Get 100 Avios via your BA Amex when you try BA’s ‘Speedbird Cafe’ or pre-order duty free

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• Oh! Matron! says:

  7 May7 May 05:38

  No offence, Rhys, but that pie looks grim. Worse than a pukka pie (itself a low bar).

  I’m sure a deal with Pieminister or Higgidy would have had better results than some shoddy product with someone’s fancy name slapped on it.

  As a northerner, this would have been sent back. And words said. 🙂

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    7 May7 May 05:40

    Kerridge. If you’re reading, this is how you make a pie:

    https://greatnorthpie.co/gallery/

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    7 May7 May 05:48

    Stock image looks nice though.

    Rhys’s looks undercooked and so evidently was Ron’s. Nice idea poorly executed?

    • Mike says:

      7 May7 May 10:13

      Is “ Nice idea poorly executed” replacing “ To Fly. To Serve” – not as catchy but more accurate

• Andrew J says:

  7 May7 May 06:29

  It’s almost a laughably small amount of Avios.

  • Richie says:

    7 May7 May 08:34

    I did laugh.

    • Andrew J says:

      7 May7 May 08:47

      And a sad reflection of the times that 100 Avios on a £10 spend on a pie gets a full article.

      • Rob says:

        7 May7 May 09:49

        We haven’t covered Speedbird Cafe for ages, that’s why we did it. That’s why the duty free element only gets two lines.

• NigelthePensioner says:

  7 May7 May 06:31

  Are we saying that cabin crew are now not even capable of heating a pie up in a microwave?? Is this the new low skill set of the new, new Mixed Fleet?
  Another facility that seems to be missing from BA CW now is the ability to choose one’s main course up to 24 hours prior to departure. Surely this can only help Do & Co get the balance of choices correct?!! It should be encouraged and advertised by email to passengers in advance.
  I don’t like the one tray one visit CW meal service; get more Cabin Crew and train them to the Heritage standards. How? Pay them a decent salary and give them “family friendly” work schedules – oh, now you’ve gone full circle and back to how BA was!!! Sacking your workforce doesn’t look such a bright idea now does it?
  Serve decent wines, decent meals and put smiles back on the faces of Cabin Crew. Why is it so so difficult for successive BA CEO’s to perform to a very basic level of competence?

  • Andrew J says:

    7 May7 May 07:07

    Agreed. Unfortunately BA is no longer a premium airline – CW is now a sort of LCC version of a long-haul business class product.

    • qrfan says:

      7 May7 May 08:44

      I would agree, but an old BA 777 flying dormitory seat is considerably worse than the new long haul business class options from jet blue, so I think ba is now objectively below LCC business class standards?

  • Andrew. says:

    7 May7 May 08:19

    Generally the galleys have convection fan ovens rather than microwaves.

    A pie cooked for 20 minutes from chilled at 180C should look better than the one pictured. It looks like it was forgotten about.

• PeterK says:

  7 May7 May 06:51

  I tried to book food items on a LHR-Menorca flight last summer. The flight didn’t exist in the highlife portal. I brought this to the attention of BA who merely responded ‘we do make it clear that the service is only available on specific flights’. I asked why, given the food is loaded on a round trip basis from London, the Menorca flights were excluded but the service was available to Mallorca and Ibiza they had no explanation.

  When we got on the flights no food was available to buy. I was told I should have pre-ordered some! I then got some excuse that it was because it was a flight previously planned to operate from LGW, not so as it was a LHR rather than LGW flight number!

  Let’s see if it will be available this summer ex LGW on our flight operated by IB express?

• Jubin Mama says:

  7 May7 May 07:00

  The offer doesn’t show as available for the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold card.

  But it’s available for the BA Premium Plus Amex card.

• Mikeact says:

  7 May7 May 07:10

  Tom Kerridge has given his seal of approval for that pie ?

  • Nick G says:

    7 May7 May 07:51

    Don’t forget Jamie Oliver has ‘food’ at shell service stations so go figure….

  • Nick says:

    7 May7 May 08:11

    He hasn’t just approved, his direct team has made it. The branded items aren’t contracted out, they’re made by Kerridge’s staff in his Marlow facility.

    • chrism20 says:

      7 May7 May 09:22

      And the same pie coming from the Marlow shop are actually good so I’d say its BAs prep and serving of the product that’s letting it down in this case

• SH says:

  7 May7 May 07:34

  The distribution of the complimentary snack in ET is undoubtedly the worst part of any BA short-haul flight for me. The BA snack roulette wheel turns and eight times out of ten lands on the packet of Tyrrells crisps regardless of time of day. Two minutes later, after their foil bags have been hurled from the trolley, you are treated to the sound of a hundred or more people simultaneously opening and crunching their crisps, as well as the smell of frying oil escaping the bags and filling the air.

  I know this sounds a bit ‘disgruntled in Tunbridge Wells’, but honestly crisps are the worst snack you could pick for the situation. There is a reason they aren’t routinely offered at cinemas…

  I am not sure if the salty crisps are designed to increase passengers’ purchase of drinks. If so, the complimentary water counteracts this a bit. Passengers chug the water all at the same time, leading to a queue down the back once the liquid works its way through.

  Think BA could do with rethinking the Tyrrells and adding a bit more variety to the selection.

  • ChrisC says:

    7 May7 May 07:47

    Packet of crisps is bigger than a packet of pretzels so people think they are getting more value.

  • Andrew J says:

    7 May7 May 07:52

    I quite like the crisps. And on flights where masks are still required, you can eat them slowly to avoid needing to wear a mask for the majority of the flight.

• Nick G says:

  7 May7 May 08:00

  I’ve booked CE to Istanbul in august for our family holiday to turkey. Is it just me these days but I expect a hybrid Y/CE experience when booking CE?

  I only booked it because Turkish had crazy high prices and we want the convenience of flying direct. I have expectations of a place to get a small amount of food and drink before we board (lounge), then some more ‘food’ after we take off, and a drink not much else. Sad my expectations are so low these days in a business class product, but sadly if I get all the above I’ll actually think it was a decent flight.

  • Richie says:

    7 May7 May 08:38

    I did CE IST-LHR recently and it was a decent flight.

    • lumma says:

      7 May7 May 09:09

      I flew club to Seville a couple of weeks back and thought the service was fantastic, cabin crew introduce himself to me and address me by my name, constantly offered top ups.

      Shame about the rubbish seats.

      • lumma says:

        7 May7 May 09:11

        Although flying to Istanbul I’d try to get on their Turkish Airlines 777 in economy rather than paying for club.

        Free food and drinks (nice Turkish inspired stuff too) and full IFE. Obviously need to have the flight times for the widebody being suitable for your plans however.

        • Richie says:

          7 May7 May 10:26

          I miss BA’s short haul B767s 2-2-2 in CE.

        • yorkieflyer says:

          7 May7 May 16:08

          Did TK business back from IST just pre pandemic and it was just like the good old days of long haul biz service wise

      • Tracey says:

        7 May7 May 11:44

        I flew to Seville last weekend, booked as a BA holiday, they put us on Vueling flights!

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