BA First Class LHR – JNB Terrible – they even forgot to serve me breakfast!?
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British Airways call this First Class. I wouldn’t.
My flight was BA055 LHR to Johannesburg 1st November 2022
British Airways First Class service includes ‘Fine Dining with Delicious Treats’. I did not receive anything close to Fine Dining.
Firstly, from a choice of 4 starters I ordered a Nicoise salad. Only to be told it was not available as only two had been loaded. A money saving idea no doubt. There are only 8 people in the First cabin – given that some people pay nearly £10,000 for a return trip is it not too much to ask for a simple salad to be loaded for all First passengers?
Secondly, there was nothing Fine Dining about the 4 main courses offered. A minced beef pie and mash!! Really? Now, there’s nothing I like more than minced beef pie and mash – but it’s something my mother would knock up for us kids when we got home from school.
In short, I think given the cost of these tickets, the food offering was abysmal.
The story does not end there. The breakfast service began with everyone being offered breakfast, except me! Seven people were served breakfast but not me! I don’t normally complain, but I felt obliged to say something. Of course, the cabin services director was apologetic.
An absolutely Third Class service.It does sound like a frustrating flight, but I’m confused as to why you’re posting this over 2 months after the flight took place?
It does sound like a frustrating flight, but I’m confused as to why you’re posting this over 2 months after the flight took place?
Was still waiting for his breakfast.
I hope he’s had at least 10k avios from BA, this is what we got each when they didn’t load enough food for CW and could only offer us a cheese croissant for breakfast last year.
ridiculous.
I hope my first class to Washington next week won’t be the sameWhat’s strange about this story is OK, maybe they forgot to serve breakfast, but it’s not difficult to ask and if you were asleep, they will be reluctant to wake you up unless you asked them to.
Re the pie, all the surveys tell them that these ‘traditional English’ dishes are by far the most popular ones. It’s also what people choose in old fashioned clubs. Given all the difficulties of producing good food in the air, it’s also the safest bet. Reheated meat doesn’t work well – beef is invariably rubbish on any airline in F as is chicken that gets tougher. Cheese and pudding work fine as do many cold first courses but main courses, the simpler the better.
The best thing on BA F is of course the exceptional wines.
Have to say I would definitely have been asking where my breakfast was, it’s my favourite meal – to the extent that I will plan travel around it!
I’m torn on the pie issue, I love a nice pie and even make my own (chicken, ham and leek in puff pastry) but I don’t think it’s what I want in a premium cabin. They did serve chicken pie in CW last summer and it was ok but nothing special. Re the meat, I’ve actually had very good beef and lamb in the air. Chicken curry dishes can also be good – the one we had in F last month to IAD was excellent.
I’ve been slightly disappointed by the wines of late, I’m not doubting the quality but I’ve found it difficult to get just the right pairing for the meal I’ve chosen. Though of course they will bring you a sample of each on request!
Have to say I would definitely have been asking where my breakfast was, it’s my favourite meal – to the extent that I will plan travel around it!
I’m torn on the pie issue, I love a nice pie and even make my own (chicken, ham and leek in puff pastry) but I don’t think it’s what I want in a premium cabin. They did serve chicken pie in CW last summer and it was ok but nothing special. Re the meat, I’ve actually had very good beef and lamb in the air. Chicken curry dishes can also be good – the one we had in F last month to IAD was excellent.
I think chicken curry falls into the same category as beef pie! Meat in the air used to be good when they carved racks of lamb or fillets of beef.
I meant curry as a generic term, I can’t remember the exact name of the dish they served but it was beautifully tender chicken supreme in a creamy sauce, definitely not a take-away korma or tikka masala! Happy to say it went pretty well with LPGS.
I generally prefer to skip breakfast on board on an early arrival and eat in the Arrivals Lounge. They normally ask though.
We’d usually prefer something quite simple, but its a case of each to their own. To make F more premium, the option to choose from a wider range in advance would be good – like Singapore Airlines Book The Cook service (which is also available in business class).
As we are usually connecting to MAN we don’t get access to the arrivals lounge and are usually too late for breakfast in the airside ones. It’s a hard life for us northerners!
The best thing on BA F is of course the exceptional wines.
Exceptional is a stretch… other than the (wildly overpriced) LPGS, they’re serving £20-30 retail price wines at best. Decent wines but hardly justifying more than a tiny fraction of the additional cost of flying First.
The best thing on BA F is of course the exceptional wines.
Exceptional is a stretch… other than the (wildly overpriced) LPGS, they’re serving £20-30 retail price wines at best. Decent wines but hardly justifying more than a tiny fraction of the additional cost of flying First.
Well, on a recent F flight to MEX we had Chateau Haut-Batailley 2010 which if you can find that vintage in a shop will cost you well over £50 bottle, Chateau Filhot Sauternes, Warre’s Colheita port also much more than your suggested range. On the way back, they had Chateau Palmer and we also recently had Pichon-Longueville. They usually have very interesting exceptional quality tiny producer burgundies and New Zealand wines that you would struggle to buy anywhere. The difference in cost of flying F vs J in Avios is actually quite small and it is a vastly superior experience in every respect. The wines (that would all cost you upwards of £200/bottle in a restaurant) are just part of that better experience. BA is quite smart at choosing wines on quality rather than going for the overpriced brand name clarets as the ME/Asian airlines do.
