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BREAKING: British Airways ‘buy on board’ menu published

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Now showing on ba.com …… full analysis tomorrow. The obvious question seems to be ‘Where is Colin the Caterpillar?’.

Note that:

“Club Europe (short-haul business class) customers will continue to be offered a full, complimentary menu, which is being improved and revamped from spring 2017 as part of the changes to short-haul catering. Further details will be released on the changes nearer the time.”

London City and Stansted flights will retain free food and snacks until next Summer. Despite rumours, there is no word on free items for status passengers.

This is a cut and paste from the website:

London Heathrow and London Gatwick

From 11 January, we’re upgrading our food offering in our short haul economy cabins (Euro Traveller and UK Domestic) on flights to and from London Heathrow and London Gatwick.

We’re proud to be partnering with Marks & Spencer, another iconic British brand, to offer you a new ‘M&S on board’ menu that will replace the complimentary service currently provided. You will be able to select from the seasonally inspired menu and buy your food and drinks in one easy transaction.

image

M&S on board sample menu

Enjoy delicious sweet and savoury treats from British food favourite Marks & Spencer when travelling in our short haul economy cabins, Euro Traveller and UK Domestic, to and from London Heathrow and London Gatwick.

Here are just some of the exciting food options you can look forward to on board.

Fresh food

Classic Fruit Salad £3.10
Includes pineapple, melon, mango, apple, kiwi and blueberries.

Yogurt with Summer Berry Compote and Crunchy Granola – £1.95
Reduced-fat Greek-style yogurt, blackberry and blackcurrant compote and granola with sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Mature Cheddar Cheese Ploughman’s – £3.00
Farmhouse cheddar cheese with vine-ripened tomatoes, pickle and lettuce on malted brown bread

Aberdeen Angus Beef and Red Onion Chutney Bloomer – £4.75
Soft onion bloomer with Aberdeen Angus beef, red onion chutney and tangy mustard.

Bacon Roll – £4.75
A soft white, buttered roll filled with succulent smoked British bacon. Served hot.

Mozzarella and Tomato Focaccia – £4.75
Buffalo mozzarella, juicy vine-ripened tomatoes and fragrant basil pesto dressing on pesto focaccia. Served hot.

Spiced Chicken with Quinoa and Rice – £4.95
Spiced chicken with quinoa, rice and a smoky tomato salsa.

Savoury snacks

Oriental Snack Mix – £2.00
Sesame-coated roasted cashew nuts, edamame soybeans, and roasted corn with puffed brown rice all with a soy and five-spice seasoning.

Hand Cooked Crisps – £1.00
Salt and Vinegar, or Lightly Sea Salted.

Nut Assortment – £1.60
A selection of almonds, brazil nuts, cashew nuts and hazelnuts.

Wasabi Peas – £1.60
Roasted green peas with a punchy wasabi flavoured coating.

Something sweet

Percy Pig – £1.85
Soft fruit-flavoured gums made with fruit juice…an M&S classic.

Salted Caramel Hazelnut Millionaire Biscuit – £1.45
Made without wheat and deliciously gluten free.

Chocolate Pretzels and Candy Popcorn – £2.45
Milk chocolate-covered toffee popcorn with popping candy pieces.

Super Nut Fruit and Seed Flapjack – £1.45
Soft, chewy all-butter flapjack.

Drinks menu

Choose from a wide range of hot or cold drinks when travelling in our short haul economy cabins, Euro Traveller and UK Domestic, to and from London Heathrow and Gatwick.

Hot drinks

Java Republic Coffee – £2.30
Twinings Tea – £2.30
Cadburys Hot Chocolate – £2.70

Soft drinks

Pip Organic Orange & Apple Juice (200ml) – £2.70
Vita Coco Coconut Water (330ml) – £2.70
Folkington’s Elderflower Presse (250ml) – £2.20
Appletiser (275ml) – £1.80
Harrogate Still or Sparkling Water (500ml) – £1.80
Coca Cola or Diet Coke (330ml) – £1.80

Alcoholic drinks

Spirits (5cl mini bottles) – £4.50
Assorted range including Bombay Sapphire, Johnny Walker Red, Smirnoff Red, Baileys Irish Cream, Bacardi and Jack Daniels.

Mixers (150ml mini bottles) – £1.50
Assorted range including Schweppes tonic water, slimline tonic and ginger ale.

