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Modified COVID-19 catering, effective 20 January 2021

Old Jan 22, 2021, 4:50 pm
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Last edit by: Enigma368
Modified COVID-19 catering, effective 20 January 2021 until further notice.
Previous discussion: COVID Friendly Catering Revealed By British Airways

A reduced service has resumed in all cabins, including steel cutlery, glassware and chinaware in premium cabins. Choice may be limited in some cabins and on some routes. Some elements may be delivered covered for safety. All meals apart from First are served on single trays. Portion sizes, particularly in Club World, have been significantly reduced compared to pre-Covid.

On BA CityFlyer full service has resumed, with the exception of hot towels and warmed bread in Club Europe. See dedicated wiki thread for full details.


Details of the current service are available on BA.com

Changes from pre-COVID service:

Euro Traveller
  • Buy-on-board M&S menu replaced with pre-order Tom Kerridge menu
  • Complimentary bottle of water and packaged ambient snack offered to all passengers
Club Europe
  • Band 1 now receives the same service as Express (light breakfast > brunch > lunch > afternoon tea > dinner)
  • Band 2 now receives the same service as Bands 3 and 4 (breakfast > rest of the day)
  • Band 3 should still have a drinks run before serving lunch and dinner
  • No hot towels
  • No menus on Band 3 / Band 4 services
  • Dessert served in ceramic dish rather than plastic pot
  • No starter for Express / Band 1 lunch and dinner services
  • No cheese for Band 3 / Band 4 rest of the day services
  • One fewer sandwich for afternoon tea services
  • One type of (warm) bread roll available, wrapped in sealed plastic, served from a basket
World Traveller
  • No roll/butter served with main meal, cheese and crackers also not provided
  • Inflight snack (previously took the form of a Magnum ice cream) and tuck box suspended - replaced with Walkers shortbread o/r from galley.
World Traveller Plus
  • TBC
Club World
  • No hot towels
  • Meals served on one tray at the same time
  • No choice of starter or dessert
  • Portion sizes have been substantially reduced. Starters, cheese and dessert are all served in mini ramekins
First
  • No hot towels
Print Wikipost

Modified COVID-19 catering, effective 20 January 2021

Old Dec 30, 2021, 4:58 am
  #931  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,059
Originally Posted by ermis177
Do we actually have some evidence? I know you have tasted them and you told us that they taste different but can someone from inside verify this? No offence but it can be just a coincide/better presentation in F that makes it to taste better. Also are all the options different in quality too? For example the beef pasty in F is different with the one in Club? The current BA catering is probably as bad as it can be, I doubt they will offer different dishes in quality and possibly more expensive. We are talking about BA here…
Yes, from experience. I had one of the dishes last month in F that was the subject of much derision on this board for having the same description in both F and J. The one I had (in F) looked nothing like the one with pictures posted here from Club. And it was very tasty, again contrary to descriptions here, so I can only assume it was a totally different dish. And the cheeseboard (thankfully) neither looked nor tasted anything like the tiny dish from Club.

My only complaint was over the amounts loaded. I was fortunate to get what I wanted, but the crew very openly had limited numbers of meals to work with and I could see it was a struggle for them to satisfy everyone.
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 5:04 am
  #932  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: London
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 2,730
Originally Posted by Confus
Yes, from experience. I had one of the dishes last month in F that was the subject of much derision on this board for having the same description in both F and J. The one I had (in F) looked nothing like the one with pictures posted here from Club. And it was very tasty, again contrary to descriptions here, so I can only assume it was a totally different dish. And the cheeseboard (thankfully) neither looked nor tasted anything like the tiny dish from Club...
For some dishes, you may be correct - first class aged fillet as opposed to short rib beef, for example. But other dishes are surely identical - like the afternoon tea sandwiches and the ploughmans etc
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 6:21 am
  #933  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,059
Originally Posted by bafan
For some dishes, you may be correct - first class aged fillet as opposed to short rib beef, for example. But other dishes are surely identical - like the afternoon tea sandwiches and the ploughmans etc
The sandwiches, cakes and scones in my F afternoon tea were nothing at all like the pics Ive seen of J. Not what it used to be, true, but suitably differentiated from Club. In fact, so was was the tea, which was the posh one served in a teapot.
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 6:29 am
  #934  
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club, easyJet and Ryanair
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: UK/Las Vegas
Programs: BA Gold (GGL/CCR)
Posts: 15,882
Originally Posted by bafan
For some dishes, you may be correct - first class aged fillet as opposed to short rib beef, for example. But other dishes are surely identical - like the afternoon tea sandwiches and the ploughmans etc
They are not identical. There have been several examples posted on FT (including this topic) of the significant differences between the dishes served in First and Club, posted by people who have actually tried the dishes.
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 7:53 am
  #935  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 365
CW Lunch and Afternoon Tea

BA156 KWI/LHR earlier today - CW lunch (served around 20 minutes after 9am take-off) and afternoon tea, served around 12 noon. Note the olive (i.e. singular) as against the "olives" promised by the menu and (on the afternoon tea tray) the unidentified white substance that was neither cream nor butter - but inbound seems to be catered by Kuwait Airways kitchens and was significantly better than BA-catered outbound a few days ago.

pam-seared hamour

afternoon tea
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 8:08 am
  #936  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 104
Originally Posted by JessicaB
The menu in J on my flight described the food as "gourmet" which made me giggle. I don't think the people who design the catering offer have much shame.
A Do&Co sticker with the word gourmet on a brown paper bag brought me a moment of amusement, after finding just half a sandwich within it in WT yesterday.
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 9:25 am
  #937  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Stafford, England, UK
Programs: BA Executive club
Posts: 140
Originally Posted by Chrisnichols
we were on BA11 a couple of days ago in first, and here was our menu - dinner and a light meal before arrival. Not the most exciting sounding menu, but it was well presented by the CC and surprisingly good

Just updating this with a couple of photos of our recent first catering after seeing some of the recent posts about club v first catering and repurposed dishes while not necessarily first class the food was definitely different to the examples Ive seen being posted in club, and not just better presented dishes.. while the cheese plate was very good, the desert options were very poor however.

