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

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• Nick says:

  22 Oct22 October 22:16

  Task: it’s 3 months until YE and you need to improve profitability as it’s very shaky. Your time starts now.

  These changes are shit and can’t be justified from a customer perspective. They can easily be changed in Jan though, once it goes onto next year’s cost line.

  • G says:

    23 Oct23 October 09:48

    The UK’s (ergo BA) financial year begins/ends in April, as does IAG’s (Spain).

    • Nick says:

      23 Oct23 October 10:59

      Companies can choose whatever fiscal year they want, BA (and IAG) use Jan-Dec. April means nothing apart from tax deadlines.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    23 Oct23 October 10:36

    “ These changes are shit and can’t be justified from a customer perspective”

    You don’t think they know how many customers leave food and say no to meals on flights after 9pm.

    I guarantee there’s significant wastage and chipping out a tiny starter isn’t sending anyone to sleep hungry.

    All Ba need to do is ensure all their contract lounges have decent food.

• Sym says:

  22 Oct22 October 22:42

  Took our first CW flight from LHR to SIN return via 241 voucher – Honestly BA is disastrous, on the way there the IFE was down for 3 hours and on the way back our entire row had seats that were just stuck as a bed even during the meal time. It was so bad.

  Have flights booked from LHR to DXB in Jan in CW and First return – considering cancelling it after that experience.

  Even after that Bad news for me is I’m still holding 500k of Avios points and 500k of Amex points

  • Occasional Ranter says:

    23 Oct23 October 15:45

    Time to start hunting for QR seats to nice places. Reward seat availability is patchy but with patience I’ve consistently managed to find 2xJ to/from east coast Australia and NZ, at 90k avios each way plus fees, great value.

• davidn says:

  22 Oct22 October 23:04

  As their IT system already allows you to chose a meal which is vegetarian, gluten free, halal, etc… presumably it wouldn’t be a major stretch to add options such as ‘light meal’, ‘full meal’, ‘don’t know’ – i.e., load a full meal – etc.? (Please don’t get hung up on the exact wording of those two options… I offer them purely as an example.)

  This would give people the choice mentioned in these comments, cut down on waste (the food itself, the packaging, etc.) and presumably bridge the gap between the cost-cutting they feel they can get away with, and receiving a slightly lighter bashing from the customers?

  While I completely appreciate it won’t cover all eventualities, unforseen factors (delays so can’t eat in the lounge as planned, etc.) this seems like an obvious middle ground?

  Save every penny they can, or I’m missing something?

  • Simon Schus says:

    22 Oct22 October 23:26

    United seem to be able to offer pre-ordering of standard meals on some of their international and domestic business products. BA could do it.

    • JDB says:

      23 Oct23 October 00:50

      United enjoys a totally different financial position to BA/IAG in large part thanks to a very uncompetitive US domestic market, has been through bankruptcy processes enabling it to shed financial liabilities and has received considerable government subsidies. European legacy flag carriers are at a huge disadvantage vs US, ME and many Asian carriers. When BA did offer pre-ordering, it was not particularly popular, ultimately leading to more complaints as well as creating unnecessary logistical complexity.

      • Sarah says:

        23 Oct23 October 09:37

        Virgin manages to offer pre-ordering as well, as do many other airlines. Swiss is even introducing it on short haul. It shouldn’t be beyond BA to offer this, and I’m not sure why you say it was unpopular – I certainly appreciated being able to pre-select and from online comments, plenty of other people did too.

• Russell Lines-Jobling says:

  22 Oct22 October 23:21

  Surely this will go further to demean the product and allow fora recast of the number of crew…

• Tom R says:

  22 Oct22 October 23:54

  A lot of eat in the lounge comments but (a) the food in the lounges in many places often isn’t that great (b) the lounges can be packed and don’t offer a comfortable eating experience for more than a few snacks, (c) if you’re connecting from elsewhere you may not have time to even spend in the lounge or (d) you might be coming from work etc to make a late flight so may not have time. Additionally for those who are paying for J once in a while as a “treat” (like myself because work sure won’t allow me to book in J) then you’re paying a lot of extra money for not a lot extra these days (given if you’re not high status you’ll also have to pay to select your seat). I haven’t flown BA in 5 years and this doesn’t encourage me to choose them over another carrier (since I live in the US my choices may not necessarily be amazing but there are plenty of others at least!). Incidentally are there any changes to premium economy? – although a one tray meal that did comprise of 3 courses from recollection.

• Kenny says:

  23 Oct23 October 00:43

  I’m flying back from Mexico City at 9pm next week with the family. It’s a 10 hour flight and it’s leisure. We really want the full experience… does 9pm mean we will get the reduced meal, or is that services that depart at 9.01pm and after?!!!

  • G says:

    23 Oct23 October 09:44

    Yep. Based on scheduled departure times

  • JDB says:

    23 Oct23 October 11:29

    It wasn’t much used, perhaps because many just prefer to see what they feel like on the day rather than deciding they want chicken in a month’s time. People also changed their minds on seeing what they had ordered or denied they had ordered it as they wanted to change etc. As with any special meal, if there’s disruption/aircraft swap people got annoyed when the food isn’t transferred. Unfortunately people seem to want it every which way.

  • JDB says:

    23 Oct23 October 11:38

    I’m afraid you are relatively unlikely to get a “full experience” assuming you mean a positive one! The lounge is poor (unless you can access the Centurion) and the food is very erratic from MEX. There are fairly decent reasonably priced food options in the terminal. Probably still old Club seats as well?

• TripleB says:

  23 Oct23 October 01:53

  I know it’s a tiny bit off topic – but I wish that more airlines would follow Delta’s lead and let premium PAX pre-select (days in advance) no dinner on evening departures.

  On any overnight flight leaving after 8pm I have usually got to the airport 2-3 hours in advance of departure and spent a good hour in the lounge. Consequently, I almost always decline the meal on board. My environmental footprint is much larger than it should be and I would actually prefer to not have the meal go to waste. If the airline pockets the cash associated with this – well then so be it.

• JDB says:

  23 Oct23 October 02:54

  So, if people are really expecting a three course dinner on late departures, what is expected for an 01.45 departure? This is a QR flight, rerouted from a BA midday departure, so in true HfP style, obviously I’ll be seeking compensation for the missing lunch, but unfortunately that means me paying BA £50 x 2.

  • G says:

    23 Oct23 October 09:45

    You’re flying QR? You’ll get QR service

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