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Your photos of the new British Airways Club Europe food

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I wrote on Saturday about the introduction of the new ‘improved’ British Airways Club Europe food service.  This began yesterday.

In reality it is a mixed bag:

almost all routes now have a choice of meal where previously there was often no choice

some routes have gained a hot meal (eg Lisbon, Gibraltar)

quite a lot of routes have lost a hot meal, gaining a panini instead (see the list in the article on Saturday)

Here are a few photos taken by readers yesterday.  Click on any of the images to enlarge.

Breakfast

Very little seems to have changed here.  The portion size may be bigger, or it may just be the smaller tray making it look bigger.  The new cup should keep your drink hotter for longer.

Verdict:  no major improvement in food, some improvement in presentation

Club Europe breakfast 1

and

Club Europe breakfast 2

Lunch / Dinner

This is where it gets contentious, as whether this is an improvement or not depends on route.

The photo below is the lunch, and presumably also dinner, served on a Madrid flight yesterday.  This route would previously have had a proper hot meal.  The panini served was cheese and tomato.

Note how the panini comes with a bread plate so you can, erm, have some bread with your bread …..

New Club Europe lunch

However you spin it, what you see above is NOT an ‘improvement’ on the previous hot meal.

Another reader managed to persuade the crew to give him both the hot sandwich and the salad:

Club Europe lunch 2

When you have both items together, it begins to look a bit better – but only the goodwill of the crew will get you this.

Here is a similar salad from a German route:

rsz_club_europe_salad

The reader described it as:

“A rather unusual combination of chicken salad with coronation chicken and king prawn. The coronation chicken was reasonable, the prawn was tough and tasteless and the chicken was a little bland. Not better no worse than my previous experiences.“

On routes which would previously have only had a salad, arguably getting the choice of one of the two items above is an improvement.  The salad option looks smaller than the old-style salad however.

This is the panini given out on Heathrow to Amsterdam last night – it was unlabelled but appears to be some sort of pulled meat with cheese:

Club Europe panini

However, to be fair, you would previously have just had a salad on this route so there is at least now a hot option.

Afternoon tea

Departures between 2pm and 5pm on ‘Short’ and ‘Medium’ routes get a new version of afternoon tea.  The scones have gone.   You must now choose between cold ‘finger’ sandwiches or a ploughman’s salad.

Here is the ploughman’s salad, featuring scotch egg.  The mini victoria sponge replaces the scones.  As a shorter flight, it still gets individual bottles on champagne.  This looks ok although I had a soft spot for the scones:

club_europe_ploughmans_salad

Here, from a different flight, is what the sandwich option is like:

club_europe_finger_sandwich afternoon tea

On longer flights ….

Here is a menu from a longer flight – Gatwick to Malta.  Routes like Malta always had a hot meal service so the change here is less dramatic.  The person who sent me this menu said that he found the meal OK:

club_europe_menu

It is still early days for the new service, of course, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some changes as the months pass.  I think it is fair to say that nothing above passes as a ‘major investment in Club Europe’ or whatever the wording was that was used at the last City investor presentation.

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Comments (111)

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

  • JAXBA says:
    27 Mar27 March 08:35

    It might help if perhaps a side salad or fresh fruit were provided alongside the panino. The various panini do look somewhat the same size and quality as the hot breakfast sandwich that used to be served in ET; although perhaps the bread is slightly nicer, the fillings seem poor. I’d expect slightly more substance and freshness; even a few token leaves of rocket on the panini plates would go a long way in dressing this up.

  • Kathy says:
    27 Mar27 March 08:39

    As someone who can no longer eat dairy (sob!) those choices look particularly unappetising/stomach churning. I wonder what the dairy-free option is like? Not that so ever fly CE.

  • Doug says:
    27 Mar27 March 08:41

    This does look even poorer. The lines are becoming blurred between CE and ET, same seat, and food that if you’ve worked all day and really want to eat wouldn’t satisfy a small child. BA heading for a fall I think, trying to be all things and ending up no good at any of them. Outside of LHR and the routes you’re left with nothing.

    • Lady London says:
      28 Mar28 March 14:57

      One of the few ways BA might listen to a backlash is if corporates get their own flyers revolting and insisting on claiming costs for dinner before or after the plane because BA’s food is not acceptable as a meal. Those corporates will then seek to recover those meal costs which currently they tell their flyers can’t be claimed because they are expected to ‘get a meal on the plane’.

      A few of those corporates negotiating back like that or via the major corporate travel agents would be the only thing BA might even slightly pay attention to….and even then it would take a very very long time.

  • Anna says:
    27 Mar27 March 08:45

    OT but has anyone else noticed a big increase in BA pricing recently? I costed up flights for 4 of us from Manchester to Cyprus in ET for October half term and they want £2,323 just for the flights! Four years ago that price got us to Florida at Easter and inflation doesn’t count for it!

