DTS

I think you posh boys are overreacting a little, it could be worse, they could also use SodaClub makers with wine from a 50 pence carton, something like "Chateau migraine"...

Honestly, I'm looking forward to their reaction about all these complaints. 800GBP for a ticket to drink this german crap, nobody will acept that, I guess they switch back to champers soon.

Land-of-Miles

No it isn't just LGW, It was on my LIN-LHR flight on Thursday.

I never drank the Monopole anyway, since I thought it was vile and revolting, at least without some Drambuie to make a "Pacific Sunrise". That really isn't the point though is it. I paid almost £150 personally over and above a coprorately booked ticket in Y, so for £650 I expect something better than this.

The benefit of CE was always rather marginal, but if further enhancements are coming, I don't think I will bother in future, I will just buy myself something decent to eat at the airport and take it on board.

I also noticed on my outbound and inbound flights that they started the service from the rear of the CE cabin. I thought this was rather strange, since BA silvers and Golds are far more likely to be at the front than the back. On both flights the crew were very obviously taking CE meals down to either Y PAX or their colleagues in the rear galley.

CrawleyInternational

I have been in contact with management on this issue and have been assured it is a temporary shortage (The bonded stores have run out completely) due to a problem with the supplier. Apparently they are working to resolve the issue. It's not just LGW I'm afraid either.

Raffles

The crew on my LGW flight to Verona this morning swore it was temporary.

Apparently Ms Raffles has toured their site in Mainz and claimed she liked the stuff. However, the bottle I had was foul - it may be an acquired taste but I have no intention of finding out!

JW Blue and Perrier Jouet were both happily ensconsed in the F lounge this morning so standards have not slipped everywhere.

Land-of-Miles

It was Johnny Red in the LHR T1 F Lounge on Thursday.

Land-of-Miles

Temporary supply problem my arse. Do McDonalds have temporary supply problems with buns or beef?

krug

Well, I have to say I stopped drinking the champagne on CE when Piper was replaced with Monopoo.

It is about as close to sparkling wine as Champagne gets - why they don't at least serve a decent australian sparkling or womething I really don't know. This Bosch crap is beneath the pale.

Stick to a Vodka Ginger Ale, or Bring Your Own Krug.

Sadly, most people don't know what they are drinking anyway (as even our esteemed company proved on that linked flight report) so although it's worth complaining, I don't realy see any change on this policy abck to whta would be a credible CE champagne. Although champagne is an advertised benefit of CE, so they would have to change that of the planned serving plonk fizz longer term.

LHR Tim

So how 'temporary' is it? May have to have me fill in the First lounge before heading to LIN next week.

FWIW, don't Lufty serve this stuff - or do they even avoid it as well (I do recall they don't do champagne, at least short haul).

NSFU

Gentlemen! When they pulled the regional flights you said (well, a lot of you did) "good call BA, not a charity, that's business." So when Willy W@nker said to us in the regions - "f*** off we don't care about your business" that was OK. Now that Willy is saying "f*** off we don't care about your business" when (gasp) you might not even be north of Watford, well .....

Would be nice to think though that we could occasionally stand together ...

frankvb

Yesterday on LHR-AMS I had the last (and only) bottle of Monopole on the flight. My neighbour had the pleasure of the German sparkling stuff... I think the FA said they had a shortage. At least before take-off there was some discussion among the FAs standing in the forward galley about the champagne, couldn't pick up the details.

krug

As was mentiond I think it's slightly more complex - supplies come from a bonded warehouse, as I think all on board drinks are duty free.

I wouldn't be surprised if this shortage was designed to co-incide with the summer leisure market kicking off.....

mwalsh

As a matter of fact they do.....during the Liverpool invasion this last week the McDonalds in Athens ran out of burgers!

LHR Tim

Ok, but what would you do if you ran low on drink....Head over to the local offie and get some more? So they have to pay some duty on it (they do that for the pre-takeoff stuff in CW).

FFS, why can't they load a few full bottles and serve from that? Or send someone to Calais and hit the hypermarket?

ThatT1Feeling

I've had the reply to my complaint about this.. something along the lines of "Dear Mr TT1F, we've got lots of complaints to deal with at the moment so it will take up to 28 days for us to reply to you..."

If BA wants to become an el-cheapo airline to compete with Ryanair then fine - that's their choice. But while they have a loyalty scheme that costs tens of thousands of pounds to get to the top tier, along with fares of £800 to Warsaw then they should have the customer relations to back up that kind of customer - i.e. me. I didn't pay £50 one-way for my flight. I spend frankly shedloads with this company each year in CE on shorthaul flights (thank God for VS on long-haul routes) and to be lumped with the daytrippers when I have a complaint in terms of priority is ridiculous and shortsighted. The online comment form doesn't appear to offer choice of Exec Club tier any more, or class of fare paid so how the hell can they identify whether I'm top-tier paying top whack (as I am in this case) or some freeloader looking for £20 to cover their fare. Either way, one month to reply to a complaint stinks.

Last time I flew VS I didn't complain about anything but the guy in the seat next to me had a problem as the laptop power wasn't working for our "block". I wasn't inconvenienced in any way and did not complain but I got a handsigned letter within 5 days of landing with profuse apologies as they were worried I might have been inconvenienced. Now that is customer service how it should be, not some "cut and paste" nonsense lacking in sincerity....

OK - rant over - but seriously this is poor...

PeS

On yesterday's flight BA853 PRG-LHR there wasn't even butter or pre take-off drink, so I better didn't asked for anything with bubbles.