cvm0093

Your right there for sure, I blame outsourcing. When it was it was in house you knew your product and what was going on etc. Now everything is handled by someone else as it's cheaper and the chain of resonsbility gets longer and longer as no one wants to take it. Either way it's us the paying public that suffer.

kaizenflying

Time is running out for BA to step its service up now. The "gourmet" boxes were meant to be a contingency response with a limited lifespan.

Richmond_Surrey

There's only one reason why I would be flying with BA - tickets flexibility and quick refunds. Luckily, all my future flights this year were booked on BA tickets and I got all my money back. I'm still waiting for refund from LOT for flight cancelled in March. So, I don't think, I would risk buying tickets from Star Alliance, considering they refused to do refunds. When situation is back to normal, I would favour Qatar on long haul and whatever is best on short haul. I remember being impressed with brand new Lufthansa Airbus on OSL-FRA route, which was spotlessly clean, there were pillows on seats and good food. But I do hate to change at FRA, MUC is preferred.

orbitmic

To be honest, I do not think any airline is feeling like being lavish for the sake of it at the moment, regardless of the support measures that they have negotiated, none of them come any close to the cash they are bleeding. As rightly mentioned by Prospero, IAG has also received some significant cash support including both the £300 million loan from the UK (Coronavirus corporate finance facility) but also €1.1 billion in loans from the Spanish state.

It is also worth pointing out that what airlines are getting in terms of support is never without strings attached. For instance, the main source of support that AF have received is not state fund, but the state offering to be named as guarantor on a private loan that AF has been contracting with banks. The second part is a loan from the French state as shareholder rather than as state. This actually makes a very significant difference and is a fairly common mechanism (whereby a company is facing difficult times and borrows from shareholders). At the same time, it is also worth pointing out that support received often comes with strings attached. For instance, in return for the French government's package, AF are being forced to close down some very lucrative domestic routes as well as a reduction of 50% of the airlines' CO2 emissions, which is not really most airlines' priority at the moment.

LH is actually expected to get the largest support of the three main groups, with about €9 million, but whilst €3 billion are for a loan, the other €6 billion in the package are costing the group because they come in the form of the German stake taking a very significant equity in the group (I can't remember if it is 20% or 25%).

In other words, it's a bit easy for BA to give lessons to others in terms of bailout, because they are actually accepting bailout money which is less than others but not negligible and is 1) without losing equity unilke LH, 2) without borrowing from their shareholders unlike AF, 3) without stringent network and environmental conditions unlike AF.

So I don't think that AF or LX are giving better food because they are feeling generous or are just nice, and their regulations are no different from what is imposed to BA either. Instead, I suspect that it is different ways for different airlines to resolve the same equation:

- we are bleeding cash
- the air passenger market in general and business travel market in particular are at an all time low and will stay so for months and maybe years
- Covid safe meal service are significantly more expensive to prepare and unions are worried about implications for staff's safety

So what do we do?

BA's and TK's answer seems to have largely been along the lines of: "the only people currently flying are those who absolutely have no choice anyway, so quite frankly, whether you offer them a chicken sandwich or caviar and lobster will make no difference whatsoever quite frankly, so we might as well try and limit our expenses to avoid precipitating something that would look like bankruptcy and count on our passengers' fortitude, as most will realise that food and service is simply not the priority right now"

By contrast, I'd say that AF's and LX's answer seems to have largely been along the lines of: "right, for the next few months or years, we are all playing musical chairs - where there was enough custom for 3 big groups and a few free electrons in Europe, there might at most be a third of that left so we'll need to fight extremely hard to pick as many of what's left as possible, plus there are so many routes due to collapse that many people will have to connect anyway as the time of "niche" routes is over for a long, long, time, which means that most premium passengers will be to compete for, so we'd better freaking impress them or they will go to BA, EK or whoever"

I honestly cannot say which answer is right. Chances are that it will depend on what happens in coming months which none of us know anyway, but I think that both answers are potentially coherent (even though I clearly know which one i prefer as a customer). So to me, this thread is putting way too much emphasis on supply factors, regulations, and even costs (no airline, BA or otherwise would just "cut cost" if it felt it would disproportionately cut income) and what not and is missing what I believe to be the real story here, which is different ways of reading the market for the next few years. I think all airlines agree in terms of expectations of crisis, low demand, changed habits, etc, but they do not actually agree on what all that will do to customers' competitive behaviour.

Genius1

I agree, but if 'limited' is the 'at least 4 months' we were advised by HfP in June, we have some way to go. In the HfP article on VS's latest catering improvements, this month is mooted for a review by BA, although the implementation date is vaguer.

paulaf

I thought I read originally on the other thread "Covid friendly catering" that it was for an initial period of 3 months, as I counted forward from it's implementation date mid June as I have a band 4 flight booked for 16th September and at the time i was pleased to think it might just about change in time. But now I can't find that post early on in that thread.

Never Stansted

I’ve wanted this to be the BA J champagne for years!

skyhighlander

In my case - the need to reduce the unpredictability regarding sudden quarantine rules’ changes by not transferring in the third country....

Then - the schedule. Then - having an empty seat next to me and the price for such luxury.

I do not look forward to anything else, nor I expect much from BA.

sxc

Also here is an example of what Cathay is serving. This menu isn’t from the LHR route but what they are serving is similar.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...l#post32640908

Dan72

It's almost as if someone people don't fly to eat.... : )

But more seriously, I am doubtful that this is an issue for all but a very small group of people, but who are perhaps over-represnted here. COVID has not gone away and I don't see that the arguments for some form of amended catering have disappeared. But if people really need more, there is a choice, as we see above, but rarely at the (unsustainable) prices BA are charging. It appears most euro destinmations are available for £50-70 in Y, and in club for around £200. Yes, I'm sure someone will have paid higher fares, but those are the exceptions...

It seems people want the best of all worlds and at the price of their choosing. I just think that's unrealistic.

PUCCI GALORE

Honey - I'm here to tell you that you need to be up with the lark to get these sort of fares to Spain - I have just this minute priced two (the last two I imagine) seats ALC-LHR-ALC for a couple of friends that thought that they wanted to travel until I told them that the fares were pricing at €1875.90 in Club and Economy was sold out. on one of the sectors. Now I do expect a bit more than a vegan (God help us) sandwich for that.

TPJ

Slightly OT - try to contact them on Facebook Messenger. They respond surprisingly fast. They seem to be refunding not in the chronological order, just randomly.

Dan72

It's been a while since I've been honeyed, so thank you : )

Yes, I can see you might feel different then. I live outside Europe at the moment, but will be back and have the first weekend in October free and can see that almost all destinations are available for the prices I mentioned. I could even pop over to Alicante for £178 return in Club. But I'll already have navigated quarantine once, so I'll have to hope to bump into you on another occasion : )

Barnaby100

Dunkirk spirit appears to be Gordon’s Gin with a bizarre grapefruit infused Schweppes tonic

HIDDY

Yes I would have thought if you're desperate enough to get somewhere a piece of chicken and fizzy drink should be the last thing on your mind. You can have that at home any day of the week anyway so why all the excitement having it on a plane?