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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.

  • Richie says:
    22 Oct22 October 07:56

    A five course meal can be put together from the reduced menu-

    Starters
    Butternut squash and coconut soup or
    Grilled tiger prawn salad

    Main
    Chicken and leek pie

    Dessert
    Panna Cotta or
    Fruit Salad

    Cheese course
    Cheese and crackers

    Coffee/Tea with Chocolate chip cookies

    But the chances of overloading surplus items is probably nil.

  • pigeon says:
    22 Oct22 October 07:58

    The reality is most people who pay for a Club World ticket won’t wait until 23.00 for an airplane dinner, they’ll get something in the terminal before their flight. And of those who do wait until 23.00, it’s been a busy day so they’ll want to eat fast and go to bed.

    Maybe not the most popular of moves, but the logic checks out and it’s what then market wants. Businesses that provide luxury for the sake of it (ie unable to command a revenue premium Vs competitors) don’t survive long term.

    • paul says:
      22 Oct22 October 08:05

      “go to bed” how fanciful, even “go to sleep” is a real struggle in cattle class.

    • Nigel says:
      22 Oct22 October 08:14

      Who says it is what the market wants?. I’m off on an 11:55 minute flight to Bangkok shortly and to offer a chicken pie or bowl of soup on a Club World ticket is pitiful and mean. And how can you describe a proper meal service as a ‘luxury’? Frankly that’s ridiculous.

      • Nick says:
        24 Oct24 October 10:24

        I have cancelled my Bangkok flight because of this. It is exactly 11 hours and 55 minutes long so I presume it does not meet the 12-hour threshold to have a normal meal.

    • Rob says:
      22 Oct22 October 08:23

      So the old Sleeper Service was scrapped because …..?

      • Nigel says:
        22 Oct22 October 14:56

        So many assumptions in your response and to assume makes an ass out of u and me.

        1. Market dynamics shift over time, What market dynamics? Providing a decent meal in CW for passengers paying £6k + per ticket? Qatar have improved their service. You evidence Delta’s superior offer.
        2. The client base has completely shifted? Completely? Really? Exactly how has the client base shifted post COVID so completely?
        3. A future rationalisation was always inevitable. Why? Sean Doyle’s commitment to improving BA with a £7 billion investment seems to fly in the face of this move.
        As other Head for Points readers have commented this is a move more in line with cost cutting CEO’s like Willie Walsh and Álex Cruz.

    • Cicero says:
      22 Oct22 October 11:13

      You obviously don’t fly very much.

  • supergraeme says:
    22 Oct22 October 07:59

    And then you remember Qatar and their caviar course….

    It’s good to see the ghost of Alex Cruz is still roaming the corridors!

  • Not Long Now... says:
    22 Oct22 October 07:59

    I’d like to see this as positive, as like many others apparently, waiting 2 hours for a meal on a late night departure was never really worth it for me. I understand, and completely agree, that a choice would have been better, but I hold out an admittedly desperate hope it might mean a quicker end to the crashing and banging around.
    It does seem timings are something much more complicated than I ever realised on an aircraft. On our last return from DFW with BA, I asked to be woken at the last possible moment before landing, and just a cup of tea thanks… so there I was with one hour and forty-five minutes to go, politely woken, and informed “the seat belt sign will be going on shortly, nearly there..”. Obviously ‘there’ was actually about 500 miles west of Ireland, and ‘soon’ was considerably over an hour, but then I admit it was difficult to tell, as nearly everybody’s IFE was broken so there was no map to check on.

    • HampshireHog says:
      22 Oct22 October 12:21

      A good summary of the usual experience in which the passengers are there for the inconvenience of the crew

  • Timothy says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:00

    Just seem determined to downgrade the airline further. Must have very non airline people who make the decisions

  • William Avery says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:01

    Wow!! That is quite something! Pay all that money even with Avios and get a more comprehensive meal on most full service economy airlines.

  • Lee says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:05

    Dreadful “airline”. I will fly only economy with them – if I have to. The long haul I use the better airlines for Business and First Class. I haven’t used ba for long flights in a long time!! Right choice

  • JeanVal says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:07

    I don’t think that anyone has brought this up yet: the worst with those changes is how unpredictable / inconsistent it will be for your average passenger.

    Right now, if my job buys me a CW ticket, I know I can eat before the flight if I want to, but I also know that I can eat on the flight if I have to (e.g. catching a plane straight after a meeting) or if I want to. The option is always there. I know it will be mediocre, but the option exists.

    Going forward, it seems like the average passenger now needs to know that if flying before 11:30, you’ll get only a waffle, if flying after 9pm, you’ll get a soup and some crackers (sounds worse than the CE menu).

    Great!

    • Chris says:
      22 Oct22 October 08:41

      This. 100%.

      BA have forgotten (or perhaps don’t care) that the greatest form of “luxury” is in fact choice. It may well be true that some people just want to try to get to sleep on a 9pm departure, but I’m not sure what prevents them from doing so if you offer the choice of lighter or heavier dining options. Or, indeed (and I am often in this camp!) some may not want to eat at all on a late flight.

      But that fails to take into account the fact that a long haul flight will be full of people on different time zones, some of whom have already had a long travel day and some of whom may have a long travel day ahead of them when they land. The answer is simple: give people choice.

      Simply deciding to sling a few panini around the cabin is not about choice or about “responding to positive feedback”. It’s about saving a few quid. And it’s a decision which will undoubtedly backfire and then need to be undone. Utter stupidity.

      Of course, all of this could be sorted out with some decent IT and a pre-order capability. But we all know how likely that is to happen.

      • LittleNick says:
        22 Oct22 October 12:29

        Spot on. Choice is what matters. It’s turning out that Sean Doyle is just another Willie Walsh despite all his marketing rhetorical he spews out about being a premier airline etc

    • can2 says:
      22 Oct22 October 11:03

      Imagine how well it will play out in terms of “average flyer” loyalty!

      “I paid for a CW ticket, all they gave me was a bad soup and sad crackers! Never again BA!”

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