Re LGPS which I agree is ridiculously overpriced for what is now quite a moderate champagne (basic Louis Roederer is better), the BA alternative of the Lanson Extra Age Rosé is a better choice.
We had Chateau Haut-Batailley en route to IAD, but I didn’t fancy it with my curry! I don’t like sweet whites or port. It would help so much if BA could bring back the facility to pre-order one’s meal then one could focus more on choosing a suitable wine for each course.
I’m with you on a return to being able to pre-order. I was looking earlier for a flight in February to see if it was back. It must help avoid running out of choices, and minimise waste.
@JDB that is indeed a strong selection. It’s been three years since I flew First, perhaps I’m a bit out of touch. I’d certainly be happy with those.
I feel that I’ve had consistently excellent service on multiple BA First flights on recent years, and I think that the OP might be blowing up a couple of small things into a needlessly big issue.
On meal choice, let’s be realistic: eithout pre-ordering, the only way to guarantee everyone had their first choice would have been to load 8 of each dish. The wastage would have been both extraordinary and inexcusable in a world where food banks exist, and, for that reason, I have no expectation that my first choice will always be available. The same issue arises in terrestrial restaurants that are equipped with freezers and skilled chefs who can reimagine leftovers. On an aircraft, it’s unavoidable.
And I have no expectation, despite the glossy photos, of restaurant-quality quisine on an aircraft. I don’t want to fly on a plane where the chef has a 6″ razor-sharp blade and naked flames, so I accept my food will be compromised. Given the circumstances, I’m impressed it’s as good as it is.
And I expect we have all occasionally been overlooked for service in even the best restaurant or bar. When it happens, I normally make a good-humoured remark when I call over the serving staff to ask for something to be put right: they are likely to be more embarrassed than I am annoyed, so I try not to spoil their day over an easily-remedied mistake. I find they’re usually grateful for my understanding, and the same thing never happens again.
I guess there was nothing worthy of praise on the flight? We can draw out own conclusions from the complete absence of positives in the original post.
BA First is a waste of time Vs club imho. A few nicer glasses of wine not worth the extra cost and/or Avios. I’ve never understood the hype.
CCR, free seat selection at time of booking if you haven’t got status, access to You First, free Wifi onboard, massively superior service on board – it’s a lot more than a few nicer glasses of wine!
There was a time when I thought seat selection tipped the balance, a return F redemption with a 2for1 being little more than a CW redemption plus seat selection fees – although we’ve never paid them.
However we like to have window seats one in front of the other (or an AB/JK pair in old CW). The last time we flew F in 2016 on a 787-9 with an eight seat cabin, we were dumped out of 1A and 2A that we’d had selected for months and put in two centre seats a few days before travel. That was in the early days of BA flying the eight seat cabin, and they hadn’t blocked 1A prior to that.
Between that, the fact that you can’t pre-select two window seats together in the increasingly standard eight seat F cabin (unless Gold) and that at least one of us has had Silver status at various times in the interim we’ve never flown F since, having done so many times between 2011 and 2016. To be honest it’s the relative privacy and having the space to stretch out that makes the most difference for me. I’m happy with CW, and especially CS for that and it makes more sense these days to conserve the Avios for more trips.
But it was nice whilst it lasted. I am looking forward to trying Qatar business class.
It would be very wasteful to load every meal for every passenger. Pro-tip… you can order you main in advance, and then have a quiet word with crew as soon as menus are given out if you have a particular starter requirement.
You can’t be that much of a pro 😂 – it’s not been possible to pre-order meals since the start of the pandemic. Hoping they’ll reinstate it soon!
You can’t be that much of a pro 😂 – it’s not been possible to pre-order meals since the start of the pandemic. Hoping they’ll reinstate it soon!
Oh Lol! I stand corrected! I just pre-ordered on Virgin Upper Class and assumed BA was still the same!
Does anyone think BA F is First Class other than BA themselves?
Even the ground experience is not First Class, the only reason why the CCR feels so nice is because the Club lounges are on par with a PP lounge. BA F is what their J experience should be.
The only reason to travel BA F is if you don’t like CW and have no other Avios options.
We used to travel regularly to Aus on BA F as we found CW a horrible option. Now with Qatar redemptions we will be flying twice to Australia this year with them instead in J.
There was a time when BA F was on par with ME and Asian J experience.
This was purely down to long-serving staff who would go out of the way for F passengers both in the CCR and on board. They knew their job perfectly. Now the majority of them are gone, but when you do rarely get such crew in F it makes it all worthwhile.
Flight attendants on ME used to be a bit cold and robotic, but they have really upped their training so now they are miles better than BA F.
I totally sympathise with OP, luxury is not always about F&B, but about how you’re treated. Good crew will proactively check with the passenger about breakfast before they go to bed or just after finishing the first meal service, they will know exactly how many of each dish have been loaded, recommend wine and will manage expectations in that regard. They will also know when the customer is not satisfied straight away and will try to make it right so that you step out of the plane without even remembering there were any issues.
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