Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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 unchangedApart 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.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (133)

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

  • John says:

    Simple answer to the headline is yes if you’re lucky or straight theft if you’re not and they haven’t bothered to load the food you’ve paid for of whatever quality

  • Clive says:

    Are the new CW amenity bags available yet or is it still the big blue shoe bags?

    • Elaine says:

      We got them on flights to Vancouver in January. Though I prefer the old ones! The new ones don’t have much spare space in them to store my glasses for example.

    • Sapiens says:

      Available to NYC in November last year.

  • Nick Burch says:

    OT But BA – Have just rung the GGL line to book some flights to Australia for Christmas. I’m clearly not the only GGL trying to burn an Amex 2-for-1 plus GUF2 + force extra seats with a Joker, because on my first choice flights LHR-SIN and SIN-SYD too many GGLs had already done that! Ended up having to do LHR-SIN a day earlier than planned, and SIN-SYD a day later. Still, Sydney return at Christmas for ~200k avios + £1300 in a mix of J and F for 2 (so £650+100k each effectively) isn’t bad.

    (With no 2-for-1 or no Gold Upgrade it wouldn’t be nearly as good though on BA, shame none of the Qatar sales seem to cover the key Christmas weeks!)

  • Kathy says:

    OT but catering, last week I flew BA Club LHR to HKG and Cathay business HKG to AKL and ordered the special low lactose meal on both flights. What a contrast! BA don’t even provide a non-dairy milk/creamer for tea and coffee and their tea is too strong to drink without milk. Both their starter and main were seafood – prawns to start and a white fish as main – which I am not keen on, ate 2 of the prawns and after a couple of bites gave up on the fish, as it was dry and horrible. It came with a few veggies and some kind of fake-cream sauce. The dessert was a weird cold rice pudding concoction with strawberry in a chocolate cup and sauce that was frankly undercooked – the rice was hard in places. Breakfast was pretty standard, just without the cheese in the omelette – even BA can’t get breakfast too badly wrong.

    Cathay’s special meal was much better. The starter was a turkey salad with sweet corn, the main was also a white fish (honestly, can’t they at least tell us what’s in our meals? We get handed the same fancy menu as everyone else but have no idea what we’re getting until it turns up in front of us), and my heart sank when it turned up, but it was actually properly delicious, even for someone who is not keen on seafood, and I cleaned my plate. Dessert some fruit. And breakfast was steak and mash!

    BA have a long way to go to compete with Cathay.

  • Faithy says:

    OT. My wife just came back first class(Avios redemption). One case came over an hour late after everyone received theirs. It was also soaking wet but no major damage, inconvenience. As she traveled First could she get compensated for such a long wait and having to deal with a wet bag?
    And who to complain to?

    • Clive says:

      “having to deal with a wet bag”
      Is this a thing? Suitcases are often wet depending upon the airport and whether it is raining, aren’t they?

    • Kinkell says:

      We had the same. Went to baggage services, but not at all helpful. Just a shrug of the shoulders! Took photos of wet luggage- soaked , and labels showing origin, destination and date etc. but the wet didn’t appear to have penetrated the inside. Luggage now has a very large watermark. At the end of the day, I decided BA wouldnt do anything, and the contents weren’t affected. Always seems our luggage is last onto the belt inspite of priority and goodness knows how many official stickers are on the label . Good luck if you take it further

      • Jimmy says:

        the priority is getting your luggage put on to the plane first….which means it comes off last !

    • rams1981 says:

      A few years ago when I flew with Malaysian booked via ba website I complained when I was made to wait an age for my bag despite me flying in business.

      From memory my complaint to BA didn’t go far but eventually they relented and gave me 10,000 Avios. So it was worth persisting!

  • David Statham says:

    We just travelled to St Kitts in Economy and the food was much better. magnum ice creams in between meals and Toblerone’s with snack meal. however absolute rubbishy on the way back

    Just a shame about the poor condition of the plane

  • Gempy says:

    The white company wash bag – well obviously designed for men! The size of the eye mask is ridiculous. BA come on you can do better, I’m not a small lady but I had to tie a knot in the elastic and the mask covered over 2/3 of my face. Quite poor really

  • Jay says:

    Well I’ve just come back from my return journey from LHR to Abu Dhabi, which just came short of 2000 pounds WTP ticket.
    From Abu Dhabi to LHR. I arrived at Terminal 1 and was told that BA checkin does not open till 11:00pm, 3 hrs before the flight boards. No BA staff present. This information came from Eithad staff. It was 9:00pm so I had 2 hours to kill. Eventually the checkin opened and I headed straight to the business lounge, (as it was my first time here) I proceeded to Eithad’s Premium Lounge , only to be told, sorry you’re in the wrong lounge and pointed me in the right direction. I was immediately informed at the reception, again non BA staff; maximum stay 3 hours and as the flight was leaving in this 3 hour window I wouldn’t need to be ‘turfed out’ , in case I was over the 3hrs. I don’t know if any of you have visited this lounge, suffice to say it’s more like a 70’s school hall waiting room with the chairs to match!
    “British Airways adds three new lounges ” – I think they need to sort out their existing lounges before opening up new ones.
    My first trip to Abu Dhabi with BA and I’ve learned the hard way parting with all that cash! Rest assured I WON’T be making that mistake twice !

    • Rob says:

      I suppose over half term they charge £2k for WTP. To be fair in a sale they are doing Abu Dhabi in Club World for £1399 these days and indirect business class, eg Lufthansa via FRA, can be even less.

      I nearly paid cash for October half term because it was only £1399 to Dubai in CW in the last sale but uncertainty over my wifes work commitments meant that miles seemed more sensible.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.