heckenhocker

no we don't think. All of us are completely dim

Reality is that on my (many people's) business trips, often things are pretty tight getting to the airport, and/or there is not much/any chance to eat during the day or pick up a snack near the work-place. And there are often calls/emails to deal with before boarding, making any airport time very pressured.

So though I'd expect to have time to eat before flying, quite often it just doesn't work out.

Now that I'm unemployed, I'm finding way more time to eat

Raffles

I assume you know that Turkish is currently running long-haul 777's on some LHR-IST / IST-LHR flights, with fully flat beds in J? These planes have F, too, with 23 inch TV's and Bulgari amenity kits. All wet-leased from Jet of India. Ever so slightly better than CE!

LTN Phobia

Thanks Raffles. I have a not-quite-so-slight hesitation about flying Turkish, besides not being OW or *A - I am not too comfortable about the safety aspects of their operations.

LTN Phobia

The food is called 'boredom killer'. Of course I won't die if I don't eat. I often don't eat for quite a long period of time if I don't feel like it.

However, it's annoying when it's removed as part of cost cutting measures. There is something irritating about removing food and going down-market (aka LCC-esq). It's particularly annoying if it's done without lowering fares. You feel like you're losing out then.


As an aside...
I love not having IFE on BA short haul. I don't have to suffer fellow noisy pax laughing as I often have to put up with on QF Domestic. They put television programmes on even a 45-min flight. Irritating. Having just flight info display suits me.

No5

They want to reduce the crewing levels, particulary on EF (Eurofleet) out of LHR and take them down to be a bit more equivalent to LGW. On the Airbus fleet it would mean anything between 3 (A319) and 5 (A321) CC depending on the aircraft. A320 would be between.

I personally believe this is a part of BA's plan to reach some sort of an agreement with the TU's. Less service means less crew.

BingBongBoy

BA want to get rid of HCE 2.000, which actually equates to around 2,600 actual employees with Part Time and things...

LTN Phobia

Makes it even worse than 2,000 in that case.


That's rather sly of BA if that's their plan. It does no-one any good really - including BA, if they lose passengers through this service down-grade.

Also just because they need to give less people, it doesn't mean their working hours get reduced (flights still take the same amount of time). I guess they may be able to reduce the number of crew by reducing the amount of work required in distributing and clearing up food if they go from a tray service to a wrapped sandwich, but what difference does it make in terms of workload between handing out a sandwich and a packet of birdseed? Not a lot.

747_not_777

Not really all that bothered about this... Yes, years ago the top notch pastas they used to give you for dinner on the Domestics were yummy, but since the food got downgraded - and the airline industry more competitive on price - BA haven't been able to offer that.

I usually get on board and want to either work or sleep. I don't get on the train for an hour and half and expect a meal... so why expect it with BA if times are hard?

Even in Club Europe, since they started making everything "something with salad" on the shorter routes, I just waited till I got home instead! I dont eat salad!

Would much rather BA stayed alive in these tough times and continued to offer things which mean much more to me - like great lounges and BA Miles.

Longhaul flights is a different matter... People mustn't starve!

BingBongBoy

Correct:

A319 Currently 4, down to 3
A320 Currently 4, will stay at 4
A321 Currently 5 or 6, down to 4
B767 Currently 8, stay at 8
B757 Currently 5, down to 4 (Sort of a mute point as they are going...)

As some have indicated, the major saving is in people power, i.e. crew.
We will not be able to deliver the same service onboard with less crew, so maybe it is indeed a pre-qual to the crew cuts.

The winter schedule is, rumored, to be cut by 14%, with crew being forced to take 2 weeks unpaid leave.

Regards,

LTN Phobia

Whichever way it's going, I hope the catering issue is not being linked to the proposed cutback, because I have difficulties buying that.

Even charters with crew with far experience than BA used to do a full meal service (and chargeable alcohol) on a 90 min flights with minimum regulatory crew - 4 for A320 with 180 pax etc. I don't know if they still do that now, but they certainly used to.

LCCs do a food and alcohol sale with minimum crew of 4 on A320, with 180 pax again, which takes longer than giving out packets of birdseed. They also still manage to do the in-flight duty free sales.

So, I don't think BA management can justifiably use the argument that because they have cut back on in-flight food services, they can cut the crew numbers, because they're not necessarily related. I don't think they can justifiably say that because they are cutting back on crew numbers, they have to cut back on in-flight services.

Anyway, BA crew is one of the reasons why I'd rather fly with BA than other legacy carriers (even QF with whom I'm a platinum) as long as other elements are not too inferior to other options. I hope BA do realise that if they lose the best 2,600 crew members, they might lose a lot of business too.

Prospero

Ditto

I have seen crew distribute sandwich packs as part of the drinks run; alternatively crews distributing packs beforehand, thus demonstrating that the handling the sandwich offering need not be more labour intensive than the crappy and insulting trill mix.

I am beginning to get really quite miffed at this.

No5

I think it will be very difficult for BA to cut down the number of crew out of LHR without changing the service onboard. The unions and some crew are against this proposal and will most likely not agree. This is why I think this is part of BA's plan as you can see that most of the changes in the service are on the EF network and this is where they want to change the crewing levels.

edi-traveller

During the catering strike a few years ago they tried to stop the breakfasts on the grounds people were happy without them during the strike.

There was a huge outcry and the breakfasts came back.

I guess they think they can get away with losing everything but the brekkie.

mrow

If the 777s that Turkish use are wet leased as Raffles mentions, then won't Jet be providing the crews and doing all the maintenance etc?

Also, Turkish are a member of *A as far as I am aware.

henkybaby

One of the most asked questions (or where they arguments in disguise?) is: "what is this saving BA anyway?".

Let me give you an example. My company decided to no longer distribute free cans of softdrink anymore. With only 6000 employees in NL the annual cost saving is €500K while for the individual employee a can costs a mere €0,50.

Now a normal company operates at a profit marging of around 10% (or at least they used to) meaning that to make enough profit to pay for the soft drinks we need a revenue of €5M.

Now BA transports tens of thousands of passengers a day. In 2008 they transported 35.7 million pax. Suppose they save 50pc per passenger, that is a saving of 16M (corrected for falling loads). Quite a lot in current times.

I rather have BA survive the current crisis and eat a little less.