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British Airways cuts Club World meal service for departures after 9pm

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Yesterday we covered the bizarre new breakfast / brunch service that British Airways is serving for lunch on long haul flights departing up to 11.29am.

It pairs a cooked breakfast with wine, a cheeseboard, coffee and liqueurs. Those who have tried it are finding it as odd as it sounds.

On the upside, you are at least still getting a three course meal of sorts. This is no longer the case for Club World departures after 9pm.

BA cuts Club World meal service for departures after 9pm

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I mention this because, about 20 years ago, British Airways launched something called ‘Sleeper Service’. It stripped down the Club World business class food service to the bare minimum, on the grounds that most people wanted to sleep on overnight flights and those who didn’t could starve. It was a failure, launching the catchphrase ‘To Fly, To Starve’ and was abandoned. This is despite the fact that it only operated from airports where BA had pre-flight lounge dining.

Multiple rounds of staff departures at British Airways later, everyone who remembers the failure of ‘Sleeper Service’ seems to have left and a version of it is back. This time it is on virtually all routes, irrespective of whether the lounge offers a full meal.

What is now served on Club World departures after 9pm?

The menu has been pared back sharply:

  • appetisers have been scrapped
  • main courses and desserts are massively simplified

Here is an example menu currently in use:

Main courses

  • Butternut squash and coconut soup
  • Grilled tiger prawn salad
  • Chicken and leek pie
  • Cheese and crackers

Dessert

  • Panna cotta
  • Fruit salad
  • Chocolate chip cookies

…. and that’s it.

Bizarrely the menu says at the top:

“Take your pick from an assortment of seasonal dishes. If you’re feeling tired and can’t wait to cosy down, then just choose your main and dessert and a night cap of your choice”.

However, you have no option but to have just a main and dessert because that’s all there is! The appetisers are gone.

This new service has been rolled out on virtually all long-haul routes. The only exceptions are 12+ hour flights. It is, apparently, being used on Cape Town and Mauritius which are over 11 hours.

The airline argues that a ‘one tray’ meal service will allow passengers to get to sleep more quickly. The problem is that British Airways ALREADY offered a stripped down ‘one tray’ option on late night Club World flights. Those who wanted to eat and sleep could have the ‘one tray’ meal whilst those who didn’t could – until last week – have the standard full menu.

It isn’t clear what is offered in First Class. I believe that the menu has also been cut back but bears more resemblance to a proper meal.

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Comments (486)

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

  • Alex G says:
    22 Oct22 October 14:00

    Before Covid, BA trialled an option of ordering a premium meal in advance for a fee. I think it was aimed at Y class passengers.

    Perhaps they need to reintroduce the idea. But for J class.

    And F.

    • NorthernLass says:
      22 Oct22 October 15:47

      Don’t give them ideas – pre-Covid you could do this for nothing!

  • BBbetter says:
    22 Oct22 October 14:00

    At this rate, only those using a companion voucher might be flying BA. Anyone paying cash or redeeming miles will choose better airlines.

    • Alex G says:
      22 Oct22 October 14:09

      That’s been my policy for years. BA if I’m paying with Avios. Anyone else if I’m paying cash. Although as I’m focused on flying East these days, it’s getting harder to find redemptions on BA anyway. Thank goodness for Finnair (who’s rather poor in-flight catering suddenly looks delicious compared to the new offerings from BA).

      • meta says:
        22 Oct22 October 15:10

        Not really, you can use 241 vouchers on Iberia. I have ditched BA almost completely on long-haul when this was introduced. I flew BA long-haul only twice since 2019 and actively tend to avoid them. Even Iberia’s sometimes surly service is better compared to BA.

        • Alex G says:
          22 Oct22 October 15:25

          As I said, I’m focusing on flying East these days. 3 flights a week to Tokyo doesn’t add significantly to Avios availability.

      • Lee says:
        22 Oct22 October 16:41

        Finnair F&B is much better than ba. Onboard and in their premium lounge. Much better

    • Russell G says:
      22 Oct22 October 16:35

      HI, I’m flying direct from London to SFO, can you point me in the direction of these “better airlines” please?

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
        22 Oct22 October 17:47

        I usually fly AA – LHR-JFK then JFK-SFO

        Last time I flew via DFW.

        I find AA to be much better than BA.

        But surely it depends on your definition of “better”

      • Expat in SJC says:
        22 Oct22 October 18:03

        There aren’t any and BA know that. I continually battle with this decision on my 6 weekly SFO-LHR flights.

        VS- food was considered worse than BA (IIRC Rhys got Shay to admit as much in an interview) and you get the good awful 787 UCS

        UA- Polaris seat is decent but the food is also pretty poor

        AA- one stop and the $ partly ends up back with BA via the JV. It makes for a long day also- fine when on PTO but when on business routing via DFW is a drag.

        EI- is once a day and a v early start ex UK

        B6- LOL fares are through the roof and on the TATL there is no hot meal service.

        This is the underlying issue. BA is really focused on the North American market. It sees what its competitors are doing (look at B6!) and decides it can cut service and still get passengers.

        They are happy to give up traffic elsewhere on the world to the ME3.

        • meta says:
          22 Oct22 October 20:56

          You can fly with one stop via Europe – AF, TP, LX, LH, KL, EI, IB (seasonal), plus a few others. All of these have better quality of food then BA.

          As long as you choose the convenience of flying direct, BA will continue eroding the service.