Red or white wine (187ml) – £4.50
Prosecco Bottega Gold (200ml) – £6.00
London Pride (330ml) – £4.00
Becks Lager (330ml) – £4.00
Magners Original Cider (330ml) – £4.00


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Comments (136)

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

  • Ian says:

    So no more free booze in economy.

    • RIccati says:

      Yep, the end of service airline.

      What’s more is that now crew have more work (processing payments and making the till — collating receipts) for the same level of pay.

      “… all of your favourite branded wines, spirits and soft drinks also available to buy,”

  • Mandy Hall says:

    How will they do this on domestics when the effective service time is round about 40 mins?

    • Nick says:

      Easy…….because as with EasyJet most passengers won’t buy anything so the cabin crew can deal with the service very quickly.

    • Andy says:

      It’s cashless, debit or credit card only (guess they will accept contactless) and BA app of using avios points to pay.

      I chese ploughmans sandwich is 375 avios points for example.

      • the_real_a says:

        Has pay with Avios been announced? And is there only 2 sandwiched per flight available that need to be pre-booked 365 days out? 🙂

  • James Ward says:

    Seems OK to me. Happy to pay these prices for decent M&S stuff. I was expecting them to charge a higher premium over high street prices.

  • dale says:

    Since when is starting to charge for food and drink an ‘upgrade’ ?

    Simple matter to buy your ‘meal deal’ in Boots or similar in the terminal, so just one more thing to reduce customer satisfaction with BA on domestic. A free drink and a bag of nuts passed some time, and was one of the main things that differentiated BA from others.

    • Alan says:

      It’s from the same dictionary BA use that describes ‘enhancement’!

      Can’t see them coping with serving hot bacon rolls as well as sorting out all the charging, etc given the time it normally takes them to do one round with free drinks and nibbles!

    • Russell Gowers says:

      That word stuck out like a v-sign in a school photo!

      What they are essentially saying is “The stuff we gave you for free is so hateful that paying for food is actually preferable.”

  • Peter says:

    No more free water or coffee in economy apparently.

    • Alan says:

      Definitely not impressed at lack of free water, that was mainly all I had anyway!

    • Lady London says:

      They need to provide free water as a health matter.
      We’re not allowed to carry water through security and the prices in shops in the terminal for bottles of water are predatory to the extent that it’s impossible to buy enough for a long flight.

      • Alex says:

        The health of LCC passengers seems to be fine despite never offering free water….

      • AndyR says:

        Take an empty bottle and fill it up airside.

        • Andy says:

          I was under the impression that you can’t take a container larger than 100ml through security whether it already has liquid in it or not, so how would you take an empty bottle through?

          • Toby says:

            That’s wrong – you can take an empty bottle as big as you like (well, certainly 1l is fine, I”ve done it 100s of times). Finding somewhere to fill it up is harder.

          • matthew says:

            The end of BA as a premium airline. I doubt the savings will be seen in the fares.

            In T5 last week, and they have just installed a cold drinking water fountain, machine at the top of the escalator down to the lower level from security.

            Sinks by security landside, to empty bottles, and fountain airside. No slot yet for £1 coin.

          • Bob says:

            No, you can take empty containers through of larger sizes. It’s the volume of liquid they care about. We always pour water out, take bottle through and refill.

          • Gavin says:

            Water fountains by the bogs at T5 as you turn left after south security. I always take an empty bottle through and fill up as I get very thirsty on planes.

          • Fenny says:

            On more than one occasion when I’ve taken a travel mug of coffee to drink on the journey to LHR, I’ve been asked at security why I have an empty mug in my luggage. The answer “because I’m not going to throw away a decent travel mug” seems to boggle their mind somewhat. Even when I show them the coffee dregs inside, they seem to think I have some kind of ulterior motive.

      • Tina says:

        This is short haul only

  • william merrett says:

    Ploughmans, Coffee and sparkling water £7.10 which is currently pretty much what I’d have as the complimentary offering.

    The extra choice is a good thing, I just hope we see the air fare reduce by around £5 to compensate for this.

    Also free tea or coffee wouldn’t have been that hard for them.

  • n says:

    I guess we’ll have to get pissed in the lounges now

  • GK says:

    How long before the crew are in orange jumpsuits and selling scratch cards?

    • Genghis says:

      And, “duh duh duh duh duh duh, this is another BA flight that had landed on time” (even though you’ve been held in a stack for 45 mins on LHR approach)

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

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