Yorkshire Rich

I was on the one after you to LHR. Least I’m sure like me you, you loved the lounge and had plenty of chips, chicken nuggets and cold salad.

PGberkshire

Sure, and I get that. For me its the bar and the TP's....as I will eat in the CCR before departure. It is all different based on your situation.

A data point to note, I had a Kosher meal on a band 2 CE flight - long story short wasn't edible. I received £25 compensation.....

choosethedrew

Not even a back-up arrangement? I'm sure that BA will be clawing back money from Do&Co for not loading the meals on the outbound which would help offset these costs to some extent. Not that passengers should have to think about BAs finances at all.

KARFA

No. As I noted, I think there are better things to spend money on than this.

I would be interested to know how other airlines in Europe operate on this point btw, is BA an outlier on this or merely following the pack? (I genuinely don't know the answer to this)

drwook

Sadly neither CCR nor GF are an option on the way back from most outstations

SkyTeem

Lufthansa op-op'd several of their elites at the gate at boarding a short-haul flight (they scanned their "Y" boarding pass and the gate reader printed out a new boarding pass - LH bp's have a huge "Y" or "C" on them so that's how I knew it was an op-up). I had a revenue business ticket. They were then of course short of meals, and guess who got the meals and who didn't? The flight attendant tried to justify this by saying to me that "the rules" say the meals go to Lufthansa elites (Star Alliance status didn't matter, he said, and also said he wouldn't know if they were op-upgrades or not, just the rules say meals go to LH elites first). Flight attendant offered nothing at all and frankly couldn't care less. "What can I do about it?" he said with a dismissive shrug.

The whole thing made me furious, so I pursued the claim. Long story short, I got absolutely nothing. Customer relations called twice and both times verified the catering and load numbers and confirmed they were short of meals for the flight. They said they were sorry it happened but that it was not something for which they "were required" to provide compensation. That was the end of it.

ajamieson

This was my experience with LX, too. They were quick to respond that they were emphatically not considering any form of redress beyond "sorry it happened."

KARFA

Yes, I agree that is completely wrong. I agree that OpUs should be at the back of the queue for meals.

I have been in the situation of being upgraded on short haul and I am perfectly fine in either getting no food if nothing is left, or being offered something only when everyone who has paid to be in club has already chosen. My experience on BA is this is what they do.

Mekko

That was my point

labdoctor

Makes mental note to avoid the Lufthansa Group when flying in business.

simonsmith

Flew KLM LHR AMS recently My partner and I both PE for Life with two non status friends . All four of us upgraded to business . The purser came to welcome us and explained there were not enough meals for everyone in Business Class but we could have first refusal ! We declined as it simply seemed unfair but in the flight they magically came up with meals for us .

Meals onboard are going to hold different values for different people . Have you been in a rush all day and not had time to eat ? Is a flight in CE a special treat ? Are you a very frequent flyer and have already had the chicken salad 3 x this week and really just want to work ?

I enjoy the meal and the TPs but other than that being GC gets me everything else and the economy exit rows are actually more comfortable. So without the meal ?

choosethedrew

This seriously gets my goat, done by any airline - not just BA. The meal is one of the few differentiators from Y to J short haul, so to smile sweetly, after marketing the service and collecting payment, and simply say ‘sorry about that’ is way short of the mark and I would see red, I’m afraid. As to whether the customer actually wants the meal is their lookout, not the airline’s.

If the airlines choose not to have back up plans with local caterers (something I personally believe is a bare minimum) or over cater their services to accommodate, then at the very least the customers should be ‘love bombed’ afterwards by proactive apologies and compensation which goes over and above the retail value of the food which should have been served, to offset for the mis-selling of the service in the first place. If the customer is left to complain, or even worse sue, to drag the money out of the airline, then they deserve an inflated bill to reward them for such conduct.

Confus

Most airline caterers won’t deal with irregular ‘maybe’ bookings. They need firm orders X hours in advance in order to prepare ingredients and meals, and arrange transport to and through the airport. They don’t have meals on standby, so to speak, so this isn’t really an option.

The alternative would be to tell customers in advance and give them a voucher to spend in the terminal. This is something BA has definitely done in the past, and I suspect other airlines have as well.

choosethedrew

Regarding the proactive management of such an issue, I agree. No-one likes surprises of this nature and by the time they were told, the customers couldn’t even help themselves. In this instance, BA didn’t appear to be across the issue as it ought to have been.

krispy84

It sounds as if the solution you’re seeking is for BA to have contracts in place for ad hoc catering requests at outstations on short-haul routes?

If so, likely wouldn’t pass any sensible ROI assesment.