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I would like to share my recent travel experience with British Airways (BA), which I booked using a Barclaycard Avios upgrade voucher for premium economy class. My initial plan was to fly directly from London Heathrow (LHR) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL). However, due to the postponement of the LHR-KUL route relaunch, my flights were rebooked to London Gatwick (LGW) – Bangkok (BKK) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL) in premium economy. Understanding that I was not the only passenger affected by this change, I accepted it.
On the day of my outbound flight, I received an email from BA about 6.5 hours before departure, informing me that my seat was no longer available due to a last-minute aircraft change caused by a fault with the original plane. I immediately contacted the BA live chat service to discuss my options. They rebooked me on a LHR-BKK-KUL premium economy flight, with the LHR-BKK leg operated by Eva Air. Initially, I was unhappy because LGW is much closer to my home compared to LHR. However, I was ultimately glad that my trip was not disrupted. In hindsight, after experiencing BA’s service on my return flight today, I should be grateful that they switched me to Eva Air!
Fast forward to my return trip to London today. Although there were no disruptions to the flights, I was quite disappointed by the in-flight premium economy class service. I skipped the pre-flight drinks and the first meal service (dinner), as I had already had a substantial meal at the airport and wanted to sleep through the journey. Sitting in the first row of the premium economy cabin next to the window, I noticed that my neighbor in the aisle seat was asked for their meal choice and served first before anyone else, while I was asked last, after everyone else. Although I wasn’t planning to eat, it still felt a bit off.
Mid-flight, I brought my 1-liter water bottle, which I had refilled at the airport, to the cabin crew to top up as it was three-quarters empty. To my surprise, the crew member refused to fill it up completely, citing that their water was for all passengers. She did refill it to just over half full, but this has never happened to me with other airlines, even in economy class.
The same thing occurred during the second meal service (breakfast), where I was again asked last. After serving my neighbor and just as I was about to place my order, the crew member told me she would come back after serving the rest. When she finally returned, I was handed a vegetarian breakfast without being asked for my preference. Upon inquiring about the full English breakfast option, I was told that only the vegetarian choice was left. To add to my disappointment, the breakfast was missing its fruit bowl. Picture below and my black coffee did come afterwards!
Is this normal and something I should expect given my ticket was redeemed with Avios and a voucher?
Repost photo:
I recall reading once that it cost BA £20,000 a year in fuel to fly an unopened bottle of champagne on Concorde – because obviously you wouldn’t want to run out of champers, darling!
So a bottle of Champagne must weigh about the same as a litre of water – so with “cost cutting in our DNA” it is no wonder your water was rationed.
No, not because you are a cheapskate Avios burner- it’s just how BA is nowadays. Trying even harder to earn an honest crust!
The short answer is NO, all passengers should receive same service. One exception Gold members should be asked for their meal choice first. But doubt that many in PE. Apart from that other 90% plus passengers are equal.
Of course there are bad seats, by that I mean if service starts from front those in back will loose out on choice. If it starts from back and front those in middle will be last.
I use avios tickets no problems
What you described is just plain bad service
I agree with Garethgerry above, it’s nothing to do with the type of ticket and if i had experienced the same, I’d probably complain.
The service in my flight started from front to back, well except for me. 😂
I always greet cabin crew on boarding, and often take treats (premium chocolates or similar). If I’m flying econ, we always get free drinks or champagne (I have status also). It would be weird to be served last, but as said Gold will have preference.
It’s much easier just to politely say something. Perhaps they didn’t think you wanted to eat??
We had very similar service to you on HKG-LHR in business 2 weeks ago…no pre flight drink offered, we were last to have our order taken which was around an hour after the other side of the plane had theirs taken, had to ask for a glass of wine to go with my dinner 3 times, despite having ordered it earlier. The woman on our side was just slow and lethargic and everything seemed to be a problem. We also had no choice of breakfast as the choices had all gone when they got to us so we ended up withe the French toast which looked like vomit and tasted like you would expect so we both left it and ended up leaving the plane hungry as nothing else to eat…the fruit plate on both dinner and breakfast were very good though I will say that
There was also no wifi on the 15 hr flight
Have complained and been offered a paltry 12k Avios (ie 6k each) so have gone back saying its not sufficient when travelling in a supposed premium cabin this is not premium service…ie what am I actually paying for, just a bed to sleep in essentially (I did get a very good sleep at least)
We were also on an Avios 2for1. I don’t believe its down to that, its just down to the pure hit and miss nature of which cabin crew you get. Most are great, including others on this flight, we were just unlucky with the one we got serving us, others are in the wrong job I feel and see the passengers as an inconvenience. The issue is it shouldn’t be down to pot luck the service you get, it should be decent and consistent and its not
I always greet cabin crew on boarding, and often take treats (premium chocolates or similar). If I’m flying econ, we always get free drinks or champagne (I have status also). It would be weird to be served last, but as said Gold will have preference.
