nyjoe4

I think there's probably some nuance to this, but I am not an infectious disease specialist. I suspect the point (3 months ago, when implemented) is that the user could throw rubbish directly into a bag, with no other human contact, once only. No multi-plated meals, no repeat contact. I also imagine that passengers unhappy with the catering in First Class right now would be unhappy with a single tray service, too.

Again, you may be right, but it's speculative. We agree that there are no real savings, so perhaps there is / was something else at play, including some scientific guidance or operational issues in other jurisdictions or union rules.

On that, we 100% agree. There's probably more space right now in Economy, to be honest, so I wouldn't bother. But I'm not the one complaining about the in-flight experience

ahmetdouas

In this situation LH J is better than BA F and dare I say it the economy food may even be better than BA F!

cmd320

Incompetence would be my first assumption.

1Aturnleft

Presumably because anyone parting with their own cash to fly BA First these days needs to have their head tested. Even as an Avios redemption it's hardly a great value redemption with the dumbed down onboard service hence the (relatively) easy access to F rewards and upgrades at the moment, it still doesn't add up as being worthy of my cash or my Avios.

757

Wow, what a comparison. I hope BA is not charging pre-COVID prices for that experience. Love how your brought your own cutlery and plates to improve the experience that much more! I would think that BA could provide more attractive disposable glasses/plates or presentation to improve the experience at least a little bit.

As always, an excellent conclusion to your report. Thank you!

Matthew

SFO777

Thanks very much Matthew. BA has typically charged quite a bit less than LH/LX/AF for First, which seems a fair trade-off in normal times. I paid with Avios and did actually get a discount of sorts as BA gave each of us 10,000 Avios after I complained, sending them side by side LH-BA comparative pics.

Dover2Golf

I didn't see this in the BA forum, it must have caused multiple heart attacks and strokes!

Great report demonstrating BA's (further) shortcomings.

hugolover

The WhatsApp groups will be alive with the red-bevved rosacea faces!

What an excellent report, comparing the two carriers together. I can't imagine why people are so triggered because you callout even Lufty when they are occasionally poor. You could never be accused of Rose Tinted specs.

BArb[ara] is so incredibly apt, I wish I could take credit for this moniker's creation.

Silver Fox

There's none so blind as those that will not see.

737Av8tor

Tad strong there dear boy: if you know that BA catering is shabby, do as SFO777 did, take your own grub.

If you value the space, legroom, flat bed etc and access to the CCR over inflight food, then BA provides value, or bang, for your buck. Equally, convenience is worth consideration: for us LHR is 2 hours away, FRA is 5 to 6 hours away. That with an £1800 TATL F fare compared to LH £5500 makes sense to me: but then I'm a cheap Scotsman. You can buy a lot of food and drink for £3700.

The other aspect is that by bringing your own food on board in F you are really rubbing it in that the offerings are not to the standard they advertise: To Fly To Serve? Fine dining? Even pre-COVID it was hit and miss. Fortunately the US carriers on TATL, even in J, have upped their game and BA will, perhaps, realise the error of their ways and strive to match the competition. However, their Fire and Rehire policy is certainly disenfranchising crew who are potentially facing 60% cuts in their pay, which, coupled with the management's race to the bottom policies, is hardly conducive to a fabulous soft product.

cmd320

Sorry, I still don't really see the value there. AA F, while still by no means industry leading, is far better than BA F in terms of hard product. At this point though, looking at BA F I also have to look at the J products on the market and if value is what we're talking about, AA J, DL J, and UA J (the actual Polaris seats) are all basically equivalent to BA F and offer an actual soft product. Yes, you'd be giving up CCR access, but I don't really think that's worth the additional price of F alone.

Honestly, before the BA F product was gutted it was hard to come up with a business case for it, now... well, it's laughable to say the least. They'd be better off just selling it as J and opening the seats up for elite selection or for an even higher fee than they already charge for regular J seats with a J ticket.

SFO777

I do think that the £1800 TATL F fare is attractive and at that point I'm a buyer. Normal pre-Covid BA F, both hard and soft product, was far better than the US3 J products.
If you're talking QR J, well that's another story.

cmd320

At £1800, yes. I'd think about it. But I don't think that's widely available price point for the product which seems to typically run more in the ~ $8000-10000 range or a US-LHR roundtrip. In that range, even with the normal pre-CV service, I'd find it difficult to justify that over a ~ $3000-4000 J ticket on AA/DL/UA.

737Av8tor

I chose 2 arbritary dates for 5 day trips with BA from LHR to ORD: around my birthday in January it is just over £3K round trip. In August it's available from £1810.

According to XE that's just over $3900 in January and $2328 for August ( at today's XE rates }: if you are being qouted $8 - 10K you are being stiffed.

I found AA F absolutely fantastic, fabulous food and astonishing service ( 777 from MIA - LHR ), Delta in J from DUB to NYC was equally good: never had so much food on an airplane and United J on a 757 from MAN - NYC was very good, the food was outstanding for an airplane,way better than BA F to MIA from LHR, but not quite as good as BA F from LHR to KUL.

BA can be hit or miss depending on the crew and theh latest changes to T's and C's will further impact on service.

cmd320

Variable based on travel dates of course, but a week-long trip in October, tough to find a lot of options under $8k out of JFK. Slightly cheaper from MIA. I don't tend to book much more than a month or two out so that's likely where the difference occurs..

I'm honestly not a very big fan of any of them. I think AA F is okay if you can get it cheap, but isn't really worth any premium. The problem is that the options to London from the US just aren't all that great overall. It would be great to see a fifth freedom flight on QR or EK from London to the US, but that seems unlikely any time soon. The EK option to MXP and the SQ option to FRA have been staples for me in the past though.