Short-haul economy snacks: British Airways vs Air France compared!

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• iEimis says:

  18 Oct18 October 13:11

  On my recent flight with KLM from Amsterdam to Dublin (on an E195-E2 which is very spacious) they served actual sandwiches and 2 rounds of drinks. As I normally fly the route from Manchester, it was a pleasant surprise as normally they serve a Dutch coconut macaroon (which I enjoy).

• HM007 says:

  18 Oct18 October 14:04

  That sarnie looks positively 🤮🤮 so banana bread for me every time

• Andy says:

  18 Oct18 October 14:11

  Alternatively … enjoy the Loganair inflight offering of tea, coffee, water plus a choice of Tunnocks Caramel Wafer or shortbread … very themed of course, but I’ve yet to see anyone select it and not eat it 😉

  • NorthernLass says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:55

    Tunnocks (wafers and tea cakes) would be an awesome showcase of British products and raise BA’s popularity significantly.

    • Doommonger says:

      18 Oct18 October 15:43

      Ahem, Scottish products. wash it down with a deep fried mars bar and a can of iron bru.

      • Jill Kinkell says:

        18 Oct18 October 16:16

        Nothing wrong with a delightful can of invigorating Irn Bru. Pass , on the mars bar and have shortbread instead. Just imagine all those crumbs for the ‘cleaning technicians’ to deal with

      • NorthernLass says:

        18 Oct18 October 16:26

        Scotland is in the British Isles. My point was the BA needs to look beyond the south of England, on multiple fronts!

        • Jill Kinkell says:

          18 Oct18 October 16:44

          Indeed.
          BA has shown how much they care by dropping a set of flights to/ from INV over the winter period. And, they got rid of those lovely lemon melt biscuits ( Isle of Mull Bakery , I think) for those ghastly pretzel things.

• Charlie says:

  18 Oct18 October 14:21

  Whilst KLM and Aegean have a better offer than most other carriers in economy short haul, both of their biz class offers are poor in comparison to BA. Lufty is bad all round. AF in biz is, in my view, better than BA food wise, as long as you know what you are doing at CDG, and aren’t put on a Hop!. The only exception is if you are OWE and have access to better lounge provision at LHR T3. The food and free pour champagne at all the AF lounges (2E non-Schengen, 2F Schengen A220/320 etc. 2G Schengen and domestic Hop!) is arguably a better provision than GF. Even if all the lounges are often at capacity.

  • Dev says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:37

    You have to wait till 11am for the champagne. They had Joseph Perrier last month and Gosset a few months ago.

    Lounges can be rammed though!

• Londonsteve says:

  18 Oct18 October 16:23

  Thing is, BA will offer you the same thimble of water and a flapjack even if you’re flying to Larnaca or Istanbul. I doubt AF catering would be the same on a 4 hour flight from Paris as it is on the short hop to London. I have very few expectations on flights under an hour although I’d appreciate a free tea or coffee if nothing else, but once you start getting into the realms of mid-haul you need something a bit more fortifying.

• Dev says:

  18 Oct18 October 16:35

  The Air France madeleine is much better and appears to be in addition to the main sandwich (they also do a tomato one which tastes better).

  You also get Heineken beer on Air France.

  • Rhys says:

    19 Oct19 October 03:07

    No madeleine on my flight!

• Bernard says:

  18 Oct18 October 17:42

  There was I thinking everyone here had a choice of multiple lounges to eat and drink in to their gourmet delight before boarding.
  I’m surprised that people regularly managed a train journey for 2-3 hours without expecting a free at seat sandwich, yet a 50 minute hop on a plane requires food.
  Am I missing something here -either the dietary need to eat while flying, or posters’ lack of lounge access.
  If the latter, it’s time to follow the tips on here a little more rigorously perhaps?

  • Dubious says:

    19 Oct19 October 02:14

    It’s the reduced cabin pressure – it makes the stomach feel empty…
    (this is not serious)

    I do however think the controlled environment from airport to boarding to onboard, does raise some expectations of service. Although most I think are historical and are reinforced in the ‘full service’ rather than ‘low cost, no service’ model, marketing and mindsets.

    Plus – on a train you don’t need to worry about restrictions on liquids and carry-on baggage allowances.

• Malcolm says:

  18 Oct18 October 19:11

  Why not just follow the easyJet model – give the choice, pay for what you want and jobs done. All that’s really needed on short haul.

  • Londonsteve says:

    18 Oct18 October 21:27

    That’s what Speedbird Cafe was supposed to be about, but unlike any other airline that runs a similar operation, BA managed to balls it up and it has largely stayed that way. The lead times to order items are, frankly, longer than most people start thinking about their upcoming short haul flight, especially for services from outstations back to London. There’s barely any communication about it, it’s all very hush hush and ordering in advance is something for the cognoscenti. It should be something BA sends a separate e-mail about 72 hours before the flight. Much better would be maintaining a sensible stock of items in the trolley for spur of the moment purchases, not just a couple of muffins and miniatures of gin and whisky. The duty free product logistics aren’t much better; when I tried to order a bottle of gin 36 hours before my flights from Paris it turned out I was already too late. It’s a wonder how this arm makes any money at all.

    • apbj says:

      18 Oct18 October 22:59

      Completely agree, no idea how BA makes such a ballsup of short haul catering

    • Rob says:

      18 Oct18 October 23:34

      You forget a) high chance your order never arrived and b) as happened to me, crew wreck it, have no spares and cannot refund your money.

      • Lady London says:

        19 Oct19 October 00:23

        How did they wreck it Rob?

        • Rob says:

          19 Oct19 October 00:55

          Burnt it by not following the instructions properly.

      • Londonsteve says:

        19 Oct19 October 13:27

        Your a) has happened to me before. The crew were, apparently, unable to find me. That’s odd, I thought, I’m in a narrow tube with a fairly small surface area with no means of wandering off and even if they don’t have a passenger list to hand, they can use the PA system to get my attention. No effort was made, it was up to me to wander down to the galley and enquire about the missing order, by which time there was too little time left on the flight to eat and drink it in a relaxed fashion.

        You would have thought sales figures were way below expectations owing to the hurdles imposed on potential customers who might want to order, not to mention I’d wager half the plane doesn’t even know about Speedbird/High Life Cafe as the pre-flight communication is so poor.

      • Londonsteve says:

        19 Oct19 October 13:34

        I get the impression crew are not answerable to line management about anything to do with the on board cafe service. As long as they deliver the preflight safety briefing and hand out those wendy house sized bottles of water, they’ve done their bit. Tourvest runs High Life Cafe and (I believe) also the shopping division. BA presumably receives a franchise fee for farming out the operation and thereon doesn’t really care what, if anything people buy. Classic corporate dysfunction.

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