It’s much easier just to politely say something. Perhaps they didn’t think you wanted to eat??
So you now need to buy gifts / bribe British Airways for any (not good) service? Seriously it sums up what BA has become recently.
I agree it’s not avios , it’s just bad service. Was it just you that had bad service or was it bad in general.
What did you do when she basically ignored you and said serve you after rest. Thats just plain rude. I would have asked to talk to cabin service director or whatever they are called now. Up till then what had been the interaction with this member of staff
Unless we have someone who has worked or works as cabin crew on this forum, we cant say for certain.
I agree it’s not avios , it’s just bad service. Was it just you that had bad service or was it bad in general.
What did you do when she basically ignored you and said serve you after rest. Thats just plain rude. I would have asked to talk to cabin service director or whatever they are called now. Up till then what had been the interaction with this member of staff
I just stupidly said OK and waited.
I always greet cabin crew on boarding, and often take treats (premium chocolates or similar). If I’m flying econ, we always get free drinks or champagne (I have status also). It would be weird to be served last, but as said Gold will have preference.
It’s much easier just to politely say something. Perhaps they didn’t think you wanted to eat??
So you now need to buy gifts / bribe British Airways for any (not good) service? Seriously it sums up what BA has become recently.
I have never done this (bought gifts)or seen it done, I don’t think it’s very common or necessary.
About 3 years ago I flew LHR-BOS-LHR with my OH and son, all of us on avios as Covid restrictions had eased and I had lots of vouchers and avios to use. Bearing in mind that service was relatively poor at the point, our outbound in F was very enjoyable. At this point, I was blue and OH bronze.
Not so on our return in J on the 7 am departure. We were very obviously left until last and crew then approached us and said there was no breakfast loaded for us as we were a last minute upgrade (which was rubbish as I’d booked the seats months previously as soon as the ban on visiting the US was lifted). I was seriously unimpressed and told them so, and they then managed to produce 3 cheese croissants from PE. OH and son don’t like cheese so didn’t eat on the flight apart from whatever miserable snack thing they were serving as second meal at that point! Thankfully BOS-LHR is a very short flight.
I submitted complaints for all 3 of us as I felt we’d frankly been treated with contempt, and we got 10k avios each. Fortunately we’ve never experienced this again, whether on cash or avios bookings, so I partly put it down to how bad things were immediately after the pandemic, but it definitely happens!
The issue being EVA expectedly set your expectations, but BA sadly didn’t quite manage to manage your expectations.
None of the above comments about BA sound at all surprising and being reminded of BA’s standards after experiencing EVA probably could come as a nasty wake up call.
@lhar – well I have never heard of anyone taking gifts for cabin crew before! We do certainly take suitable presents for hotel staff and management as well as writing thank you letters but these are going to people one has been corresponding with and often know from previous stays whereas cabin crew are rather more transient.
To be completely honest I don’t expect anything from mileage redemptions and think that is how it should be. (And I usually give them away.) Some people create elaborate theories that miles are a currency and are worth just as much, but then I’d like to compare that currency to the Zimbabwean dollar.
Of the few times I’ve actually flown on miles BA, KLM & Air France have been fine but that’s because of the status as @lhar stated, and if you are on a redeye flight even then you’ll be nowhere near the top of the paxlist. I feel the American carriers are where they treat both miles & cash bookings equally. Those I’ve given flights to have regularly not been offered their meal options, on one occasion even told by crew “your ticket was free”.
@Garethgerry it’s more common than you think and it depends how you give it and what you give. If I got a nice corporate gift from an exotic locale (what are those then, if not bribes?) I’ll regift it upon landing. When flying a day before Christmas or New Years’ I’ll bring a hamper with quality local goodies for the girls (and boys) in the lounge to take home.FYI on the paxlist BTW: a Silver who just did two full Y economy flights weekly for the past few, will be higher on the paxlist than a Gold who got there via a few J flights with BAH packages a year ago. Revenue had always played a factor, that is just how it works.
