British Airways makes Club Europe meal improvements following feedback

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• Janicee says:

  9 Apr9 April 09:37

  I got 4 courses on the way to Stockholm, all of them nice. The flight went very quickly!

• Ian says:

  9 Apr9 April 09:52

  Had the misfortune to fly Club Europe on Friday evening LCY to EDi. Only 4 passengers in Club but no choice of main course left by the time my order was taken. I gather in the new improved world of BA catering premium passengers have to learn to accept their first choice may not be available.

  I was presented with the worst meal I have ever had on ANY airline. The so called steak consisted of a piece of inedible grissle surrounded by soggy chips and almost raw green beans swamped in semi-congealed fat. The male flight attendant neither apologised for the lack of my first choice nor commented on the returned uneaten meal. I have had far better meals and service on a cheap Monarch charter flight to Spain!

  • TripRep says:

    9 Apr9 April 10:02

    So given the article in the ST mentioned above, Alex would presumably suggest you give that a strong 9 out of 10? 😉

    Maybe BA will start to employ Paul McKenna in its advertising strategy?

• Ruth4325 says:

  9 Apr9 April 10:20

  Had club europe lunch yesterday from lhr-edi and the food was awful. Ploughmans platter had a congealed and foul smelling scotch egg on it. Yeuch. Inedible.

  • TripRep says:

    9 Apr9 April 10:24

    Ooo, that could be a 9.5! 😉

• andyinflitwick says:

  9 Apr9 April 10:30

  BoB in LH Y? BA can no longer call themselves a “full service” airline if they go ahead with that dreadful idea. I agree with CV3V, perhaps Snr Cruz may actually like to take some flights with their competitors. He will generally see that BA is a 5 or 6 out of 10 at best. It’s not just the fact that this is more cost cutting, it will ruin the in-flight experience for many people and comes across as just greedy.

  To echo Arun T, for me this would really be the final nail in the coffin. I’ve already switched most of my EU business travel (two trips per month) to alternative carriers. I actually quite like U2 in comparison!

  Alex Cruz is frankly deluded. I can no longer justify the additional cost to keep loyal to a business that frankly doesn’t seem to care.

• Brian Cleator says:

  9 Apr9 April 10:48

  BA are heading down the pan, what planet is Mr Cruz on? I have been flying with BA for work since the 1990s and just recently the economy long haul package has become very poor. Short haul, the idea that people want more choice equals ‘people want to pay for a coffee’ is arrogant and ignorant. I have heard that justification from two customer care staff so I suspect that it is a party line but it comes over as cynical and dismissive. I have noticed how few people use the service on short haul, frequently people complain about it to each other or the cabin crew who genuinely seem to agree and are embaressed by what they see as a reduction in quality. Mr Cruz needs to wake and up realise what his company brand stands for before he demolishes it . Today’s economy passengers are tomorrows business class passengers, I become loyal to BA because their product was better than the competition, way before I travelled in Club. Now I am about to switch to an alternative.

  • Talay says:

    9 Apr9 April 13:21

    So true about moving from economy to business and first.

    When young and with my own finances, we always flew economy, except for MR Virgin Atlantic upgrades to Tokyo and the occasional use of the business class JAL seats on the same route on their 2nd evening service.

    Today, I refuse to fly economy long haul. Personally, I couldn’t care less short haul unless I can get a proper business class seat.

    I have 241 on BAPP booked and will likely cancel before using. My other half and child may be happy with 12 hours in BA business seats but the proof will come in an couple of months.

    I envisage a strong desire to dump BA for the ME3 even with Amex 241.

    • Evan says:

      9 Apr9 April 13:27

      And of course there’s being grand for the sake of it.

  • Mzungu says:

    10 Apr10 April 17:21

    Very good summary. I travelled economy until about 15 years ago, then started doing a lot of long haul business travel in business, mostly with other airlines. As that slowed down, and I had a taste for business class travel, I got into this hobby, and started to use BA again. I’m now looking for alternatives – I have two 241s to use up, and I don’t think I’ll look to generate any more – I used my last one on a RFS as I wasn’t keen on taking another BA long haul.

    Another point on the BoB tea/coffee – a few weeks ago I bought a tea on LHR-MAD. It was a paper cup with a tea bag dunked in warm water from a flask. The tea was tepid, and it made it tasteless with scum on top. I pointed it out to the FA, who said that water boiled at a lower temperature at altitude! Whilst that’s technically true, it doesn’t account for what I was served. At least when they made a pot of tea and brought it along the aisle, it was more-or-less drinkable. Now we pay for a far worse product.

• David S says:

  9 Apr9 April 11:37

  Cruz doesn’t care about what you or I think. He obviously has been given a brief by his bosses since otherwise he would have been sacked by now.
  He and his bosses will continue to get richer by cost cutting in the short term till the customers stop flying with BA. By that time it will be too late for BA as a brand to recover quickly but I suspect Cruz and possibly his bosses will be long gone elsewhere. (See what happened at Vueling)
  Only way things can change is if people start leaving BA, which by the sounds of the people on this forum, has already started.
  Lets hope VS pick up their game and not go the same way as BA since they may be picking up all the people leaving BA, certainly going West. The ME3 are also probably licking their lips with glee as they see all this cost cutting (sorry, enhancements) at BA.

• Andrew says:

  9 Apr9 April 11:50

  I think the catering on the longer CE sectors is much better. My meal on the flight back from Stockholm yesterday was tasty, well presented and satisfying (I actually felt quite stuffed afterwards). I do normally enjoy a BA bashing and I have to say the T5 lounge on the way out was a joke – limited and terrible food and dirty plates and glasses as far as the eye could see. I actually considered decamping to Plaza Premium in the hope it would be better. But credit where it’s due – CE catering is a big improvement.

• Margaret says:

  9 Apr9 April 12:19

  We flew LHR-JFK in economy on Tuesday. The meal was very poor – a Bob of mashed root veg with a microwaved small dry chicken breast and gravy. The salad was a cm thick of Polish red cabbage salad in a little bowl, the bread roll dry and tasteless and the tiny chocolate put the best part. I was served a new red wine which the steward hasn’t tried yet either, and it was rough plonk which would cost maybe 2 euros a litre in France/Spain. The stewards were great and swapped it for a flowery but drinkable cava. They also gave everyone in economy two of their chosen drink near the start of their flight (so I had 2 g&t’s), which helped tolerate the 1980’s charter airline did they offered! I wondered if this shocking drop in quality is a deliberate attempt to make LH BoB more palatable. Sadly, it looks true. We fly home premium economy (can’t sleep in cattle class). So it will be interesting to see.how that’s changed, and transfer to business on the EDI-LHR connection. Based on reviews here a trip to the lounge might be prudent!

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