robbo755

I travel regularly with QF dom Y and I think it is utterly inconvienient paying for drinks. A free drink just means no need to mess around with small change, oops my wallets in the overhead - disturbing everyone, oh you have no change for a $50 note - great, etc etc...

Having said that I am usually on the post-4pm service.

catandmouse

I have to confess I don't see much of the logic in this. If there was cost-cutting to do, I wouldn't see a problem in cutting back alcoholic drinks in the rear cabin, but reducing all catering to birdseed is downright insulting and nonsense.
As for stocking up in the lounges, the food choice at the Terraces lounge in GVA is (outside breakfast time), guess what? Birdseed (or the local Swiss equivalent).
As others have pointed out, taking healthy alternatives is nigh on impossible these days. You can't take fruit with you.
I also don't look forward to the odd smells you get when everyone brings on there own à la American domestic.
No doubt the beancounters at BA have taken into account the increased cleaning bill for clearing all this junk food up once passengers disembark.

wobbly wings

At the end of the day if the company cannot stay in the black with current costs they either have to raise prices or cut costs/service. They think they cannot raise prices so they decided to cut a little bit the in the onboard costs. It seemed obscene to do this a year ago to deliver the totally unrealistic 10% profit, but it seems much more justifiable if the company risks going under.

I have only two comments:

1) How much really is this going to save? Strategically with all the bad publicity this will get, one might as well do something more drastic and try to save much more. Or perhaps this is just one of the steps that will move us to the American domestic model in a few months?

Related to this:

2) Several PAX would much prefer the option of being able to purchase food than having no option at all. I am one.

I won't normally eat the SH snack and the food I do not eat will go to waste. However If I am hungry and didn't get the chance to eat before (or want to save time at the other end) I'd rather have the option of eating something decent and pay for it, rather than getting something disgusting for free.

But hold on, this is nearly the LC model! Except the food is not great there either (still better than BA's sandwich boxes though). @:-)

BAAZ

But the problem is that BA is taking all the food away and not allowing Y pax to buy anything (other than Toblerones etc from the duty free trolley)! I would rather not have to decide in advance what I want to eat and buy it from a bar in the airport; if there are going to have to be cutbacks, at least offer us some food we can pay for, on the longer flights at least.

Now that many employers (including my own) mandate ET for short-haul, if I have to go to a meeting, out and back in a day, when do I get the time to eat, particularly in the evening on the way home? (OK I'm lucky to have lounge access because of status, but if I didn't, it'd be a challenge.)

Andriyko

Not that I would mind having no food in ET (I started brining my own sandwiches even when I fly CE), as the quality of food deteriorated.
But decreased second meal in CW? With the cheapest ticket ex-KBP to NYC going for 3K USD they surely won't go bankrupt by offering a nice meal??? BA better think again.

I would not mind paying for alcohol in ET. But then there is a problem of hude difference between fares - when you can get a return ticket for 140bucks or 980 bucks (excluding taxes) for the same seat on the same flight, a passenger paying the latter fare would be upset to get nothing for food. Perhaps another solution is to introduce a new economy class? Just block a few front rows for those paying Y, B and H fares and give them current ET offering.
I understand that if I am flying on a 70 dollars 1 way ticket I should not expect much...

But please please do not touch CW - BA is already behind many carriers food/drinks wise...

Schultzois

I am wondering how financially it will shake out for BA to replace the current "food + drink" offerings with essentially "drinks only" offerings. Given that often alcohol costs more than food, to me it's conceivable that even just a handful of passengers who might have wanted a bit of food will, if they settle for a (n alcoholic) drink - just to have something - could cost BA more in the long run than having offered food... or if not more, certainly expected savings may fail to materialize.

Honestly, I think a lot of passengers consume food or drink on board simply to bide the time (with the exception of the category of passenger I describe in the next post), and a strategy where food offerings diminish while drinks options remain, could just end up with more passengers requesting an extra drink or two.

I'm not advocating for a charge on drinks (as the North American and LC carriers do) so much as pointing out that cutting food as a cost savings effort has another problem in this implementation.

Schultzois

You raise a common issue that takes the wind out of the sails of those who suggest "oh, no matter, you're foolish if you don't just bring a snack from home..."

Apart from discretionary leisure travellers (which BA doesn't seem to claim as their core market anyway), this often is quite simply not an option.

What professional really wants to be seen bumbling around their office kitchen for the last half hour at work making a sandwich to take on the plane with them? And for the early morning return, I suppose the choice is to raid the hotel mini-bar overnight (if there is one, and at great expense) or order an extra portion for "take away" at the client dinner the night before...

