. There were a few people by the sounds of it who didn’t get first choice of starter or main. But I didn’t get a choice of either. Plus the toenail clippings on the seat it was far from my best ever BA experience. I complained to the CSD or whatever they are called these days and some token AVIOS ere posted.

Maybe everyone else was a Prem that day
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Old May 21, 2019, 1:40 pm
  #41  
 
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Originally Posted by Jagboi
Going from memory ( and I may be completely wrong) I think I saw somewhere that the food portion budget was £3-4 per passenger in F. £1.50 in WT.
That sounds a bit low based on what a single meal might cost, but the economies of scale might apply? A bit like hospital (or prison) meals?

I can see that any airline would want to minimise waste, but it must be a balancing act between loading too much/not enough food (or LPGS!). How far out do airlines have to order the meals from their suppliers? Can late bookings/changes have a major effect? We generally hear on here when things go wrong - there must be many more flights when the plans work out?
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Old May 21, 2019, 1:50 pm
  #42  
 
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Originally Posted by Andriyko
Well, the comparison would be 'save time and avoid the hassle of connecting at CDG' or 'go for the experience and have full choice of meals but waste time.' A direct flight will always be more expensive as that's what passengers value.
That rather assumes you are starting out in LON.
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Old May 21, 2019, 2:04 pm
  #43  
 
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I cant help feeling that first class should mean exactly that and, in what is a relatively small cabin, they should just suck it up and provide everyone with the full menu.
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Old May 21, 2019, 2:04 pm
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by WingsAroundtheWorld
Of course that's the law of small numbers and probability. But surely BA have the wit or intelligence to recognise that and increase the absolute catering levels as for any one given customer the chance of having their meal preference should not vary with cabin occupancy?

Mind you, it is run by a low grade CEO who thinks we all want to purchase Percy Pigs...
Vegetarian Percy Pigs at that
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Old May 21, 2019, 2:42 pm
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by peter h
How far out do airlines have to order the meals from their suppliers?
I have had meals that had a production date sticker on them that was 6 months prior to the flight, so obviously produced in bulk and frozen. Should be fairly easy to order as many as needed on the day of flight, just pull them from the freezer.
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