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  • 49 posts

    I can only assume jj is BA’s chief bean counter…

    11,762 posts

    @jj, it’s unlikely that you pay for the meal at a friend’s home or wedding, is it, so that’s not really a valid comparison?!!


    @CJD
    , ha ha, I think that was a different case! Quite a few pop up when you start looking online …

    49 posts

    @NorthernLass The BA apologists will come along and tell you the catering is “complimentary”, just like LNER in First Class when they mess up their service offering.

    764 posts

    I’m no apologist for BA, and I certainly don’t think the food in Club is free.

    Have you noticed that the quality of a restaurant is inversely proportional to the length of its menu. There’s a very good economic reason for that: choice comes with cost and waste, and the greater the quality, the more expensive the waste. You rarely have a choice in any Michelin starred venue.

    I’ve never seen an item on a Club menu that I wouldn’t be happy to eat. I don’t want my fare to rise so that others have a guaranteed choice.

    11,762 posts

    @jj, aren’t you arguing on another thread that baggage handlers should be working overtime in the rain to make sure pax don’t have to leave without their bags 😂

    Never mind Dickens, perhaps you should be exiled to a Sartrean purgatory where the only food available is quinoa salad and coronation cauliflower – or delayed Club Europe, as it’s better known 🤣🤣🤣

    986 posts

    I’ve never seen an item on a Club menu that I wouldn’t be happy to eat.

    That’s great for you, but I disagree. If you’re going to have choice and make a big deal about it by giving out menus and charging a significant premium for it, you should be able to deliver for most people. As it stands it’s not unusual even row 2 doesn’t get their first choice…

    6,937 posts

    The fussy eater brigade seem determined to bully BA into offering no choice of meal. This will resolve the awful suffering experienced by those not getting their first choice, save a lot of catering cost, save customer relations time and reduce the Avios stupidly paid to the compensation seekers. Everyone should be delighted with a simple cost effective solution. Be careful what you complain about…

    986 posts

    Honestly, no problem with that – as long as it’s a decent portion and broadly acceptable to most (so probably chicken most of the time!). Numerous airlines do that in short haul J and if you have some specific requirements you order a special meal.

    11,762 posts

    I am absolutely not a fussy eater, in fact I would prefer a decent ciabatta sandwich or wrap which could just be handed out swiftly to all the faffing about with cutlery for a tiny wilting salad. Or allow CE pax free selection from the Hi-Life menu.

    49 posts

    They can chuck out afternoon tea on those long band 2 routes that are almost blocked at 3hrs as well…

    233 posts

    A lot of the recent vegetarian options I’ve seen posted on Flyer Talk in Club look far more interesting than the meat dishes.

    233 posts



    @CJD
    , ha ha, I think that was a different case! Quite a few pop up when you start looking online …

    The one I’m thinking of featured a Lloyds business banking manager who was in cahoots with the OCG.

    There’s also the jewellery shop in Bradford I think which was the subject of NatWest’s money laundering fine a few years ago where binbags of cash were being deposited in the local branch…

    6,937 posts

    I am absolutely not a fussy eater, in fact I would prefer a decent ciabatta sandwich or wrap which could just be handed out swiftly to all the faffing about with cutlery for a tiny wilting salad. Or allow CE pax free selection from the Hi-Life menu.

    The suggestion of an alternative rather belies denial of being a fussy eater, particularly when associated with support for the non first choice moaners. A sandwich/wrap would be the most hopelessly inappropriate down market replacement for the decent main courses currently offered. The complaint has been about a main course choice not being offered to all owing to supply issues rather than the content of the main course.

    BA has wisely opted for a clean, modern British four course menu which makes its offering the best amongst European business classes. A sandwich in lieu of the current main course or the totally undeliverable option of a free run of the High Life Café would so reduce the calibre of the BA offering as to be absurd.

    BA is trying to offer something good and better than the competition by offering three main course choices and should be lauded for that even though it is logistically/operationally impossible to guarantee three choices to every single passenger. Instead of welcoming these efforts, a few fussy people throw it back in their face by complaining, and expect compensation, essentially preferring that we should all be reduced to the lowest common denominator with no choice. BA isn’t going to improve its offering if people keep treating good service concepts in this hostile manner.

