British Airways Club Europe catering …. it’s coming home

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• dicksbits says:

  23 Aug23 August 10:25

  The big Q on longer European routes (band 3) is are they keeping the meals or is afternoon tea returning? They were the big winners when the catering changed (eg Faro, Malaga)

  • Andy says:

    23 Aug23 August 11:19

    THIS! If they dish out the same afternoon tea on a LHR to AMS as on a LHR to GIB then band 3 will be huge losers! Won’t bother with CE on flights to Spain then.

• CV3V says:

  23 Aug23 August 11:23

  what a fuss over nowt. We should be debating the choice of vintage champagnes, caviar etc being served in a premium class, not on whether the scone was warm or the cutlery being used!

  BA lounges = disappointing (unless you want to get drunk), BA premium hard and soft products = disappointing (especially when compared to ME and Asian carriers). Accept the whole thing is going to be underwhelming.

  #BootsMealDeal

• Nick_C says:

  23 Aug23 August 11:40

  Although I probably wouldn’t pay for CE, it can be a useful way of getting reward flights at short notice.

  I’ve just booked a return for my OH from LIS to LHR for 3 weeks time. He’s coming over with one empty suitcase and will be going back with two full ones and a cabin bag,

  No redemptions availability in economy, but I got CE for £50 plus 25500 Avios. The cost of acquiring the Avios was £56, so £106 total. The cash price would have been €570.

  Flights with Ryanair to STN at similar times with Fast Track, 1 suitcase, and row 1 seating would have been £200. No lounge access, no on board catering.

  • Polly says:

    24 Aug24 August 09:53

    Good buy. We will use CE in RFS only when no Y RFS left. And will always go for an exit seat, as Silver, with the next seat often blocked, nice..but the motto is Y on SH, if available. Fab value at short notice, food secondary after eating in lounge, even if slop, it’s filling.

• Peter K says:

  23 Aug23 August 12:03

  I’ve recently been comparing leg room, catering etc on different airlines short haul and BA is far from the worst, economy or business.
  The extra seat spare in the middle is also very welcome. Having had loud drunk people, a man with no legs on the end of the row (very awkward to get past) etc the ability to have just me and Mrs K on a row is lovely.
  ‘Proper’ business seats would be nice but as it is there are definite benefits to the current arrangement. Whether it is “worth” the extra avios or money is just dependant on how much value you put upon what is provided.
  Is a suite worth more than a standard room for one night? Many might say yes but it is all about what you personally put value on.

  • Evan says:

    23 Aug23 August 14:55

    Did you really just complain about being sat next to someone who is disabled??!!

    • Nick_C says:

      23 Aug23 August 15:50

      Why is that a problem? I would be very unhappy if I was in window or middle seat, and unable to go to the loo because the person in the aisle was incapable of moving without assistance.

      Ideally, BA should have upgraded this passenger to Row 1, or seated him and his companion with a spare seat.

      Even Ryanair were very helpful when my partner broke his foot before a recent flight. They seated him two rows from the rear exit, gave him a window seat on the LHS so to one would step on his foot, and a spare seat next to him.

      I suppose if the BA flight was full then there was no other option.

    • Peter K says:

      23 Aug23 August 18:03

      It was an easyjet flight and I was just saying that it was an awkward situation. He could not maneuver himself so we literally had to pass by with our backsides almost on his lap every time we left our seats. Embarrassing for both parties with lots of apologising on both sides.
      Not his fault, not our fault, but an example of why some people with high disposable income will consider the extra for Club Europe money well spent as they will avoid potentially awkward situations.

• shd says:

  23 Aug23 August 12:08

  So you paid £50 plus 25500 Avios? What would you value that at, in total?

  • Nick_C says:

    23 Aug23 August 13:45

    The value, looking at the current cash price, is more than 1.5p per avios. My avios cost me 0.218p each, so £56 cost for the Avios.

    Looking at prices right now, BA economy would cost £360 without fast track,lounge access, or on board catering.

    Ryanair would cost £372 with fast track and reserved row one seating, but no lounge access or on board catering.

    And with BA CE you get an empty seat next to you.

    So for our requirements, great value for money. And if two people were travelling with an Amex voucher, it would be even better value.

• John says:

  23 Aug23 August 14:42

  Rob (earlier comment) says 10% of BA pax are willing to pay for CE, but I wonder how many people in CE are only there because they are connecting to a long-haul.

  I’ve flown in CE many times, but 80% of these were on the first and last legs of ex-EU flights. I would have happily paid the same price for the entire ticket even if the short-haul legs were in economy. To put it another way, if the ex-EU ticket was offered with Y connecting flights for £X less than J, and I already had enough TPs, I would choose to save the £X, where X is the price I would pay to acquire the additional avios from flying CE.

  10% of my CE flights were TP runs, but they are always flights I was going to take anyway; and purchased in sales, therefore paying around £20 to £50 more than I would normally want to pay. Last year I paid about £120 more than I would have to fly CE instead of ET, to get Gold. I did earn back a lot of the £120 with the increased avios earning rate, but I wouldn’t pay anything to use F lounges over J. The F wing is nice, but I wouldn’t pay anything to use it either. I don’t like sitting in the 1st row in short-haul, and didn’t fly the 74, so actually from a monetary perspective I made a “loss”. I requalified for Silver this year so the soft landing was also worth nothing.

  The remaining 10% of my CE flights have been, as Nick_C said above, RFS redemptions at short-notice. If an ET redemption was available, I would have taken that, so value of CE is actually £0; the CE redemptions were just the cheapest available flight in the same way that if a CE paid flight happened to be cheaper than ET I would take it too.

  • vlcnc says:

    23 Aug23 August 16:19

    I don’t know the data and would presume Rob knows more on this than me, but I find it hard to believe people willingly pay more for this product…

    • Rob says:

      23 Aug23 August 16:40

      How much do you earn though? It is all relative. Apparently, looking at our user data, HFP readers are 450% more likely than the average UK web user to earn £75k+. There comes a point where an extra few hundred here and there makes zero difference as long as there is some tangible improvement in the benefits.

      • Genghis says:

        23 Aug23 August 16:47

        We apparently have a household income in the top 1% in the UK but still don’t feel well off living in London (“HENRYs”)

      • vlcnc says:

        23 Aug23 August 20:34

        So you are basically saying any premium is worth the premium regardless of whether you are actually getting real value from the product? I accept some people have money to burn but that is hardly an endorsement!

        • Rob says:

          23 Aug23 August 21:28

          You get more extra value from CE vs ET than you get from Tesco Finest vs Basic chicken ….

          A more interesting question is whether you allocate money to a better hotel room or CW / CE, given a choice.

      • vlcnc says:

        23 Aug23 August 21:59

        I agree with regards to the hotel question as opposed to CE. I think with CW – that is a different story as it is longhaul and has a big difference in experience. Whilst it isn’t the best seat out there given the choice, you do at least get a flat bed to sleep in and the food is improved enough in my view. It’s a totally different product for a different context.

• Clive says:

  23 Aug23 August 16:26

  Wow sorry but just more flowery marketing for a sorry product.

• David says:

  23 Aug23 August 16:49

  BA food is generally pretty awful when compared to other airlines. Pre-plated dinners with no presentation. Yuk. Generally eat in the lounge and get a few cheese and biscuits on the long hauls. 3 little biscuits is never enough so pocket some in the lounge to eat on-board. I wonder when BA will wake up and do something special and forword thinking rather be than being an also-ran.

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