British Airways ‘to sell M&S food on short-haul’

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• Kingy says:

  19 Sep19 September 09:44

  My wife works for one of the suppliers of M&S Sandwiches/Bread etc.
  Based on insider knowledge we would never eat a pre packed sandwich.
  Read into that what you like….

  • CV3V says:

    19 Sep19 September 09:47

    yes, and always wash the washed salad!

    • Alfie says:

      19 Sep19 September 10:13

      Seems like a strategy to fail from the start. Irrespective of alternative choices we and many others choose to travel BA short haul without even considering the low cost carriers (unless the price is ridiculous) because of the confidence in the brand and the on board service which includes a free bar service and even a packet of crisps.
      I would doubt that BA will reduce their prices because of this change and if they do so it will be a race to the bottom requiring even more degradation of BA reputation and service.
      Instead of following Vueling they should be upgrading their product to compete with the mainstream carriers such as Turkish and the mid east operators.
      Sad to see this happening to what was a great airline!!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    19 Sep19 September 13:16

    Based on insider knowledge I’d never eat anything anywhere except grown, prepared and cooked by my own fair hands

    Horror stories everywhere

• Mark says:

  19 Sep19 September 10:11

  So BA fly from LGW with BOB, and Easyjet fly from LGW with BOB. Where’s the justification for higher fares than SLZY?

  • Rob says:

    19 Sep19 September 11:08

    The £4bn BA pension deficit, for a start, as well as a large number of cabin crew who are still on £40k+ compared to easy’s £12k+.

    • Sarah says:

      19 Sep19 September 11:45

      That might be the justification for BA to charge more, but there doesn’t seem to be any incentive for the customer to pay more now. If BA can’t compete on price then they need to compete on product, which they were doing before all the recent and upcoming enhancements.

      • Roger says:

        19 Sep19 September 17:21

        +1

    • JohnW says:

      19 Sep19 September 12:12

      The customer doesn’t care about that though. BA will have to compete/match with Easy’s prices on those routes as they are now only offering the same service.

• Ross says:

  19 Sep19 September 10:27

  In my mind BA (and LHR) have lost any advantage they had, having just arrived at LHR from GIG there is nothing to commend either of them – but the planes are still full (as is LHR) I must be missing something!

  • Gavin says:

    19 Sep19 September 11:22

    The planes are full down the back as BA are very competitive on price if you are flying from XXX-LHR-YYY where XXX is somewhere in continental Europe e.g. a non hub airport and YYY is somewhere on another continent.

    Looking at Seoul for example, BA generally come out cheaper than Aeroflot / air China who are usually the cheapest by far. Compared to the cost of the direct flight it’s almost worth doing an ex-EU! But that’s how airlines fill seats.

    • Roger says:

      19 Sep19 September 17:25

      But that is true for all airlines to keep routes “alive”
      from LON the routes I fly TK or LH would come out cheaper than BA or VS all the time.
      flying from one country in EU to their hub and onward to destionations further east (for TK/LH)

• Simmo says:

  19 Sep19 September 10:44

  If food is stopped for Club Europe, there would no longer be a Club Europe service!

  Lounge and a spare seat in the middle? not going to worth 2-5x the price!

  Part of the master plan to gain an extra 6-14 seats worth of sales?

• CV3V says:

  19 Sep19 September 13:04

  Wonder if they will offer the £4 lunch deal, that would be a vast improvement on the current offering. Then maybe easyjet will respond by offering a Boots meal deal!

  • James67 says:

    19 Sep19 September 14:01

    IMO there is both better quality and value to be had from the boots deal than the M&S one but it depends on combination of items selected.

    • harry says:

      19 Sep19 September 14:05

      check out the Morrisons deal – you can load up with fresh salady stuff instead of stodge

      • Roger* says:

        19 Sep19 September 14:18

        Well, Harry. Boots, M&S and WHSmug but not Morrisons AFAIK are present at some or all London airports, and those at LHR earn Heathrow Rewards points, in addition to Boots’ own Advantage points. This is a points forum, y’know. 😉

        I had not previously contemplated buying at the airport, not since the fumes of my giant Macdonalds filled the catering-less F cabin on DTW-LAS once, anyway.

        If M&S sandwiches are offered on Band 2 flights, I would see that as a genuine enhancement, so long as they were not cold chicken salad. 😀

      • James67 says:

        19 Sep19 September 15:02

        Usually I opt for a salad at boots but will check out Morrisons as I go past one most days, thx for tip.

        • CV3V says:

          19 Sep19 September 19:30

          One of my (many) complaints about EDI airport is that Boots is gone and replaced with Superdrug, their meal deal isn’t as good! My other complaints are wide in range and scope!

  • Rob says:

    19 Sep19 September 14:11

    easyJet does offer a meal deal, I accidentally got it when I flew Southend to Paris. (By ‘accidentally’ I mean I bought 2 things and was told I could have a free KitKat too!)

• harry says:

  19 Sep19 September 14:10

  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/british-airways-eyes-plan-to-scrap-free-food-in-flight-with-ms-help-so-whats-the-all-the-fuss-about-a7316366.html

• David S says:

  19 Sep19 September 14:15

  If the story is true, then BA should at least lower the prices to reflect it. For me, it is not a big deal since I eat at the lounge before boarding and only have drinks on the plane and the snacks on short haul are not worth the hassle and I won’t be buying BOB anyway. Let’s hope they don’t start charging for the drinks.

• Matthew says:

  19 Sep19 September 20:23

  Slight O/T. Found out about a little quirk today with BA regarding choosing your seat early. I’d booked Club Europe LHR-AMS T-355 with Avios for our family to position out for our long haul flight and didn’t realise that if you have an infant travelling with you, then everyone in the booking is entitled to free seat selection from the moment you book! Shame it took me 8 months to find that out :-(.

  • BigDave says:

    19 Sep19 September 21:25

    …and for regular economy if travelling with kids they will allocate all your seats together
    and you can change them the day before the flight – (they may allocate 2+2 in consecutive rows and you want 3+1 on the same row for example)

    • harry says:

      20 Sep20 September 07:14

      …remembering that ‘kids’ means 11YO or under

      12 YO are young adults & can sit on their own according to BA

      don’t forget you can also check in online T-24, don’t however print your tickets as this messes up what follows; check in again at the airport using self check in (get there early) and choose any available seats on the plane incl exits FOC

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