Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (486)

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

  • Rupert S says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:30

    Time for Mr Doyle to move on I think. If BA’s bean counters can’t see that First and particular Club are their cash cows (like every other airline), then they may as well drop the class and become economy only.

    • Rob says:
      22 Oct22 October 08:58

      There was a lot of talk at World Aviation Festival last week about Sean leaving. A lot of the current issues are out of his control but when you are cancelling flights left, right and centre you don’t double down on customer hate.

      • Thywillbedone says:
        22 Oct22 October 09:07

        I can’t recall a lower profile CEO of BA ever …perhaps they couldn’t find a high-viz jacket in his size??

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          22 Oct22 October 09:31

          What about the guy who was between Wilkie and Cruz?

        • can2 says:
          22 Oct22 October 11:05

          good one :))

        • mkcol says:
          22 Oct22 October 13:26

          Lower profile to the extent that when his name was mentioned earlier I genuinely couldn’t think who they were & why they were relevant to the comments here.

  • Red Flyer says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:43

    Thought that was a decent list of items until I realised that was the FULL menu choices and not a sample meal!

  • Pete says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:44

    Oh dear! Sure it comes with a fare reduction not!

    Just to ask is it defo ONLY after 9pm departures .. you mention’ ‘it’s virtually all longhaul routes’ .. Inc Cape Town as 11+hours .. but do we assume only strictly the post 9pm departures?

  • Peter says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:50

    As I said in a previous comment, BA’s race to the bottom continues, under a succession of CEOs who have focussed on cutbacks at the expense of the passenger experience. They seem to forget that once lost, passengers are likely to stay with whichever new airline they choose to fly with, rather than to give BA their custom again – and no wonder, when there are other more passenger orientated airlines out there.

    • AJA says:
      22 Oct22 October 09:02

      Of course the other thing is that BA will also always find new customers. It is a mistake to think you are valuable to BA even if you fly TATL once a week with them. You are a cash cow and unlikely to switch elsewhere if you have the GGL status or higher that comes with that sort of travel. Besides TATL is a revenue sharing operation so even if you switch to AA BA is still getting some of your money.

  • Matthias says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:50

    I’m with BA on this one – particularly on US to UK late redeyes, I’ve never understood why anyone would like a 3 course meal when it’s 4am+ in the UK and surely you would have had dinner in the lounge before coming on anyway. So there myst be a lot of waste on those flights.

    Having said that I guess giving people a choice is still a good idea – if needed you could even make it a “choose before you fly” options primarily to avoid waste, and if you’ve forgotten then you need to take what’s left.

    I also took a recent 23:55 westbound departure from MAD (to BOG) and would have much preferred a shorter and less noisy meal service while I was trying to get some sleep in the 8 hours available

    • Adam says:
      22 Oct22 October 08:59

      Who know what time zone people’s body clocks are in? Anyway, time and wastage could be avoided by allowing pax to opt in online for a full meal service.

    • Throwawayname says:
      22 Oct22 October 09:27

      People may be connecting from all sorts of places, often on flights with limited catering and without time to use the lounge.

    • Josh B says:
      22 Oct22 October 09:30

      My CW flights next week have a £15k cost last I looked – maybe we should be the ones to decide whether we want to eat and how many courses? Its bizarre to be going in the opposite direction to the rest of the industry where people are increasingly demanding premium experiences rather than just a bus in the sky. You can barely get into a lounge these days given the levels of demand.

      • Lady London says:
        22 Oct22 October 10:05

        Until I hear someone refer to ” my £15k flights next week” that also has ” I cancelled my flights” then all the moaning just has no credibility for me.

        I bet if I started a thread on here with the title ” I cancelled the British Aiways flights that I had booked because .

        Ideally you’d have to give the PNR you cancelled to prove it but that would cause data issues

        Until you all start cancelling existing flight bookings on BA flights as well as all the noise about never flying them again it’s all just hot air.

        Though I think it would be perfectly reasonable and rational to cancel other flights that aren’t affected by this $hitty mean change, in protest.

        • Throwawayname says:
          22 Oct22 October 11:04

          Why would one have to cancel any flights? Some of us may be too discerning and/or cynical to book on an airline like BA in the first place and this sort of news just reinforces that perception. Their inability to sustain basically any ‘thin’ long-haul routes to destinations outside of the USA reflects their lack of popularity with customers who are not captive (whether in terms of being based near LHR, tied to corporate contracts, or stuck in the avios hamster wheel).

    • Londonsteve says:
      22 Oct22 October 14:54

      The premium travel market is increasingly leisure focused and for many of these passengers it’s a rare treat. If I’m in Business on a long haul flight, I don’t care about the length of the flight or the timezones, I want to get my money’s worth and that includes a lavish meal and multiple quality drinks. That opportunity has now been removed. I’ve got plenty of opportunity to sleep at my destination but only limited time on the flight.

      • ALISON says:
        22 Oct22 October 16:22

        compare and contrast with the way Qatar present their ‘arabian nights’ style meals with firstly a fresh table cloth neatly laid down, a little flickering tea light, proper cutlery, amuse bouche, bread with choice of oils and butter, sparking or still water in a tinted glass, mezze, olives, dates etc etc. Why would I book BA if I’m headed to far east or southern hemisphere from LHR?

        • Londonsteve says:
          23 Oct23 October 17:41

          You just wouldn’t, unless you’ve got a 241 to burn and happen to find availability to the very limited array of destinations they offer.

  • David Smith says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:55

    British Airways a second rate airline always was always will be.
    Just avoid flying with them especially when flying east.
    Use Singapore Emirates or anyone other than B.A.

    • Peter says:
      22 Oct22 October 09:12

      Perhaps all BA management should be made to fly on a Singapore Airlines flight to see how it should be done properly – Singapore are so far ahead of BA as to be in a different league entirely. BA are now an ” airline of last resort ” . For that matter, the CEO’s of every UK airport should be sent to Singapore Changi airport to discover how an airport can be made into a welcoming, working, pleasant environment to be in !!! It’s light years ahead of the misery inducing UK airports who so often treat the passenger as a nuisance and a cash cow. Perhaps its just a further sign of the UK’s terminal decline into a third rate country, with its acceptance of poor standards and ” it’ll have to do ” attitude.

      • Jonathan says:
        22 Oct22 October 11:10

        SQ are a top airline, and they hardly focus on providing cheap good value fares – even in Y.

        Low cost fares is something BA started targeting about 10 years ago, and it’s come at a cost to their reputation

  • Louise Kay says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:55

    This is appalling from BA and as a GGL member I shall like many others, complain. It’s not up to the standard that you pay for and compares very poorly with other airlines (that’s true even before the cuts). We have a morning flight to Cancun in Club World coming up and a First flight back from Mexico City after 9pm so shall provide feedback after that.

  • Donna says:
    22 Oct22 October 08:57

    That’s simply not true. The ‘good night’ service on flights that leave after 9:30 pm have 2 appetisers to choose from. 3 main meals and still 4 desserts. Passengers have the option to opt for an ‘express service’ of an appetiser and dessert or cheese board and maximise rest but if the full service is available to anyone who wants it

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!