Cabin service in BA economy on 747/777

[radeng]

I pay around £700 - £800 for D class to Nice on BA. The food is far worse than it used to be: at times, the CC are almost embarassed by what they have to serve. At least there's plenty of champagne, but I do get the impression that 98% of the time, the BA CC still have the 'To Fly To Serve' idea firmly ingrained. Like last Friday at Nice on BA345 - late in because of wind at Heathrow, lightning strike on the way in, delay with thunderstorm overhead preventing inspection, delay afterwards while the runway drained off the rainwater. 6.5 hours late, CC served the meal, opened the bar, kept the PAX as happy as could be. made sure LHR had arrangements for connecting PAX, and flight crew kept us well informed.

(The F/O gave me a cockpit tour and we discussed various things about avionics, but that's another matter)

Excellent performance by the crew - just a pity it was a crappy ex BMI A320, and those are not 'fit for purpose' for BA Club Europe.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by jetset lady

However, to take your point on it often being your only chance to eat, I'm very sorry but no airline should be held responsible for supplying your daily nutrition on a 1-2 hour domestic flight. If your schedule is such that you are unable to grab anything at all to eat during the day, then that is a problem with your schedule/company, not the airline. And once again, the majority of the people on board will not have paid £350. (I did try to find out how much the same trip would have cost 10 years ago but was unsuccessful. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it was pretty similar to today's prices.)

A quick look on ba.com at 5 days ahead, next Friday 2 Nov on BA1306 0840 LHR-ABZ (a bit late but whatever) returning on BA1319 at 1840 shows £336.79. Yes, the fares do rise and fall notably. Because my business handles response situations we quite often are booking people for the next day.

10 years ago (maybe more) we were actually doing such sectors as well, and I recall fares of around £200 for Edinburgh and about £240 for Aberdeen. It's no coincidence that the first route Easyjet ever did anywhere in Europe was London to Edinburgh. There's no free catering there either .... but they are only charging £122 for the same dates.

Regarding the "it's a problem with my schedule, not the airline", I've seen that style of comment previously here. I think it just shows a lack of understanding of the needs of the core customers. We can all say that.