    • Anna says:
      27 Mar27 March 08:51

      My rationale was that although I could fly direct from Manchester, the luggage allowance and avios awarded for the flights might make it worth going with BA, but they definitely don’t at that price!

    • Kimberly says:
      27 Mar27 March 11:16

      I have noticed very significant increases in BA pricing to a pretty wide selection of destinations, especially if near a UK holiday. Sometimes double or triple the cost of going on the same days a week before or after. And considering the lowering of service, like this nasty food, I don’t see how they think they’ll people who want to pay that, especially considering how much more pricey they are than other carriers now.

    • DAZ says:
      27 Mar27 March 11:21

      Wow! You could buy Cyprus for that, or the plane at least. Plenty of good deals on Sky Scanner this morning.

    • Gavin says:
      27 Mar27 March 11:44

      Cyprus has become more popular as Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey are less appealing due to terrorism. Big feature on the island in the Sunday Times yesterday

      • Anna says:
        27 Mar27 March 17:31

        Yes indeed. Canary Islands with BA don’t work for us as there’s no connection to Gatwick from Manchester any more so will look at LCCs, which I have nothing against apart from being charged £50 to take a suitcase!

  • D.C. says:
    27 Mar27 March 08:49

    Great incisive comments. B.A. need to wake up to the reality of an organisation with currently only one direction, downhill! Snr. Cruz did not earn a bonus for last year, due to the debacle at Vuelling. He is now doing his best to ruin what was a good airline in B.A.
    Come on Mr Walsh, are you completely blind as to what is happening? You might dig your own grave as well as his, if you don’t do something soon!

    • Callum says:
      27 Mar27 March 12:17

      What was a good airline? The comments on this site have done nothing but whine about how awful it is and how we’ve reached a new low for years (all while profits keep increasing).

      I think the more apt question isn’t whether Walsh is blind but whether you are blind? Complaining about not liking the service standards is certainly justifiable, but seriously believing you know more about how to run an airline than a group of people who are currently running very successful airlines…

      • Martin C-C says:
        27 Mar27 March 12:30

        Woo! Good for the shareholders at the moment but once the customers have walked what then?

      • Martin C-C says:
        27 Mar27 March 12:36

        Remember what happened at United!

      • will says:
        27 Mar27 March 13:31

        RBS was profitable prior to 2007, 9 losses in a row later…

        Not saying that’s going to happen to IAG, but just because you appear to make money today doesn’t mean your model isn’t flawed.

        IAG might actually have the model spot on, who knows how sustainable the ME3 model is, maybe they are on a customer acquisition drive now and in 15 years once their market is saturated they’ll look to cut costs.

        I personally think we need to relocate Heathrow somewhere sensible which can operate 24 hours a day, has room for many more than 3 runways if the need arises in the future and has excess landing slot capacity. Only then will it really be revealed if IAG is actually doing a decent job of running an airline out of London.

      • Michael says:
        27 Mar27 March 17:06

        Well, I can comment as an investment manager specialising in customer-facing organisations. What I have seen of BA in recent months gets me very worried. I would not want to be invested in BA (IAG) at present. It is just the type of management style which looks great in the short term and raises profits, but when there is nothing left to cut where does further company growth come from? These situations often end in misery for the shareholders – in this case it will come when enough customers (with a bias towards premium ones) leave (or downgrade from F to J or from J to Y) to cause an extremely rapid dent in profits. The bad name acquired in the process takes years to make good. Of course the management all resign after the 3rd profits warning … As someone else has commented, there is a textbook case of this in the airline industry, the case of United Airlines. Very similar to what is going on at IAG today.

        • Rob says:
          27 Mar27 March 18:18

          Goals 5-a-side footy company just coming out of this. Management cut back on pitch replacement (from every 5 yrs to every 7 years) to boost short term cash and profits.

          Teams defected en masse due to poor facilities. Business has high fixed costs so quickly became loss making. Management fired. New team comes in and brings pitch replacement cycle down to 4 years. Players return. Profits return (which is where they have just got to).

          Interesting point is that whilst the shares collapsed quickly when profits fell, anyone using Goals should have been able to see this coming in advance.

    • Mr Walsh says:
      27 Mar27 March 12:25

      Show me your effing m***y!

      Mr Walsh.

  • Catalan says:
    27 Mar27 March 08:52

    Finally did my 200 tier points trip to Tallinn on Finnair over the weekend. Whilst many like to critize BA food I must say my verdict on the Finnair meal was not positive. Their business class meal consisted of a beef stew with creamed mash and creamed spinach served at 10:20am. No meal choice is offered either. I also saw the bistro menu offered to economy passengers to purchase items. A very basic menu, so ‘buy-on-board’ seems to be everywhere now?
    During my visit to the relatively small (but lovely) Finnair Lounge in Helsinki I sampled the food offering. There was lots and lots of, you guessed it, stew and mash potato if you wanted a hot meal. Not much choice here either.
    Whilst we all like things to be just perfect we must also have a balanced perspective on things. BA my not be your perfect airline (clearly) but they still do things a lot better than other airlines. On this points run having experienced the overall offerings of fellow OW Finnair, I’d choose BA over them.

