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New British Airways Club Europe catering starts Sunday with some hot meals scrapped

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The much heralded improvements to British Airways Club Europe catering begin tomorrow, Sunday.

That said, it certainly isn’t improvements all round – some popular routes are having their hot meals removed.

Let’s look at what is happening.

Club Europe flights are currently grouped into four bands, with a different catering option for each.  These four bands are being regrouped into Very Short, Short, Medium and Long.  These groupings do NOT match the current Band 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 arrangement which is why some routes are losing hot meals.

British Airways Club Europe catering changes

Very Short

Only Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Jersey fall into this band.  You will receive a hot bacon roll, fruit and yoghurt for breakfast (Jersey retains the hot breakfast) and a cold plate for the rest of the day (09.30+ departures).

Short and Medium

‘Short’ covers routes as far as Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Bordeaux and Milan.  ‘Medium’ covers routes as far out as Oslo, Bologna, Zagreb, Porto, Madrid and Bologna.

These routes will receive:

  • Breakfast (to 09.29) – the current hot breakfast
  • Brunch (09.30 – 10.59) – a large hot roll or a cold meat plate
  • Lunch (11.00 – 13.59) – salad or a hot sandwich
  • Afternoon tea (14.00 – 16.59) – cold ‘finger’ sandwiches or a ploughman’s salad (no idea what that is!) with tea cake.  No more scones.
  • Dinner (17.00+) – salad or a hot sandwich

On Medium routes, there will be snacks and a bar round before Lunch and Dinner.

Long

‘Long’ is basically everything including, and beyond, Lisbon, Ibiza, Rome, Budapest, Krakow and Stockholm.

  • Breakfast (departures up to 09.29) – a hot breakfast
  • Rest of the Day – a two course meal with two choices of hot main course.

On the longest of the Long routes, liqueurs will now be offered alongside tea and coffee.

New service standards:

  • Club World crockery to be introduced, although glasses will remain the same as present
  • You now get a mug for your tea or coffee
  • Wine and champagne to be served from full-size bottles on Medium and Long routes
  • Trays are being reduced in size, because meals will be served as separate courses

The feedback I have had from people who have seen the demos of the new crockery is very positive.

Who wins here?

Flyers on Short and Medium routes now receive a choice of meals at all times outside breakfast.

Those flying on Long routes which were originally Band 4, outside of the breakfast period, gain an appetiser.

The real winners are those who are currently on Band 3B flights such as Gibraltar, Helsinki or Lisbon – these flights will become Long and so gain a hot meal.  There will be no more afternoon tea on these services.

Who loses here?

My personal view is that removing the scones from Afternoon Tea is a downgrade, especially as my interest in a Ploughman’s salad or BA’s cold finger sandwiches is very low.  I accept that the scones were not popular with a lot of passengers, however.

The big losers are those flying Club Europe on routes of approximately two hours.  These routes are losing their hot meal service to be replaced with a salad or hot sandwich.

The routes losing the hot meal include (I think) Barcelona, Bologna, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Innsbruck, Mllan, Nice, Oslo, Palma, Pisa, Porto, Prague, Salzburg, Venice, Vienna, Verona and Zagreb.

I am a little thrown by the logic of this, to be honest.  There are high yield business routes on that list which are seeing hot meals cut off, whilst some predominantly lower yield leisure routes are seeing hot meals introduced.

Let’s see how it all plays out.  I don’t have a Club Europe in the diary until May so please post your feedback here if you are flying on Sunday or early next week.

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Comments (100)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Phil says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:31

    Hi

    Does anyone know where Bilbao will fall in this new category?

    Tbanks

  • Sean says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:37

    I’m flying back from Faro early next week. Let’s see what happens.

  • Xmenlongshot says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:45

    Sorry OT, I’ll be on an infra day return flight on which I’ll hit 600TPs on the outbound leg. Will I be able to use the lounge on the return that same day or do I have to wait until tier points have posted a couple of days later. Knowing BA, suspect the latter. Thanks

    • Alan says:
      25 Mar25 March 09:29

      Yes, will need to wait for points to post and status upgrade to be processed. You could be very lucky if the points have posted but status not quite upgraded yet (usually takes a couple days) you might find a willing lounge agent, but unlikely in LHR TBH.

