Joshb18

As per the title really, was flying from and to LCY today and noticed that the euro traveller cabin was offered a selection of soft and hot drinks with the usual snack.

Although a very minor difference, why don’t Heathrow flights get the choice of hot drinks in euro traveler for free?
It’s very minor but surely the service should be same across the cabins.

Opinions and thoughts welcomed.

JD1905

Technically not called EuroTraveller, the service from LCY is called CityFlyer and yes Soft Drinks are free. I’m not sure why this is though!

corporate-wage-slave

BACF is allowed some commercial freedom to operate differently from BA and BAEF and take into account the competitive situation at LCY, in terms of what other airlines do. The other factor is that almost all BACF flights are 2 person cabin crew, one initially work CE, the other ET, before CE joins ET to complete the service (depending on flight length and passenger numbers). To have buy on board realistically would need 3 cabin crew or CE to be removed, neither of which is financially sensible. Given that BACF has some long routes (Greece) it has to do some catering. When Tourvest started buy on board at LHR and LGW there was talk of LCY following, but it simply never happened. Currently BACF don't operate wifi aircraft so the current LHR and LGW ET catering model won't easily work anyway.

jerry a. laska

Also, see the following thread for a quite a bit of discussion of the differences in service:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ing-guide.html

EJetter

Alcohol is complimentary too! And band 3 and 4 routes also get sandwiches.

SxMan

and, of course, no lounge provided at London city is so a saving there – which probably balances the books overall.

orbitmic

They are not “very minor differences” by any stretch of the imagination! given what a short haul economy flight entails, they actually make the two products very different.

I would also say their seats feel a lot more comfortable too and there are fewer hand luggage storage issues.

SaveECRewards

BA CityFlyer is the airline, economy is still called Euro Traveller on these services and is closer to the pre-Cruz offering with everything complimentary, including the alcohol. Some booze (e.g. champagne) is only meant to be served in business class though

sammyg901

I remember years back they briefly switched to a little bag on LCY-Amsterdam with a cuplet of water and a biscuit in. Lots of complaints and threats to switch carrier from the regulars

At the time they were up against KLM and VLM and VLM still did a full bar run (not sure about KLM) . Didn't take long for the bar to reappear !

Joshb18

Haha, perhaps In the grand scheme it isn’t that minor, but I didn’t want to come across as moaning
but you are right, the product is still sold as euro traveller on the BA website and App, therefore in my opinion the service shouldn’t be of a higher standard at city and a lower standard from T5 / Gatwick.
Yes they have to remain competitive at City, but perhaps little improvements like a wider selection of drinks in ET across the business will make them more appealing.

slightly off topic, but I did overhear the cabin crew having a whinge about how neglected some of the EX BMI 319’s cabins look and they don’t understand why they won’t invest in them.

orbitmic

it’s a glass half empty glass half full sort of story though - ba would argue lhr is their short haul economy service standard and lcy is an exception so if there is any harmonisation it would likely be lcy losing service. Do you think that would be good?

Fun fact, that’s nowhere near the biggest contrast I’ve experienced between mainline and regional airlines. Gill Airways used to operate AF services from Humberside which offered superb service (and without wishing to sound inappropriate, a few exceptionally pretty young female crew members) at a time food and drink on AF was errr… not at its best. Then AF started to open their own base at lcy (again) and initially flights offered single cabin all C service!

even more striking, when Iberia started their dreadful bob, for a short period their regional airline Air Nostrum kept their existing service which was again single class and quite frankly some of the very best and most generous C meals at Y prices. I remember being served multiple tapas followed by a four course meal that would beat anything you’d get in CW these days on my super cheap Y ticket between NCE and MAD and the crew then bringing me the meat main course after I finished my fish one just because they had a spare and remembered I initially hesitated between the two whilst leaving me full sized bottles of Bombay on the side table for me to fix my own bottomless g&ts.

heck, even Alitalia regional had its halcyon day - not quite as good as air Nostrum as their meals were cold, but the systematic presence of huge bowls of cubed Parmesan cheese in Y was particularly enjoyable.

so I guess the main surprise with city flyer is the
Difference is still here these days whilst others have progressively ended it , but let’s hope it’s still here to say a little while longer…

Joshb18

Agree with this last part completely, After the experience I’d actually much rather fly from city in the future with BA where possible.

2x2 seating is great, legroom is good, city airport seems to be super efficient as well.

alex67500

Wasn't there a rumour that it was about to change once LCY are done with their upgrade works?

justin_krusty

Well in April it was a little box with a cuplet of orange juice and a flapjack biscuit… so we seem to be back to those days.

EJetter

That’s the breakfast offering, after 9.30am it should be a bar service with choice of crisps or biscuit.