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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

‘Institutional memory’ is ‘the collective knowledge, experience, and expertise of an organization. It includes the information, processes, best practices, and lessons learned that help an organization function effectively and make informed decisions’.

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 (477)

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

  • Paul Stevens says:
    22 Oct22 October 17:18

    Late to post because I’m currently on the west coast. Had the chicken and leek pie on the way over. It didn’t have any leek in it, only chicken and peas. There was no sauce in it either or gravy to go over it. It was dry pastry, dry chicken and peas. Horrendous!

  • aq.1988 says:
    22 Oct22 October 17:24

    I’ve got a couple long haul flights booked for next year for after 9pm. I deliberately chose these flights, so I could work the full day as normal, and then head to LHR later.

    I would plan on eating in the lounge, but you don’t always find a place to sit with a table at the correct height, so you could eat a meal properly.

    I’m not a big eater on the plane, but it would certainly be nice to still have the choice to have dinner on board, if you couldn’t get something substantial in the lounge.

    So, I’ll be putting a complaint in after each flight just on principle tbh. These types of cost-cutting measures aren’t enough for people to cancel already booked flights, and might not be enough to stop them booking in future, but if enough people complain (and maybe get avios/e-voucher in compensation), they might reverse their decision.

    • JDB says:
      22 Oct22 October 17:41

      Yes, well it’s all these trivial complaints (encouraged by many as a sure fire Avios ATM) and those “just on principle” prejudging a change without any evidence that is creating the need for BA to cut costs.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      22 Oct22 October 20:32

      What principle? That they should keep everyone awake? I don’t get how eating in the lounge doesn’t count as it’s at the wrong height 🤣 is the food then 0 calories?

      Personally this would’ve been a god send on my last 9:30 departure as it took 2.5 hours to serve everyone and pretty sure 90% were eating for the sake of it

      • meta says:
        22 Oct22 October 20:41

        I normally eat at a proper table, not from my lap or from a coffee table and the bar stools in the lounges are not at a correct height for eating normally. I can understand the poster’s frustration.

      • aq.1988 says:
        22 Oct22 October 21:34

        What I mean is, if I can’t find a place to sit and eat at a table properly, then I wouldn’t eat much, and so would hope to eat on the plane.

        Also, the last time I flew long haul on BA, it was also after 9pm, and I took a connection, which ended up being over 1 hour late, so had no time to go to the CCR, and had to rely on the meal on board in F. I appreciate these changes are for Club, but certainly won’t be surprised if ‘dine on demand’ is also scaled back.

  • JS says:
    22 Oct22 October 17:46

    Time to make a switch to another transatlantic service.

  • Jill Kinkell says:
    22 Oct22 October 17:50

    I’ve experienced BAs paninis and pancakes in the past , albeit nothing to do with the latest ‘ enhanced service menus’. Soggy. doughy, undercooked . Thoroughly horrid. Maybe I was just unfortunate, but the result is I’d never choose either of these again. Better make sure my future flights are not 8.30-11.29 or after 9 pm!

  • Joe says:
    22 Oct22 October 17:58

    Absolutely embarrassing, who comes up with this stuff? My slow march from GGL to UA Global Services accelerates.

    I personally do choose not to eat on east coast – London hops. But anything more west is a different story where I want the option. And the key thing is having an _option_ to do different if I want to.

    I’d observe that most leisure fliers have the meal. It’s part of the experience. What a way to kill the experience, BA. The people you’re going to upset most are the people who are going to be most vocal about it.

  • Dawn says:
    22 Oct22 October 19:01

    If I have a flight after 9pm I always eat in the lounge first as I don’t like eating so late. I’d rather bed down and sleep. I appreciate this is personal preference and many won’t agree.

  • John says:
    22 Oct22 October 19:04

    I am Cabin Crew for BA. It’s embarrassing! Write to Sean Doyle. Please.

  • Tiger of ham says:
    22 Oct22 October 19:20

    I’ll have the economy meal please.

    What a strange decision

    Someone’s lets the accountant out their lane again.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      22 Oct22 October 20:25

      Stop blaming accountants!

      They provide Information on options. They don’t make decisions.

      • Richie says:
        22 Oct22 October 20:53

        Can the information accountants provide always be relied upon?
        Do accountants instill bias in their reporting?

        • TGLoyalty says:
          22 Oct22 October 21:12

          Obviously someone can only be as good as the data available to them.

        • AJA says:
          22 Oct22 October 22:44

          This one doesn’t instil bias. I provide analysis based on the data provided and my wider knowledge and expertise. We have professional ethics to uphold so wouldn’t do anything that compromises that.

          That said I think the reality is that the powers that be will do whatever they want regardless of guidance that what they’re doing may be suboptimal.

          • George says:
            23 Oct23 October 12:26

            I’m not an accountant myself but I’m not sure that many of the people making these comments have worked in a serious business before

          • Rob says:
            23 Oct23 October 14:34

            Given what BA pays, no-one who works there will have flown on a serious airline before – which is the problem.

            I suspect you haven’t worked in a serious non-financial business either. Spend your life in investment banking / private equity / hedge funds, as I did, where all your colleagues are the cream of the academic crop (as are the lawyers etc you deal with on the other side of the table) and the jolt when you start dealing with ‘average’ people in ‘real’ companies is stark.

      • Tiger of ham says:
        22 Oct22 October 22:48

        Putting people with an accounts back ground in charge of enterprise and a position of power from my experience is a disaster.

        • AJA says:
          22 Oct22 October 23:07

          Well my experience is different from yours. But given I’m a retired accountant you might think I would say that. In reality you are expressing your bias. The thing is that cutting costs doesn’t always work out the way people think. It’s more complicated than that. Finance departments are as essential as sales teams and both can and do make mistakes. But blaming one or the other rarely explains the whole story. And even if accountants recommend a different strategy it doesn’t mean CEOs or anyone else will follow that guidance.

          • G says:
            23 Oct23 October 09:46

            Accountants understand cost. Sales, marketing, customers understand value.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            23 Oct23 October 10:21

            Well obviously they don’t understand value as they’re the ones making the calls.

            Finance gives the budget. Your operations deliver to it or tell you why they can’t and the value being eroded.

            Such nonsense comments.

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