orbitmic

But by mentioning breakfast, aren't you precisely making the point some of us are making here? I don't think anyone is asking that afternoon tea be ended as an option on those shorter long haul flights, only that there is a return to a choice between afternoon tea and something else (salad, tapas plate) as was the case before so that those who can't get enough of afternoon tea can have their fun whilst those of us who dislike it have an alternative.

From that point of view, breakfast is a case in point - again, nobody is asking that cooked breakfast (sorry, can't bring myself to call it "full English" because when I fancy it, I precisely fancy the real thing and not a solitary sausage with no bacon!) be discontinued, but BA has always offered an alternative such as a cold cuts plate and/or an alternative hot dish or both when English breakfast is offered, be it in CE or CW or F. I see plenty of people around me who get the English breakfast, and more often than not I don't and they and I are happy and coexist with our respective preferences! We are only humbly asking for a return to a similar choice for afternoon tea, not to guillotine that monument of the Victorian Age which any fan can still undoubtedly enjoy, but just the return of a lighter/healthier alternative.

And before anyone tells me that there is no point because almost everyone prefers afternoon tea, that's simply not true in my experience and the salad/tapas plate option was always the one to run out with the occasional "sorry, we only have the sandwiches left" a frequent announcement by the time the end of the cabin was reached whilst "sorry, we only have the tapas plate left" is not something I ever heard personally in dozens of flights.

Whilst I am actually totally agnostic to what alternative could be offered to afternoon tea (tapas plate, salad, cold cuts, pretty much anything non-bready I guess), most unusually, I actually disagree with you on that. I think that nothing is more quintessentially British than embracing and popularising foreign food. In fact, British culinary tradition has been all about bringing back, adopting, and often "customising" foreign food traditions for much longer than it has been about cooked breakfasts or afternoon tea (which is very 19th century anyway).

For as long as British cookbooks have existed (and whilst I am no specialist, I have been lucky to see some dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries) that trend has been absolutely striking. Of course, the Victorian Age which popularised afternoon tea represented a further boost to that tradition (not only with colonial imports but also with a boost to Italian, Turkish, and Chinese influences to what were predominantly French ones before) as has been the 20th century (Britain became fan of hummus, tarama, Thai curry, and Korean dogs well before any other Western country followed the trend, including the US where those options were often long enjoyed by migrants from specific origin only well before they were popularised with the rest of the population).

So to me, having a "foreign" option is precisely as (or conceivably more) quintessentially British as having afternoon tea or cooked breakfast is. It fully embraces the way British people have conceived their relationship to food for generations, illustrated their "travelling spirit" on home cookbooks and later restaurant menus and supermarket aisles, and brought back recipes from their trips abroad. It is, in many ways, British identity at its finest.

corporate-wage-slave

I will see if they will let me have that. But I would suspect that it would be fairly similar in essence, perhaps swapping either the cod or beef for a curry main.

craigdthomas

on 175 a week today, so we'll see.

firstlight

Oh well, it's only 26 hours to wait so no worries I'll post it here tomorrow if not...

Stopwatch430

I think this is actually the point. Not everyone wants a treat. Fine to have it as an option - there should be an option (and not just two sandwich flavors). But as someone who travels constantly and is generally entertaining clients at the other end, I’m not really in the mood to have treats while traveling especially at the end of a flight. That’s not where I want to load up on calories. Honestly, this gets at a fundamental issue I have with BA - at times it seems like the focus is premium leisure (people who fly J long haul once or twice a year on holiday) rather than high fare business. Though I still find nothing premium about the J afternoon tea.

choosethedrew

I also think it is cultural, name cuisine that is both healthyish and instantly ‘British’. It’s not like Australia or LA (sadly)

corporate-wage-slave

And that's the new normal. You can just see around you that higher value leisure travel is back with a vengeance and business travel in most sectors is still nowhere near what it used to be. It's routes like GRU and ATL which are nothing like as busy as they used to be, whereas NYC, LAX, South Africa are running beyond full now. There is very little on the BA side that can be done about this, it's a much bigger issue than one airline.

Stopwatch430

BA would be well served pulling back from its obsession with taste of British etc. Most of the world doesn’t exactly look up to that. Not sure most British do.

I do agree that premium leisure is up but the high value business traveler is still very much back and still paying much higher fares. My New York flights for example seem just as business traveler heavy as they were in 2019. I have no problem with the trappings being offered. But it doesn’t excuse there lack of lighter and healthier options in the premium cabins. And this is an issue that goes beyond just afternoon tea.

choosethedrew

Couldn't agree more but BA has a nostalgic view of cuisine that is deeply ingrained over many years so I would be surprised if it changed overnight. Nonetheless, on CS-guaranteedish routes such as NY and LA I would now book them in J again based on this much better-looking menu, if only for curiosity's sake.

Stopwatch430

Im waiting for a review first. Not just food but service efficiency.

cosmo74

Shame they're still going for beef followed by beef, I guess there wasn't much chance of smoked salmon though

PUCCI GALORE

We could argue the merits of bits of the menu for hours and never agree. I’m sick of curries and , looking at the menu, all that veggie vegan salads with sweet potato in one, is enough to put me off for life. Sweet potato has as much place on a British menu as mushy peas chez Les Américains.

i love salad. Like most men, it has to be dressed and my vinaigrette has man-appeal. The sad little sachets of oil and those gloopy American concoctions with not a natural ingredient within them do not cut it for me. I am not a rabbit.

(Terribly OTT. I applied to BCAL and Air France as I was offered a job as a Bunny Croupier chez Playboy. That being over my Mother’s dead body made wanting to be an air hostess less disreputable j

So to conclude sensibly - the menu reads tons better than before and if at least full of ingredients and foods that I do recognise AA seem to be full of things of which I’ve never heard.

a380fan

What you are describing here could also be observation bias. Assuming you are a business traveller, chances are you are flying on the flights which are popular for business travellers. Therefore it could easily be that the flights you are flying happen to be business traveller heavy ( like it was in 2019 ), because it's the popular choice. Other flights may not be as such, and might be more reflecting of the "new normal" as was mentioned above.

chriswiles

When I flew back from IBZ last week, the senior crew member was saying on the A350 she thought it could take "3 hours for dinner service" to get everyone served "especially in the first few weeks as we have a lot of new starters in Club World who are only used to the single tray service"

One reason I've gone with 1A on my flight to Austin next week. I know 1A could be noisy, but it's so close to the crew it will be far easier to get their attention.

Good news though. I'd rather have a slower service and better food than get a CE tray served in one go.

KARFA

The a350 service was notoriously slow pre covid, but there is no reason to believe it would be even slower post improvements now.