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

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• JamesW says:

  26 Mar26 March 20:20

  Given quantity & quality; £5 in a cafe for the very short flights, £10 for short-medium flights & £10-£20 on long flights ?

• JamesW says:

  26 Mar26 March 20:28

  “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.”

  Simply time your departure from the UK to allow a meal in the BA lounge (or at home / resaurant) and your arrival at one of these destinations in time for a much tastier local treat, thus negating the need to eat a substandard meal on board !!
  Do similar on the return.
  Certainly for breakfast I am fairly confident that the vast majority of people eating on the plane in CE are having a second unnecessary breakfast after all !! Getting up a few hrs before the flight I’m sure most will have already eaten breakfast.

  • Alan says:

    26 Mar26 March 21:18

    I used to like being able to leave home a bit later and skip the lounge at EDI and get a cooked breakkie onboard. Lounge at EDI only does cold stuff anyway (unless you go to Aspire or No 1 for bacon roll) and with Fast Track security you could be fairly sure of getting through promptly and thus minimise how early you had to get out of bed! (no T5-esque conformance to worry about!)

  • pun-ter says:

    28 Mar28 March 21:37

    To be honest, even the food in the T5 galleries lounge is very low quality and the choice is extremely limited IMO, so I wouldn’t use it as an alternative.

• Tim says:

  26 Mar26 March 20:39

  Flew LGW from Malta today and experienced the new service on its launch day. Biggest losers are the crew – they were rushed off their feet as not only were they continuously topping up glasses from full size bottles of fizz and wine but they also had to serve the mains separately to the appetiser due to the new smaller tray size. As passengers, it did feel more attentive (could so easily go the other way) but we were perfectly happy with the old system and extremely conscious that the superb crew didn’t get a break. Order of service was menus first on new cheaper feeling single card format with food on the front and drinks on the back. Hot towels next so we could do our own (unpaid) cleaning followed by the magazine service which we have never experienced in short/medium haul before but the choice was very good. Drinks service next – JW Black Label is now the only whisky and sadly, the Glenlivet has been enhanced away. Coke is back after the short-lived Pepsi. New smaller trays with appetiser next – smoked salmon and creme fraiche and very nice too with dessert, cheese and limp crackers (but better than the old “savoury snackettes”). Warm rolls were offered separately from a basket as before. Main meal service next – slightly overdone but still pleasant chicken or vegetarian curry (looked like the chicken ran out rapidly!). My partner was a little slow with the starter and therefore completely forgotten for the main and had to ask for it 20 minutes later – CSM was horrified and very apologetic but it’s easy to forget this when you’re jogging backwards and forwards with mains for 30 people. The linen napkin remains on the tray and still wraps the cutlery but the small plastic sachet with salt, pepper and refreshing towel has been enhanced away. Wines were pleasant (Tempranillo or Syrah for red lovers) in slightly larger glasses than before but could be annoying if the crew prefer not to share and hide behind the curtain (not in our case thankfully!). Brandy is still served but not sure if it was Otard as it was poured behind the curtain before serving and absent from the drinks menu. Tea and coffee is now served in mugs and much better in our opinion. Overall quality of food was very good but then we’ve noticed a considerable improvement over the last year (apart from the daft afternoon tea which is served after 18:00 on flights departing just before 17:00 and a poor substitute for a much needed hot meal – the 16:55 HEL-LHR service being a prime example and that’s if it’s on time). We chatted with the crew about the new intensity of the service from their point of view and they said they didn’t mind as it made the time pass quicker but it did feel rather odd from an airline with such a focus on efficiency. Just a guess but I’d imagine the crew with a long day such as LGW-PFO-LGW and no layover won’t be quite so jolly about it but then as with all flights, it’s down to the individual crew members who create the passenger experience.

• George n says:

  28 Mar28 March 21:26

  Just flew szg – lgw in clubc europe.

  Disappointed the two course menu was removed, the cheese and ham toastie doesn’t quite compare. Champagne now served from a 750ml bottle (rather than a personal mini bottle means you get the whole bottle if you’re the only person drinking champagne mmm)

• Graham B says:

  30 Mar30 March 22:21

  Flew LHR- CPH-LHR this week. Extremely disappointed by the lack of hot dinner service on the return flight. Full plane, almost exclusively management types flying back at the end of the working day. Expressions of disbelief / humour from many pax at the paucity of the so-called chicken salad or ciabatta roll. BA are nuts using flight duration to determine the meal service. They should look at the number of premium pax on the route, – virtually every passenger on this flight had exec club gold or silver tags on their cabin bags. A rapid rethink is needed.

• Adam Cunard says:

  5 Apr5 April 19:56

  I have just taken the LGW – ALC – LGW had the new service, we and we got a full hot meal, was a massive improvement, but my friends has just been to Munich not as far but same flight time and got the cut down food. Has any one flown LGW or LHR to BCL (Barcelona) as its similar to Malaga or Alicante, but form the article its thought the meal has been cut, can anyone advice?

• Jon says:

  8 Apr8 April 09:56

  Flew on my weekly flight back from Milan and had the tiny one prawn , small chicken coronation salad and a really tough slice of dried chicken. You would pay £5 in costa coffee for it and feel upset. It’s a shock that the flight prices are very high for this flight and I now can’t see the benefit. Would probably rather pay in economy for the better food. Terrible way to treat loyal premium paying customers.

• Bob says:

  10 Apr10 April 07:31

  Had the cold meat plate FRA-LHR yesterday. A very small meal indeed that tasted very good however, Had the Castelnau champagne as well. I’m a very modest eater when flying so this was good for me but I can imagine not nearly enough for many others.

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