I currently have no BA status.
I flew BA on redemptions in the PE cabin a few times in the past 12 months and have had very good service. In fact better than many paid BA flights in PE when I was BA Silver/Gold in the past.
These flights were not full, which is probably part of the reason for my experiences. Despite not selecting my seats until 24 hours before departure, I was able to choose seats towards the front, which meant I was one of the first to be asked for meal choices.
I can’t believe that nobody on those flights had status but I did not notice anyone else being treated differently.
I do recall a particularly poor crew member on a paid BA PE flight when I was Gold. The senior crew member came to greet me after reaching cruising altitude and offered to get me a drink right away, however something came up and he probably forgot. When I politely chased this up with the main crew member serving my side, she took exception to this (I got the feeling she felt I did not “deserve” to be Gold or whatever) and then not only did I not get a drink, when the regular drink service started she skipped me.
Passengers shouldn’t be treated differently depending on how they paid; for one thing it hardly “rewards” customers for their loyalty of they’re then disadvantaged when they come to avail themselves of said rewards (I know, I know, it’s BA …)
Maybe it’s (some) crew who need better training in respect of this, though. I recall a couple of trans-Atlantic flights in J, using avios and 241, which still stand out for me in terms of service – LHR-IAD and JFK-LHR where the crew were wonderfully attentive and professional without being overly formal.
The short answer is yes. If they are short of meals and have a high level of status passengers then they take orders butterfly style going from highest CV to non status. It’s infuriating, they will deny it, apologists will refute the assertion, but it is exactly how it works. In the days of 747 it was hilarious watching them do this in First class from row 5, they fluttered between passengers with absolutely no rhyme or reason hoping they disappointed only the staff or the crew clingons.
Having said all that my flight last week in club had me searching out my own pre departure drink as no one came near my side of the plane. My wife had the same crew member throughout the flight while I had 5! She thought the service was good but mine was chaotic.
You need to temper your expectations flying BA. ShortHaul is a low cost carrier model. Long haul is an inconsistent mess with poorly trained crew in cheap primark uniforms delivering reheated pub grub. At best it’s adequate, generally it’s not.
Given the profits and packed planes it’s exactly what the masses want!
I recall reading once that it cost BA £20,000 a year in fuel to fly an unopened bottle of champagne on Concorde – because obviously you wouldn’t want to run out of champers, darling!
So a bottle of Champagne must weigh about the same as a litre of water – so with “cost cutting in our DNA” it is no wonder your water was rationed.
No, not because you are a cheapskate Avios burner- it’s just how BA is nowadays. Trying even harder to earn an honest crust!
That’s clearly not true. A bottle of champagne weighs around 1kg. A passenger around 85kg. Concorde was expensive but not £1.7 million!
I recall reading once that it cost BA £20,000 a year in fuel to fly an unopened bottle of champagne on Concorde – because obviously you wouldn’t want to run out of champers, darling!
So a bottle of Champagne must weigh about the same as a litre of water – so with “cost cutting in our DNA” it is no wonder your water was rationed.
No, not because you are a cheapskate Avios burner- it’s just how BA is nowadays. Trying even harder to earn an honest crust!
That’s clearly not true. A bottle of champagne weighs around 1kg. A passenger around 85kg. Concorde was expensive but not £1.7 million!
Sorry just noted “a year” I take back my comment but sadly can’t edit
I don’t think there is any big conspiracy for reward flyers being treated any worse, I just think in general you are at the mercy of the cabin crew you end up with. In my experience some can be friendly and attentive and go above and beyond and others just see you as a nuisance they have to put up with for a few hours. I’ve had this sort of mixed experience on all airlines in all classes but it does seem more annoying when you are in a premium cabin and feel that there is more of an expectation of better service.
I do have a slight bugbear with not getting your choice of meal as it has run out by the time the service gets to you, I always wonder how hard it would be to ask for people’s preferences in advance and just load the right numbers in to begin with.
Until the pandemic BA let you choose your F or CW meal in advance, which meant the everyone was generally guaranteed to get their first choice. Despite having been lobbied about this numerous times, and making vague promises about it, it seems like it’s not happening!
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