    • ALISON says:
      22 Oct22 October 16:53

      On a flight LHR – JNB pre-covid my seat in CW was broken. The cabin was full and the crew had to look around for someone to be moved. It was then apparent that almost everyone except me and my OH were flying in J as BA crew/BA staff/BA pensioners/BA friends&family or else Avios rewards flyers. In the end 2 BA pensioners were moved to other seats to enable us to have reclining seats (I did feel a bit bad about this, but then I’d paid cash!).

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
        22 Oct22 October 20:29

        If you’re in staff travel you’re expected to move.

        One of the consequences of not moving is to have your concession removed.

      • John says:
        22 Oct22 October 21:39

        Same F is the staff cabin.

  • Ruralite says:
    22 Oct22 October 14:17

    I’ve thought for a while now British Airways should just rename themselves Bl**dy Awful and be done with it. The old Hale & Pace Yorkshire Airlines parody could be BA nowadays

    • Dubious says:
      22 Oct22 October 14:36

      Perhaps they should just remodel themselves like ZipAir. Modern Business class seat, but nothing else. Add-ons ordered in advance only?

    • HampshireHog says:
      22 Oct22 October 15:05

      Huh at least you got a proper fish and chip meal on Yorkshire Airways

  • John says:
    22 Oct22 October 14:22

    Mmm, World beating!

  • danimal says:
    22 Oct22 October 14:38

    I wonder if their “data” is showing them that passengers are just not eating huge meals after 9pm? They may be wasting lots of meals.

    It would make sense, but they could have been so much cleverer about this:

    1. Allow orders to be placed before boarding – e.g. express meal or full service (or “I don’t know”) – that way they don’t need to waste meals.

    2. Improve the “Club kitchen” – I quite often don’t want a 3-course meal at 11pm BUT am peckish at whatever time it is I wake up mid-flight. Something more substantial than popcorn would be great.

    • NorthernLass says:
      22 Oct22 October 15:49

      You mean a similar model to the one they had pre-Covid 🤷‍♀️🙄

      • Daniel says:
        22 Oct22 October 16:53

        Yes! Or speed things up even more with ordering via the IFE rather than waiting on someone to come round and take your order on a piece of paper.

        They’d free up a crew member to preparing meals and drinks and make everyone’s lives simpler.

        It would also democratise ordering – i.e. first come, first served, rather than the back of the cabin having to wait FOREVER for an order.

    • JDB says:
      22 Oct22 October 17:17

      The ‘Club Kitchen’ worked very well for many years and was fully stocked and replenished with all sorts of high quality products until at some point a bunch of freeloaders started filling bags of stuff so they stopped it and it’s now just a vestigial offering. Well done the thieves.

      • James says:
        22 Oct22 October 18:32

        @JDB evidence?

        • Tariq says:
          22 Oct22 October 18:47

          You don’t need evidence when you have moral superiority! 🤣

        • JDB says:
          23 Oct23 October 01:19

          BA cabin crew and managers plus I saw it in action once. I think it was called ‘raid the larder’ then and some nice people took that too literally. Good quality ‘honesty bar’ type concepts have become increasingly untenable in many scenarios these days.

          • Londonsteve says:
            23 Oct23 October 03:36

            Once. That’s hardly a routine occurrence. Realistically how many business travellers or people spending a large chunk of their own cash in the J cabin are going to fill up their hand luggage with packets of crisps and sandwiches, particularly if there’s a good chance they’ll be seen doing so by the cabin crew? 0.01% of passengers if I had to guess.

          • Bervios says:
            23 Oct23 October 08:37

            I have vague memories of that happening on the 747 fleet when PE was situated in between First and Club IIRC

  • berneslai says:
    22 Oct22 October 15:27

    Just to query the tone of these two stories Rob – you don’t think these changes will stick around for long?

    • Rob says:
      22 Oct22 October 16:16

      Historically changes like this have been scrapped in the face of passenger feedback. The fact that even the national press are now nicking our story word for word with no credit (not that I’m bitter) will encourage its demise.

      • Fuggi says:
        24 Oct24 October 09:33

        Can you not complain/claim plagiarism?

        • Rob says:
          24 Oct24 October 09:46

          We all ‘borrow’ from each other, it’s part of the system. This very article you’re commenting on is obviously 100% cribbed from third parties given that I haven’t been on a late evening Club World flight in the last 9 days. Some other journalist will then use my article to write theirs.

  • ashic says:
    22 Oct22 October 15:32

    Surely nobody wants to be consuming alcohol or caffeine before sleeping. Sean Doyle must be eyeing that up as the next things to target!

    • LittleNick says:
      22 Oct22 October 16:20

      I enjoy a whisky before I sleep, some say it helps

      • meta says:
        22 Oct22 October 16:25

        Some people are immune to caffeine. My partner can sleep like a baby after a cup of coffee.

        • LittleNick says:
          22 Oct22 October 16:29

          Exactly, soon BA will have no food or drink or IFE and just be a flying bus with either seats or beds the way it’s going. They should put Leary in charge if that’s the aim, least they might depart/arrive on time that way

          • Jonathan says:
            22 Oct22 October 19:01

            That’s pretty much already the case if you go to Egypt, Jordan Isreal (when it comes back) with BA…

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      22 Oct22 October 17:50

      Speak for yourself!

  • Ren says:
    22 Oct22 October 16:10

    Is ba heading straight into the ground? Been trying to book a multi city trip thru their site for the last 5 days and it fails every time. What a pile of garbage.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      22 Oct22 October 17:54

      For multi city I’d create options using google flights then call.

      That part of the website has never been good. Though the BAHols option does work.

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