    P.S. @NL in many years of travelling CE, I have never, ever seen a wilted salad. They are sensible enough to choose the type of leaves that don’t wilt, keep them chilled and they use good and varied dressings that avoid risk of wilting. This is just prejudicial nonsense.

    986 posts

    So I am personally not after a sandwich or items from the High Life Café 🙂

    But you keep talking about these amazing theoretical choices, @JDB, but ignoring the majority of customers on any given flight in Club Europe do not get that level of choice.

    Ironically I am arguing against my own interests here as, given I usually sit in row 1 if flying CE, I do get wider-than-industry-standard choice, I cannot remember a flight recently where people were not disappointed by what is left – even as far up front as row 2.

    2,480 posts

    Quote JDB: “In many years of travelling CE, I have never, ever seen a wilted salad”

    I think BA must know who you are JDB, because I’ve never had a salad leaf on BA that was *not* wilted. And sometimes tasting as though it hadn’t been washed, ss well.

    49 posts

    @JDB You’ve not travelled to Alicante between 2pm and 5pm then. Choice of a few dry meat sandwiches or a few dry veggie sandwiches. For a 2hr 40 flight.

    764 posts

    To be fair, my experience as a fairly regular CE flier is that the onboard food is very good given the constraints of the aircraft and flight duration. It’s usually better than in the lounge, which is much less constrained.

    300 posts

    Quote JDB: “In many years of travelling CE, I have never, ever seen a wilted salad”

    I think BA must know who you are JDB, because I’ve never had a salad leaf on BA that was *not* wilted. And sometimes tasting as though it hadn’t been washed, ss well.

    I think that statement was further proof that JDB is a troll with a very active ChatGPT account !

    6,937 posts

    Quote JDB: “In many years of travelling CE, I have never, ever seen a wilted salad”

    I think BA must know who you are JDB, because I’ve never had a salad leaf on BA that was *not* wilted. And sometimes tasting as though it hadn’t been washed, ss well.

    My comment was expressly about CE food where I stand by my comment based on empirical observation. Club World food is an entirely different proposition.

    6,937 posts

    @JDB You’ve not travelled to Alicante between 2pm and 5pm then. Choice of a few dry meat sandwiches or a few dry veggie sandwiches. For a 2hr 40 flight.

    Alicante is a Gatwick BA Euroflyer operation with different caterers/catering arrangements and I haven’t tested LGW good since it went Euroflyer. The thread has been about BA mainline CE main courses and choice not always being available sufficient far back the cabin. The wilted lettuce comment was a crowd pleaser thrown in by another poster, possibly Liz Truss.

    694 posts

    Well I might as well wade in here:
    1. I thought the standard offering in Econ included a PLASTIC bottle of water (Harrogate, not so nice) – surely they are recycled…?
    2. CE staff often have plenty of time (esp with ATC restrictions). Last flight I didn’t have time to get water (normally 1L per 2hr flight) so asked for water on boarding the plane. That creates resentment from other passengers also who don’t get water
    3. I do understand if you can’t get down all CE with drinks it causes a problem. But water isn’t it
    4. I really like lists

    I normally “steal” a can of soft drink when I leave the lounge, because they now mostly have filtered water from a tap and so no chance to take a bottle for the flight. That’s my “first world problem”. But mostly they do a great job and should be thanked for it personally, not berated on an Internet forum.

    1,684 posts

    I normally “steal” a can of soft drink when I leave the lounge, because they now mostly have filtered water from a tap and so no chance to take a bottle for the flight.

    I try and remember to take an empty bottle through security and fill in the lounge, even when I’m flying CE.

    986 posts

    surely they are recycled…?

    Fairly certain nothing but the trays, cutlery, crockery and napkins is recycled.

    986 posts

    To be fair, my experience as a fairly regular CE flier is that the onboard food is very good given the constraints of the aircraft and flight duration. It’s usually better than in the lounge, which is much less constrained.

    Remember pretty much everyone in CE has paid a fairly hefty premium to be there – lots of people in the BA lounges are not making BA much money… Hence the huge difference between the VS and BA lounges, for instance…

    11,762 posts

    @memesweeper, what do you fill it with?!

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