Im travelling back SIN-LHR in a couple of days, so I guess Ill see how much of a difference there is!!



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Old Dec 30, 2021, 9:40 am
  #938  
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club, easyJet and Ryanair
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: UK/Las Vegas
Programs: BA Gold (GGL/CCR)
Posts: 15,882
Originally Posted by Chrisnichols
Just updating this with a couple of photos of our recent first catering after seeing some of the recent posts about club v first catering and repurposed dishes…… while not necessarily ’first class’ the food was definitely different to the examples I’ve seen being posted in club, and not just better presented dishes….. while the cheese plate was very good, the ‘desert’ options were very poor however.

I’m travelling back SIN-LHR in a couple of days, so I guess I’ll see how much of a difference there is!!
Thank you for posting this. Pre-covid I was a regular on the BA11/12, on both rotations the second meal has (for quite a few years) always been breakfast. Was your flight an evening departure and were you actually served the ‘Light Meal’ shown on your menu?
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 9:44 am
  #939  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: BRS
Programs: BA Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 4,958
BA is far from alone in doing this... but never really saw the attraction of airlines serving breakfast before landing (in say Singapore) late afternoon. I suppose it could be cheaper to cater.
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 9:48 am
  #940  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Stafford, England, UK
Programs: BA Executive club
Posts: 140
Originally Posted by Tobias-UK
Thank you for posting this. Pre-covid I was a regular on the BA11/12, on both rotations the second meal has (for quite a few years) always been breakfast. Was your flight an evening departure and were you actually served the Light Meal shown on your menu?
this was an 18:30 departure from
LHR. Yes, we were offered the light meal. We both had the chicken, which was pretty decent and the two different appetisers which were fine.

I had the fruit plate and a good pot of tea shortly before, so after a decent amount of sleep it actually felt like Id had a light breakfast and lunch before landing in Singapore 😂

the service was good throughout the flight (especially considering the crew apparently have a 2 night hotel quarantine before their return)
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 11:10 am
  #941  
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Programs: Some
Posts: 5,163
Here is my low fat special meal from BA107 a few days ago for a bit of variety! Clearly somewhat constrained in what can be offered but I guessed correctly that it would be fish which is generally conspicuously absent from BAs F menus currently. Overall, I definitely preferred it to the regular F meal I had on the same flight a few weeks ago.

Starter is a chicken and spiced chickpea salad - nice, but could have used a yoghurt dressing, was basically a good CE cold main. Main course was poached cod which was OK but again lacking a sauce. Pudding was a set raspberry thing, not much to look at but it was actually really good with loads of flavour and lots of raspberries running through it. I may have followed it with ice cream from the standard menu and blown apart any pretence of low fat.


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Old Dec 30, 2021, 4:17 pm
  #942  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 3,190
Originally Posted by ermis177
If you are talking about LH First class, the food was always superior compare to BA. Even in business class the current BA catering is abysmal with quantities similar to a kids meal.
No. LH = long haul, as has been stated.

I'll restate, to be explicit:

Can someone who has direct/first-first hand experience of both compare the current long haul catering on BA with that on Virgin, please? If things don't get better soon I might have to consider turning to do the dark side, at least temporarily.

rb211.
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 4:39 pm
  #943  
 
Join Date: Apr 2020
Location: LHR
Programs: Centurion BA GGL IHG Diamond
Posts: 134
Originally Posted by RB211
No. LH = long haul, as has been stated.

I'll restate, to be explicit:

Can someone who has direct/first-first hand experience of both compare the current long haul catering on BA with that on Virgin, please? If things don't get better soon I might have to consider turning to do the dark side, at least temporarily.

rb211.
I thought BA were supposed to be addressing this food situation next month ? Just like you holding out till January otherwise Im moving my business over to VS
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Old Dec 30, 2021, 5:49 pm
  #944  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 3,190
Originally Posted by Komodromou
... Just like you holding out till January otherwise Im moving my business over to VS
That's not an accurate representation of what I said!

Over the past several years I have blown Virgin Atlantic a few times, and they were all quite pleasant.

FWIW, BA doesn't give two hoots about my business - it would be even less than rounding error for them, I'm sure!

rb211.
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Old Jan 1, 2022, 3:34 pm
  #945  
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 577
Originally Posted by Chrisnichols
Just updating this with a couple of photos of our recent first catering after seeing some of the recent posts about club v first catering and repurposed dishes
YouFirst just confirmed this will be our menu to SIN for beginning of January. Chris, thank you for posting the photos, what is the black looking square on the prawn starter? Hope Ill be able to get the prawns for starter, and based on your pictures, the chicken tikka masala looks better than the prawn dish. Would be quite happy with the winter berry trifle!
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