    • Concerto says:
      27 Mar27 March 10:23

      That’s probably reindeer meat, that’s all I got last time I flew Finnair.

    • Rob says:
      27 Mar27 March 10:44

      The Finnair lounge food is very odd, I agree! I don’t think I had anything when I was there last year.

    • Dave Peterson says:
      27 Mar27 March 10:55

      I’ve done 2 return trips already for LHR-HEL-TLL. IMO, the FinnAir food beats the pants off of the poor food I’ve had on BA for equivalent flights LHR-HEL. Even if you don’t agree about the food, I’d wager flying the A350 more than compensates.

    • Kimberly says:
      27 Mar27 March 11:03

      I’d rather get the stew and mash, than whatever strange/pathetic sandwich or salad BA is serving up. Plus, the rest of the meal was good and they have tasty blueberry juice.

    • Alan says:
      27 Mar27 March 11:49

      Food not brilliant I agree, but A350 was fantastic 😀

      • Catalan says:
        27 Mar27 March 12:43

        ..and that’s the point of Rob’s post, the food! Finnair food is horrid. I can’t eat an A350.

        • Alan says:
          27 Mar27 March 12:46

          LOL 😀 Obviously it’s the focus of the original article but the comments have concerned more the whole CE experience, of which the A350 clearly offers something much better…

        • Anon says:
          27 Mar27 March 22:51

          Neither can I, not in one sitting. Especially so if I’d had a A319 for a starter… ;p

    • Anthony Dunn says:
      27 Mar27 March 13:17

      You beat me to it.

      My Senior Management and I did the 200 tier points run to Tallinn last weekend and, before doing the Finnair appraisal, can I just flag up to everyone that Tallinn is stunningly beautiful and very well worth a visit. The baroque architecture is well worth seeing, there is history by the bucket load, the variety and quality of the food offerings was excellent and the Estonians have also recently discovered craft brewing big time. Mmmm. Then there is the Estonian take on culture and music is at the heart of Estonia’s national identity. Where else have I seen so many school kids wondering around with instrument cases? We really, really enjoyed our stay and would readily return.

      We did early evening departures in both directions so had a very agreeable trip to the CX/Finnair First lounge in LHR T3 for the chef’s special soup etc. The plane was clean (a plus over most recent BA flights) but the middle seat is simply an empty seat and there is no ability either to widen the two adjacent seats or have a tray across the seat (so a negative). The food offerings on both legs from and to LHR were pretty mediocre. There is no meal choice and outbound, we had a grey meat type substance served with what looked like “For mash get Smash!”. Inbound, it was a chicken-like substance with green beans. I suspect that it was the salmon mousse that gave me chronic indigestion.

      There are two Finnair lounges in HEL. The first is adjacent to gate 22 and for Schengen zone flights. It is perfectly fine: light, bright and with decent catering and an excellent view over the apron as the snow came down. The other business class and premium lounges are between gates 36-37 and are for non-Schengen zone destinations. We particularly enjoyed the Premium lounge as it was much quieter than the one at gate 22. The selection of baltic herring and salad offerings were simply lip-smackingly delicious. There were some hot food alternatives albeit not a wide range. An outstanding Riesling for me, Nicholas Feuillatte champagne for Senior Management. Alas, left my outer jacket behind and it’s been a nightmare trying to get anyone at HEL to provide any information on lost and found (and that’s from ringing lost and found…).

  • nonsoloinglese says:
    27 Mar27 March 08:53

    The ‘Amsterdam Panini’ is horrific.

    That thing is out of Alien (1979) and looks like it will attach itself to my face.

  • John R says:
    27 Mar27 March 09:15

    Meanwhile, in WT…. was on a BA LHR-JFK flight last month and had reason to lift my seat pad. Contained below it was a small buffet consisting of the remnants of food offering from some weeks before. Wish I’d taken a photo it was filthy.

    • Sunguy says:
      27 Mar27 March 12:12

      This is not unusual – BA cleaners have been horrific for some time – I had to get my seat cover changed on an LHR-JFK because of a “chocolate” mark…..I didnt dare think it might be something else….!! (heres hoping)….

      Other times there is rice on the seats or crumbs – and the seat back pockets often have rubbish too….

      • JamesWag says:
        27 Mar27 March 22:35

        And we wonder why we sometimes get off planes and have a bit of an iffy tummy the next day 🙁

        • Billy says:
          6 Apr6 April 15:41

          A shame our fellow passengers are so messy. Something else to blame BA for!

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