BA - ?change to special meal availability?

[brockenspectre]

Hi - hope someone can help me here. I have a Club World flight to TPA booked for later this month. I am a lowly Blue Exec Club member (have been for about 25yrs!) and have had my requirement for a gluten-free meal set up in my personal info for ever.

Earlier this evening I was checking my booking online to confirm arrival time (for friends who are meeting me) and saw that the option to select a special meal was greyed out, as in "not available". I called the Exec Club who said that my requirement for a GF meal is in the booking although it is not viewable by me, apparently! Having heard a rumour that BA will be curtailing its special meal options I am wondering if I need take my own food or can I rely on BA to advise me that it can no longer cater to my needs?

Thanks in advance to any who help! :ok:

[apaddyinuk]

Brokenspectre,
I am BA cabin crew. Your flight to TPA is operated out of LGW which is unaffected by the Gate Gourmet difficulties as the catering supplier is Alpha catering. Your special meal should be onboard!!! So dont worry!!!
BA LGW WW has some fab crew, I know this as I worked there for 2 years only transferring to LHR last month, You should have a wonderful flight!!!! Lets hope however that your flight is not full of kids...you know what flights to florida can be like!!! :}

[brockenspectre]

apaddyinuk - thanks so much for the response! I do realise that LGW is not affected by the Gate Gourmet dispute but have never seen the special meal option disapplied in my online bookings before. I fly in Club and Traveller several times a year to Europe/USA and up to now I have always been able to see the meal option selected!! The website has recently been redesigned so I guess I must just get used to it!!

You are right, the LGW crews, especially on the TPA flights are usually terrific but then as someone whose favourite airline is BA I suppose i would say that! :ok:

[apaddyinuk]

Ah, now I get you! Im not to familiar with the self service option as I have never actually needed to use it. Can you possibly request it again on the booking and see if that changes the status? Im sure you have already done that already but just a thought! If its anything to you BA have no intention of removing special meal options from customers, at least not at the moment so there is no excuse for you meal not being onboard. Hope it gets sorted out for you!!!
Have a great trip and hope you dodge the hurricanes!!!

[radeng]

I find it amazing that there's still no bar service on short haul from LHR. Or on the way back - I've no doubt Servisair could provide bars from Stockholm etc, even if they don't have the capacity to provide full catering for SH flights from LHR in preference to GG. Or is it a ploy to save money?

[patdavies]

Surely, the bar trollies need to be loaded to provide a bar service. If none are loaded out of LHR, eventually where are they going to come from to load into LHR. And in LHR, who will offload?

[radeng]

Surely Servisair (as an example) could manage bar trollies at LHR as well? If BA keep on with GG as their only supplier, they're going to land in the wotsit again - and again - and again. Every time.

They have got themselves in a situation where they have an unmanageable risk as things stand, and they need to get out of it. I feel sorry for all the staff that are effectively 'at risk' through no fault of their own because management at BA can't (or won't) do something about a situation where they can be (and were) blackmailed.