Genuine surprise as British Airways ditches its caterers for DO&CO, the best in the business

It is fair to say that the HfP view so far on the promises of major improvements in Club World business class is sceptical.

It has, after all, taken a year to roll out a new blanket across the network.  BA couldn’t even get that right, as the original batch was apparently the same colour as the aircraft carpets and had to be scrapped as a trip hazard ….

Yesterday, however, came some very interesting news.

British Airways is ditching its current caterers.  This means goodbye to Gate Gourmet and DHL at Heathrow and Alpha at Gatwick, although Gate Gourmet will continue to provide inbound catering on some routes.

Here is the shocker.  The Heathrow contract has been given to DO&CO.

If you’ve never heard of DO&CO, they are effectively the Mercedes / BMW of the airport catering world.  They are responsible for catering on Austrian Airlines which is the best regarded long-haul European airline for business class food.

DO&CO was already providing the catering on the New York JFK and Chicago routes but did not have the capacity at Heathrow to do more.  This new contract launches in 2020 for 10 years and presumably runs long enough to justify DO&CO investing in new facilities.  In reality they may end up buying the current Gate Gourmet operation.

When British Airways originally launched its upgraded Club World catering proposition – you may remember Anika’s lengthy article on the press launch which involved a specially chartered aircraft – the food they presented to the media was DO&CO.

There was an implication that DO&CO was taking over the entire operation.  It came as a bit of a shock, a few months later, to realise that – on routes apart from JFK and Chicago – the new Club World catering was generally the same old Gate Gourmet stuff on fancier plates.

Of course DO&CO can only work with the money that British Airways is prepared to spend, but it would be odd to bring in a high-end caterer and then not give them the money they need to do a proper job.

Over at Gatwick, catering is being taken over by Newrest.  Newrest currently supplies catering at London City for CityFlyer and inbound from Santiago, Lima, San Jose, Accra, Lagos, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

As usual, the proof of the Club World pudding will be in the eating, but this is positive news.

---

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (May 2022)

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

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

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

The Platinum Card has doubled its sign-up bonus to 60,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert to 60,000 Avios, if you apply by 1st June 2022.

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 10,000 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

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.

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

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)