Nimrod1965

Yes, brilliant song.

I was a regular between Heathrow and Swansea at one time for about 4 months when I had just started working in the London area and The Boss was still living in Wales.

citiflyerUK

As far as I'm aware yes. The water cooler is still at the top of the escalator in front of Harrods after security in T5. I don't recall it being tapped off or anything.

NickB

Indeed. You would expect BA to showcase the highlights of British culinary genius, in all its sophistication and refinement. So, it has to be stotties, chicken parmo, Gregg's sausage rolls and chip butties all round

wilsnunn

Yes and would you believe it, c-w-s has even written a guide about it! Drinking water while travelling with British Airways - a pictorial guide although I don't believe that it has been updated for COVID.

Edit: yes it has been asked at the end!

NickB

I agree (and I too love BoB just as much as you do ). However, IME, on the routes I used most, it seemed to me that it was overwhelmingly Brits that tended to go for BoB anyway.

Greenpen

I have a minor addiction to Greggs sausage rolls. A huge queue puts me off but if I pass a Greggs with just a small queue, in I go. (Their sausage and egg hot roll is in a class of its own leaving the Pret version trailing in its wake but that's for special occasions only.)

ermis177

Well, sorry to mention the obvious but most of the main competitors do offer some kind of food and drink... I am talking about airlines here... Not the LCC ones...

citiflyerUK

I would argue that there often isn't a time difference nor the need to be at a station hours before departure with a train. I fly weekly ARN-LHR-ARN and on a Monday morning I leave home at 05:45 get to the airport around 06:15 and start boarding at 06:30ish for a 7am departure. Of course I could get up earlier and whatnot but I'm then going to be sat on a plane for two hours so for me it's the ideal time to have breakfast as I'll then go straight to work. Same on the way home, I leave work at 15:00 on Friday and go straight through LHR with usually enough time to grab something in Pret which I eat on the plane. It's too early to have dinner at 14:00 before I leave work and by the time I land and get in the car and on the way home it's often past 9-10pm.

There are also plenty of airports that BA flies to with poor facilities and even at large airports, flights don't always coincide with when restaurants or places are open or stocked. I've often been on last flights from places and the sandwich shop has had none or a very poor choice left.

Bohinjska Bistrica

Agreed. There's also a question of who will actually pay whatever hilarious markup is implemented as well. A sausage roll is, what, 70p? It'll be £3.50 or something on an aircraft. At least if it's Waitrose or Pret etc. there's an expectation that things won't be cheap. I can't see Pret working, though - few products they make have anything approaching a shelf life of even a week.
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BrianDromey

There is an interesting dichotomy opening between the desires of an aspiration brand that best fits with BA and the realities of food with decent shelf life, which will improve availability and stocking, I would have thought.

The thing is that a series of simple products done well is a lot better than ‘aspirational’ products which are not available, etc. I think Greggs better meets the practical requirements of the BA BoB service, as they do simple food well. At the end of the day are they really all that different to Costa or Starbucks et al?

Saltire74

Ever so slightly OT. I would hope they don’t look at pricing comparisons with HGI. £7:50 for a microwaved sausage roll I (stupidly) paid for in August!

PGberkshire

Surely at home you go for more than 2 hours without eating?

cheshirepete

I never really go out to Greggs much, except when they have ‘specials’ - so I’d perhaps look forward (even usually sitting in CE, I’d pay for this) their most famous Xmas Cranberry & Turkey Pastie and their lovely hot tomatoe soup to go with it and a nice hot roll to dunk in it. Yum yum! Then bring on the champagne!

FlightDetective

I always buy food when I am flying on an airline that sells it, such as on Aer Lingus. I'm a huge fan of their Irish Breakfast for example, and look forward to it as part of the experience. I also enjoy trying the different foods on offer on different airlines. For example, the salmon fish box thing you can buy from SAS, which is delicious. My Finnair flights were cancelled due to Covid, but I had pre-ordered a Reindeer Flatbread and some other local thing for the two sectors. I always eat when I fly.

When it's free, it's literally saving me money as I don't need to buy / make my own meal. Eating also passes the time on a flight nicely. One aspect of flying I enjoy is interacting with the crew during meal time. I will go so far as to select flights around the meal offered, especially when it's complimentary - for example I'll leave an hour or two later to get a dinner flight rather than a flight marked as "refreshment" or something like that (Hi Qantas and American!).

Hey, I like food I'd be devastated if there was no food served on board flights anymore!
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PGberkshire

Greggs - please no. Lets be honest, if you are hungover and wanting filthy carbs and fats, you may partake. But as a serious offer on an airline? lol.

Pret - Yes, this is a good choice. I see the logic (good brand, already has infrastructure at the airport) Upto speed on areas like trendy good/veg/vegan. If only Pret could run the Lounge food offerings!!!

Waitrose - very strategic. If they couple this with an Avios rewards program that could be a big double win for both brands.