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Is British Airways new Club World business class catering essentially a big con?

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If you are flying to London from Hong Kong in Club World today, you will have received the ‘new’ Club World meal service for the first time.

This was, as you may remember from the glossy British Airways launch event last year, to be provided by Austrian group Do&Co.  Do&Co is the gold standard of airline catering, and is the reason why Austrian Airlines business class has such an outstanding reputation for its food.

The new Club World meal service is being added to additional routes as the weeks go on.  Whilst I had heard a few reports about poor quality, it wasn’t clear to me why.

British Airways Club World catering

A crew member on Flyertalk has now spilled the beans.  Apart from New York JFK, the food is generally unchanged.  Apart from New York JFK and the odd outstation, the primary food provider remains Gate Gourmet and not Do&Co.

“The same food arranged differently on new china” is how the crew member describes it.  It is worth noting that this poster is a respected and long-serving member of Flyertalk.  He also feels let down, because even cabin crew did not have this explained to them during the training process.  They were also expecting to be serving food of the New York JFK standard on other routes.

Remember that a photo from a crew training session posted online showed Bollinger champagne being served.  Good luck tracking that down.

He also claims that the amount of food loaded has also been decreased in recent weeks as a % of passengers booked, so there is less chance of being able to have the first choice of food.

Now, the more cynical among you may not be surprised by these ‘allegations’.  (Are they ‘allegations’ really?  It is a statement of fact that Gate Gourmet remains the food supplier and there is little sense that much has improved in terms of quality.)   However, with all the talk of “£400m investment” (a sum now increased to £600m) you would have expected something to be delivered.  It seems not.

Another cabin crew member I contacted has confirmed the story. That person did feel that there had been a little improvement over what Gate Gourmet was previously providing but that the JFK route food used in all of the PR is far superior.

I also heard an interesting story about why Club Europe catering is being changed again.  I would like further corroboration on this before I write about it, so if you work for BA and know what I am talking about then drop me an email just to reassure me.  ‘Seven’ is the magic word I believe ….

Some good news on the bedding though

The roll-out of the new The White Company bedding is continuing, albeit at a snails pace.

From 21st February, it will be available on:  Atlanta, Dubai, Hong Kong, Washington, Houston, Kuwait, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Philadelphia, Riyadh, San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose.

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British Airways and Avios

Comments (135)

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

  • Nick says:
    14 Feb14 February 07:15

    Just another BA con. Hope the media pick up on this big time – it is so symptomatic of the Cruz regime.

    Very similar to the BA Priority Baggage con. At check-in they put a bright orange priority baggage tag on your bag but then the barcode is not tagged for priority baggage. Indeed you only have to flick through the High Life magazine on board to find the wording:

    “Priority baggage handling. As an Emerald frequent flyer you will also receive priority baggage handling when travelling in any cabin on an eligible oneworld flight, giving your baggage priority handling from aircraft to carousel.. (Priority baggage handling is not available on flights operated by British Airways.)”

    I have raised this with BA staff and been told they still put the orange tag on as it may help speed up baggage being manually handled in overseas airports.

    • C77 says:
      14 Feb14 February 08:09

      I read this to mean that priority baggage isn’t a feature to Emerald frequent fliers traveling on BA. (Gold / Silver card holders flying Economy where priority baggage isn’t a feature of the class). This has been the case for a few years now that the feature is only extended to passengers travelling in First and Club status or not. Apparently the orange/yellow priority tags are there for our benefit and the real priority status is hidden within the barcode of the destination tag. It’s not conning me – the way I understand it.

      • Carl says:
        14 Feb14 February 08:26

        When I’m flying Club it does feel like there’s been some effort to have my bags out towards the front. It’s not like Swiss where nothing comes out before the priority bags but they do tend to be towards the start.

      • Nick says:
        14 Feb14 February 09:24

        C77 – The con is that that if you have status the Check-in staff at the Club or First desk invariably put an orange priority baggage label on the bag even for an economy flight despite the bag not being coded for priority baggage

    • David S says:
      14 Feb14 February 09:20

      Do agree with you Nick. The times I have flown CW and once in First, our ‘priority’ bags were never first out. Once it was almost the last bag out.
      Compare this with Qatar, where our bags are pretty much one of the first few to arrive. Even flying economy on Cathay and Qantas as BA gold, the bags were priority tagged and came out first.
      So it’s only BA that are conning us by putting the orange tags that does nothing.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      14 Feb14 February 09:42

      Funnily enough, I flew MCT-LHR last week in WTP as a Silver, my bag was tagged first class priority and was one of the first onto the reclaim carousel. I suppose there are some upsides to inconsistent outstation handling.

  • Arnold says:
    14 Feb14 February 07:24

    Slow news day

  • A says:
    14 Feb14 February 07:25

    When will the new bedding be on The Japan route???

  • Pack says:
    14 Feb14 February 07:25

    Is what BA are doing even legal?

    • David says:
      14 Feb14 February 07:56

      Telling the world that they’re serving Do&Co when it’s actually Gate Gourmet would leave them wide open to an intellectual property lawsuit from Do&Co, for a start…

  • Liz says:
    14 Feb14 February 07:32

    We are flying our first F from LHR-SIN with BA in May. Do we get to choose and book our meals beforehand? Non special diet ones I mean.

    • meta says:
      14 Feb14 February 07:43

      You should be able to choose from 28 days before. It will show in MMB. However, last year on my flight to HKG the crew had no info about my pre-selection. Luckily they had my first choice still…

    • Tony says:
      14 Feb14 February 07:44

      Hi Liz, you’ll get to choose your main from LHR. It will also show you the rest of the menu for that meal. It usually appears in MMB at 30 days out.

      • Liz says:
        14 Feb14 February 07:46

        Ok thanks – I will make a note and book my spa appointment too!

        • CV3V says:
          14 Feb14 February 14:10

          If the 5A spa is busy T5B might also be an option, usually quieter.

        • Stu N says:
          14 Feb14 February 19:51

          I’d strongly recommend calling YouFirst to book rather than emailing; by the time they respond to emails the slots are often gone.

    • Ian says:
      14 Feb14 February 07:46

      Your main meal yes.

    • Ian says:
      14 Feb14 February 07:48

      Don’t forget to book your free spa treatment the first day you can also. I always forget my 1 day and all the appointments are gone!

  • AviosNewbie says:
    14 Feb14 February 08:14

    I am flying to Los Angeles tomorrow morning for a week, and will report back on what if anything has changed.

    • Ade says:
      14 Feb14 February 09:14

      I’m flying LA tomorrow, one of the early morning flights, I don’t think the LAS route is due to get the new food offering

  • Alastair says:
    14 Feb14 February 08:17

    You mention Club Europe, flew business to Faro on Sunday food inedible.

    • David says:
      14 Feb14 February 11:44

      All of it? What was wrong with it? Was compensation offered?

    • Graham Walsh says:
      14 Feb14 February 19:58

      I went to AMS in CE last week. Crap finger sandwich with no explanation of what it was. On the way back they had run out of my first choice 3 rows in front. Wasn’t even offered a bread roll when I declined the 2nd choice. I had to ask for the roll.

  • Richard says:
    14 Feb14 February 08:24

    OT but BA catering – we’re booked on the 0645 LHR – Tenerife (TFS) and have been checking the catering – am i right in thinking we’ll only get a hot breakfast? Seems small for a 4.5 hour flight.

    • JamesB says:
      14 Feb14 February 08:38

      Thers are a whole bunch of airlines you could fly 5h+ and get nothing. Not sure about your flight, I would have thought it went under ET/CE so likely the usual offering.

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