Part of the value proposition of the full-service airline is supposed to be that busy people can save time and remain productive to the last minute on the ground by being able to count on some mundane sustenance during the time that's necessarily wasted in the air. Degrading the CE food offerings significantly erodes the value proposition for business passengers who are still willing to pay premium fares, and cutting ET offerings all but casts away business passengers whose companies mandate Y for flights under x hours.

Although there still seem to be many who argue that BA's business model relies on the business market over the leisure market, moves like this certainly suggest otherwise!

Smirnoff

Band 1
AMS, BRU, CDG, CGN, DUS

Band 2
BSL, FRA, GVA, HAM, LYS, MUC, STR, TXL, ZRH

Band 3
AGP, ARN, BCN, BEG, BUD, CPH, FCO, GIB, HEL, LIN, LIS, MAD, MXP, NCE, OSL, PRG, VIE

(I imagine that AGP, BEG, FCO, GIB, HEL are 3B, not sure about ARN/LIS - are borderline 2:30)

Band 4
ATH, DME, IST, KBP, LCA, LED, OTP, SOF, TIP

mosburger

Another vote for keeping at least the sandwiches and soft drinks on all routes and charging for alcohol instead in eco.

Air Berlin, in my opinion the best LCC in Europe, has very reasonable prices for beers, wines and liquors and is able to keep a good selection.

Gaz

Surely a buy-on-board food option would be better than this. I'd rather be offered something for a cost, than nothing for free. Of course, BOB feels a bit close to the LCCs so doesn't quite fit BA's current marketing strategy of distancing themselves from them.

Gaza

I've read this threrad with interest and it seems that some people are oblivious to the harsh economic realities that BA are facing. In saying that I think BA have done what they often do, take things just too far and ending up pissing off lots of people unnecessarily.

Since BA deserted the regions and became London Airways those of us who live near a regional airport have been left with no choice but to use (notso)LoCos. My local airport is SOU. It is around 30 miles from home and I can be there in 30-35 minutes. LHR is 100 miles away and can take up to 2 hours. Since the beginning of the year I have flown SOU-MAN on FlyBe almost every week. The fare ranges from around £170 to £250. For that I get a seat in a newish Dash 8 and nothing else. If I want food or drink, I have to pay. I now have lounge access through their Premier Card but the lounges are nothing special. A coffee machine, some biscuits and limted booze is the full offering. But I have adapted.

On the early flights I get a bacon roll or pastry at the airport. I spend the hour on board reading the paper. Do I need tea, coffee, booze, food, etc on such a short flight? No, I do not. If I do need something I'll pay for it.

This week my diary means I have to travel directly from our Staines Office to Manchester so I'm going to LHR. We have a route deal that come in at £247. As this was a last minute booking I'd be looking at the same cost on FlyBe if not a little more. With BA I'll get lounge access at LHR and MAN. I'll be able to eat well in the lounge tonight and probably save my employer the cost of a meal once I get to MAN. I'll probably eat something at MAN Terraces on Thursday night saving me the bother of cooking (or more likley picking up a takeaway) when I get home late. On each flight I'll be offered something to eat and a free drink. You don't have to be an economics gradute to understand that something is broken in the cost model.

The biggest issue facing BA is simply that not enough people are paying the higher fares. Yes, some people are, but as I have illustrated, so are a lot of people who fly LoCos. Something has to give. Catering on very short flights is a prime target.

Perhaps BBB can shed some light on the amount of wastage. A couple of weeks ago I did LHR-MAN on the second flight of the day. I enjoyed a good breakfast in the lounge. I was then offerred a pannini on the flight. I declined as (a) I'd already eaten and (b) I do not like egg and was offered a choice of back and egg or egg! There seemed to be a lot of declines.

Roger

I'd have to agree with you. ^

AB can manage sandwiches and soft drinks on shorter flights (hot meals on longer flights) included in the price of the ticket as well as seat numbers on boarding passes at check in. They also have a FFP. We have 4 flights with them next month. Although we didn't buy the tickets, I'm looking forward to flying with them again.

Remember BA's toe-in-the-water LCC operation in Germany, Deutsche BA a.k.a. DBA? AB bought them.

I hope they are not looking at BA's proposal with a view to enhancing their own offering.

VC10 Boy

So sad to see death by a thousand cuts.

Does anybody know - will these cuts be reflected in lower ticket prices?

Raffles

You are missing the point slightly. When I go to Pret to buy my sandwich, I don't expect to find one of the ingredients missing and, if I ask why, be told 'don't you know there's a recession on?, we'll put the cucumber back in when things pick up'. The airline industry works like no other ....

These cuts, by the way, are presumably more about letting BA cut crew numbers to the legal minimum by reducing the workload down the back. The overall cost of doing any sort of free inflight service is barely reduced by cutting back on the cost of what you give out, but getting rid of crew will make a difference.

Roger

You mean like they did(n't) when they separated 'Taxes, fees, charges and surcharges' from the fare?