BA news: sparkling wine returns to World Traveller Plus, Speedbird Cafe rebrands

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• Chris Higham says:

  7 Jul7 July 13:19

  It’s a good point re the marketing – we were on the evening flight down from Newcastle and seemed to be the envy of the whole of economy when our drinks and snacks turned up!!

• Kathy M says:

  7 Jul7 July 13:35

  Not quite food ordering but similar. Tried pre ordering duty free cigarettes, but apparently they don’t do pre ordering for Euroflyer from Gatwick.

  On a totally separate point, but would like advice. Tomorrow we return from Kos. I booked paid seats in April. At one time got an e mail saying no longer guaranteed but if I did not like the new seats, could get my money back. When we set out to Kos seats allocated for the return were 4 D and F. ( ie OK). I have just checked in ( one hour after check in opened) and we have been moved to 2 window seats far apart. I can put up with not speaking to my husband for 4 hours, but I am very concerned about him having a window seat as he is quite disabled ( although he won’t admit it ) and will have huge problems getting up from that seat. At the age of 80, he will certainly need to for a 4 hour flight.
  Any advice welcomed.

  • Gordon says:

    7 Jul7 July 13:46

    Did you not mention that you required assistance because of a disability when you booked! If the flight is not full you should not have any issues moving to an aisle seat just ask a member of the cabin crew. If the flight is full I am sure someone would happily swap an aisle seat for a window seat….

    • Kathy M says:

      7 Jul7 July 13:55

      I said my husband won’t admit it! Of course we will ask the cabin crew. I have a print out of the paid seats, but not of the allocation 2 weeks ago. The business cabin is full and the changes suggest some determined early check ins wanting aisle seats.
      I did book using a 2 4 1 ( before you are all horrified with this use it is a left over pandemic extended by Robs suggestion of a cancelled Manchester booking and will expire at the end of this month) but there has been previous discussion as to does BA select Avios

      • Gordon says:

        7 Jul7 July 14:18

        I know you said the CE cabin is full, But I am sure someone will oblige, Another thing to bear in mind for future flights is that the Bassinet seats at the front are unavailable on the seating plan because of any late bookings or seat selections for pax with babies. Many times I have seen these unused! So if you are in the same predicament again ask a cabin crew member on boarding so you are first in line….

        • NorthernLass says:

          7 Jul7 July 16:02

          If no one will swap seats for an 80-year-old, what on earth is the world coming to?! Definitely speak to a crew member well before boarding starts so that they are aware of the situation. Whatever seat I’d booked, I wouldn’t make a fuss if I needed to move to accommodate someone who genuinely needed it.
          @Kathy, I have used 2 expiring pandemic 241s for city breaks this year, determined they wouldn’t go to waste!

  • Travel Strong says:

    7 Jul7 July 17:11

    @KathyM Either of you on the booking can ask for and manage the email communication on disability assistance, so you can ask for it and get seat priority without your husband having to admit (or be aware of!) a thing. You may have to submit some evidence of mobility issue (but maybe not at 80). I can understand from a privacy perspective why you might not want to do it without his involvement… but emailing the mobility team would remain private, you will not have any special attention on the flight except for your seat reservation (unless you ask for it), and if you can declare it on a public forum – why not declare it on an email to BA! 🙂

    It is quite common for someone else to manage the arrangements for mobility assistance – so they are used to dealing with another person on the booking. You’ll also get free seat reservations in the future for him and you if you are on the same booking.

    • Lyn says:

      8 Jul8 July 08:19

      @Kathy M, I agree with @Travel Strong’s recommendations. This is one area in which BA are very good indeed.

      I can see why this might be a little tricky for you. Since you are posting this question on HfP I am guessing that you are the one making your bookings? In which case, if I were you, I would simply call BA each time as soon as I had booked and explain that your husband needs an aisle seat and why, just exactly as you have here. As @TS says, they will give your husband a free seat reservation, and also you as long as you are on the same booking. As far as your husband is concerned, you have simply taken care of booking your seats.

      Good luck with today’s flights. I hope BA can sort out your seats.

      • Kathy M says:

        8 Jul8 July 19:57

        Thanks for all the advice. I think this has convinced my husband to admit to our limitations.
        In fact the reason for the move was three separate sets of parents with 1-3 children, so the single isle was occupied by Dad. They had priority.
        Most of us had pre booked seats. BA then said they were not guaranteed, and Rob told me it was because they kept changing type of aircraft. At that stage I could not access seat map in manage my booking. When I could do so it had given us seats together. Presumably the families had the same problems so when allocated unsuitable seats complained and got ours! Lesson for Euroflyer seems to be keep checking your seats, so if it gets changed, you may be able to sort something.

• Londonsteve says:

  7 Jul7 July 18:59

  I was surprised to discover a couple of days ago that they don’t accept the BA Prepaid Mastercard for purchases from the Speedbird Cafe. I presume this is because it’s a prepaid card but even so… After repeated attempts we gave up trying to pay with it, the stewardess looked embarassed when I showed her the card was plastered with BA logos and said, “oh, it’s our card.”
  Has anyone managed to buy anything on board with the BA prepaid card (or any prepaid card)?

  • Mike says:

    7 Jul7 July 20:46

    Prepaid cards generally don’t work for offline transactions. I assume that it’s an offline transaction but someone may know different.

• Expat in SJC says:

  7 Jul7 July 19:38

  Just done a round trip from SJC to LHR in WTP. Got another coming up next week.

  Admittedly, thanks to this site, it’s been years since I’ve flown WTP but I was surprised at just how poor it is. It really is a Y service in a slightly bigger seat (the seat is poor compared to VS). Food both ways was average and the service standards were cheap. For example second meal service only drink option is water or OJ or a tea- why not have a full bar service. To put it into perspective a three hour domestic flight on Alaska in Y gets two full bar services with snacks.

  I get why BA won’t make any real changes the cabin is popular and profitable. Just a shame to see how far Ba lags behind others in W.

  And what is it with the lack of WiFi and loos on the 788!

• E4 Traveller says:

  8 Jul8 July 00:06

  Will the rebranding mean that lazy BA Domestic cabin crew manage to serve me a prepaid expensive tea before the Captain turns on the seat belt signs for landing? Time after time, I have had to remind one of the crew that the product I ordered has yet to be served to me. Often the attendant looks blankly at me as if no one has ever bought anything in advance. Not all crew are as dozy, some are very efficient and serve me straight after the pretzel run, but plenty are.

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