    • Kinkell says:
      25 Mar25 March 09:32

      My brother hit his 600 TPs, mid trip, and was refused entry to Galleries for domestic return to ABZ.,even though he’d come off a business class Finnair flight. He complained and BA suitably apologetic saying he should have got in and they would be ensuring Lounge staff were suitably trained.
      I wouldn’t hold your breath!

  • Simon says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:50

    Anyone know how I could get a set of the stumpy tea cups that they’ll now be phasing out? I’ve always liked them…

  • Denis says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:50

    and you remember there was so much bragging about Club Europe meal improvement when BA introduced BOB concept in economy? Here we go…

    The worst, there will be no end to all those cuts. People complain here (and so do I, it’s sincerely sad to see for me BA being completely trashed), but the truth is they will keep flying BA because of LHR, limited alternatives, convenience and high frequencies. They know that and that’s a reason why they are doing so.

    Still I find that ridiculous to make all those 1000 cuts at the moment when most airlines (BA incl) are swimming in cash due to low oil prices. Airlines report record profits. US airlines have been heavily investing in their product over past few years. Great improvements in onboard experience for DL, AA and lastly even UA jumped in. Massive lounges overhaul across the board. I mean, passengers at least get their fair part from airlines being so profitable. What is happening with BA at the very same time is just complete disgrace.

    • Marc says:
      25 Mar25 March 14:43

      I guess they will only do improvements whenever their pax numbers go down… As long as pax numbers go up, they don´t seem bothered to do proper “improvements”.
      ultimately the reason is BA has a monopoly in London, without a true competitor.

    • Nick_C says:
      25 Mar25 March 17:41

      There can’t be many routes where BA offer the only non stop flights, surely?

      • the real harry1 says:
        25 Mar25 March 18:33

        for our place in the sun? – not if you include the other ‘London’ airports – but I don’t think getting to Gatwick, Luton or Stansted is that different for us, coming from the south-west, maybe 30 mins in it

  • Simon says:
    25 Mar25 March 08:54

    Where actually are the ‘improvements’?
    Upgrading the crockery I don’t think can be classed as one, as these items would have been replaced anyway. Perhaps they have spent slightly more on that.

    Losing hot meals on half the routes saves a load of cash continuously. I’m guessing that the cost of a sandwich (which they might as well buy from M&S as well now) is under half that of a hot meal, which at some times were pretty decent.

    The other flights are seemingly unchanged, with a tiny cake in a pot counted as a ‘course’. They could add a couple of lettuce leaves in another similar sized pot and bang,a three course meal!

    Personally I would rather have a good hot meal and eat it with those faux metal plastic cutlery.

    What happens to SPMLs? On some of the CE routes I don’t think these are hot either (I bet they are loving that salad can tick so many boxes), but the kids meal might be the only hot one left.

  • David S says:
    25 Mar25 March 09:08

    Am I right to think you still get a better (hot) meal in business with Iberia to Spain and Finnair to Helsinki compared to these ‘enhanced’ meals with BA?

    • John says:
      25 Mar25 March 11:21

      AY does give a hot meal but no choices, so you may prefer BA if it gives you 2 options.

      AY technically also has three “courses”, but they are more substantial than the “tiny cake in a pot” and “couple of lettuce leaves” to quote Simon at 8:54am.

      The AY meal can be a bit “gloopy” though. But I fly AY because of the A350 and the 5 dailies compared to BA’s 2

      • Ian says:
        25 Mar25 March 13:42

        AY “meals” always seem to consist of “meat” or meatballs, mashed potato and cabbage which I found pretty awful. Wish I’d come back from HEL on BA in CE rather than AY recently.

        I don’t have a CE flight booked until May and that will be to Milan, lunchtime out and lunchtime back. Just my luck that’ll now be a downgraded meal.

        Maybe I’m in a minority but I very much liked the scones and clotted cream for afternoon tea, so I will miss them.

        • ankomonkey says:
          25 Mar25 March 20:40

          “AY “meals” always seem to consist of “meat” or meatballs, mashed potato and cabbage which I found pretty awful.” Have you ever seen a menu of a Finnish restaurant? That’s pretty much it…

  • Speedbird676 says:
    25 Mar25 March 09:19

    No more scones?! They’ve finally removed the British from British Airways!

    • zsalya says:
      25 Mar25 March 16:12

      Exactly.
      I do wish airlines would respect their heritage.
      I think BA should do all-day breakfasts in CW.
      Simpler does’t mean less desirable.

      For wastage, offer pre-booking, and only then do you definitely get what you want, including scones.

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