British Airways announces its in-flight service cuts for August ….

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• Kipto says:

  23 Jul23 July 08:59

  Amendment to above. Meant to add that I was flying with my son

• John G says:

  23 Jul23 July 09:06

  If there was ever a perfect time to cut ice cream from the club kitchen it would be August! Guessing it will make a return in January.

  • John says:

    23 Jul23 July 10:39

    Actually the temperature on a plane is (meant to be) the same all year round..

    • Alex W says:

      24 Jul24 July 01:40

      Except that on every BA flight I’ve taken it’s sweltering when the ovens are on.

• Andrew Stock says:

  23 Jul23 July 09:09

  Do BA not realise it’s the little extras that cost very little that actcully create value to passengers

  • zsalya says:

    23 Jul23 July 12:27

    The Delta one shows some imagination, which is what seems to be lacking in much of the BA cost-cutting.

    Is there opportunity to cut net cost by offering product placement, of the bag as well as the contents?
    Variations on design (miminal cost – they are ordering thousands of each anyway) encourage excitement, a few people to try collecting, and discussion (i.e. good publicity). There is no need to have any sort of balanced mix on any individual flight.

    Making things on demand only (blankets in daytime, champagne in lounge) does reduce cost without significantly lowering the customer experience.
    Reducing choice completely does affect the customer experience.

    • Rob says:

      23 Jul23 July 15:13

      Worth noting that most airlines inc Emirates have stopped amenity kits on day flights. You can take what you need from a box in the Lou. Bet this is next ….

• Jason says:

  23 Jul23 July 09:13

  Well the only way to deal with Saladgate is to complain. Complain on the flight. Then complain to BA when you get back.

  • anonymous says:

    23 Jul23 July 11:07

    Perhaps even wander round the cabin with a petition asking everyone to sign?

    The only problem with that is that BA may still have that department which victimised people who made complaints. See Private Eye in the 1990s.

    So probably best to stick with asking cabin crew how we can get the complaint heard. If every HFP reader did it every time, they might eventually hear something from the crew.

• Nick says:

  23 Jul23 July 09:30

  It would be interesting to see a table, showing the changes to service by month. Months along the top; the various aspects of service as rows (broken in to cabin class). That way, you could easily see what the service was at the time you booked, and what the service was at the time you received it.

• Gavin says:

  23 Jul23 July 09:34

  My travel pattern is liking going to drop to just a couple of long haul flights a year, the way BA are making cuts it might be time to make them on different airlines!

• Jen says:

  23 Jul23 July 09:37

  This is getting ridiculous. At what point do all these “enhancements” give you the right to cancel. Presumably only when the actual transporting from a to b is affected but this looking less and less like what I booked and paid for! And who on earth thinks AUGUST, the hottest month of the year and school holidays so most kids is a good time to stop ice cream?!

  Flying long haul club next month with a 2 and 4 year old. Yes there was a 241 redemption but we paid cash for the kids in the sale a year agoso there is probably an outlay of over £3k +100k avios. Since then we have found that the galleries was closing (the kids room may have been small but it was sort of soundproofed and allowed us to keep them out of other passengers hair, and you could get a glass of champagne). The temporary lounge is overcrowded, and has neither kids room or champagne and we could have got in it with our priority passes anyway. The ambient goods onboard thing just means packing my children with more sugar and salt and preservatives, which is not good for anyone. The ice cream could have been a useful distraction mid flight and we definitely would have had it given we have kids and it is August! And I had to spend nearly an hour on the phone arguing with them just to get my kids assigned seats without paying out an extra £320 because the different booking payment methods meant they put the kids on a different PNR even though I did it over the phone all in one go, and sadly my 4 year old hasn’t quite made silver yet! As if it would be good or even legal for them to sit my 2 and 4 year old away from me when they are being packed with sugar, deprived of ice cream and haven’t had anywhere to be noisy in the lounge. Oh and this is a busy leisure route where the seats are already booked up and they didn’t even have a spare blanket last year and ran out of champagne by dessert. And they are too tight to pay for the lounge on the return.

  If I knew then what I know now I would have booked with virgin.

  If I knew then what I know now I would not have booked

  • Jen says:

    23 Jul23 July 09:38

    Oh and I don’t eat cheese and avocado and was really looking forward to my salmon!!!

    • David Treitel says:

      23 Jul23 July 10:26

      Order the kosher meal and they will load you some smoked salmon!

  • Tony says:

    23 Jul23 July 09:49

    I assume you are referring to Gatwick? I vowed never to fly from Gatwick when BA cancelled the shuttle from Manchester… A good holiday deal came up with club flights and we booked for November and I should have given it more thought. Getting to Gatwick from where we live will involve a long drive (train links to Gatwick involve a change via London (or Reading if I recall) and impractical, no airline flies Manchester to Gatwick, BA do not provide support to get from Heathrow to Gatwick, and coaches take too long…). Irrespective, after booking, I discovered that the BA lounge was closed due to the BA move to South Terminal. Originally the move was due for completion by November so I thought we would be OK, but now has been pushed back until next year! Rather than provide a suitable alternative, customers are having to squeeze into No 1 Traveller lounge… Given the length of time the move was going to take, BA could/should have made alternative arrangements rather than pass their passengers onto another lounge. From what I have read the experience is not good but BA do not seem to listen, a common theme…

    • Jen says:

      23 Jul23 July 10:08

      Yes gatwick. Should have known when there was a spate of gatwick sales last year that there must be an ulterior motive. Sadly we had booked three return flights from there before the lounge news broke. The gatwick services were already an inferior product and it isn’t even a convenient airport for us. Won’t be booking any more!

  • ankomonkey says:

    23 Jul23 July 10:10

    I’m in a similar position in terms of child age. The only reason we still use BA is for convenience due to direct flights. I can’t wait until my kids are old enough for my wife to consider going indirect so we can escape the BA lack of quality and service. And we couldn’t get into the LGW No.1 lounge earlier this year – received vouchers to use in the terminal instead (but not enough to feed the 4 of us unless we all had a Boots lunch deal). “Not quite enough” is a perfect summary of BA for me.

• james says:

  23 Jul23 July 10:02

  Oh BA….I mean the club world seats and cabin are bad enough.

  (First world problems)

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