British Airways is welcoming M & S on board

[Raptor]

Got an e-mail from Avios.

We just wanted to let you know about some changes to the on-board catering service on your upcoming flight with British Airways.

When you fly to xxxxx on xxxx 2017, you will be able to purchase food from Marks and Spencer's delicious 'M&S on board' menu. This will replace the complimentary service currently provided in short haul economy cabins, including UK Domestic flights.

You can now relax on board and choose from a selection of delicious fresh sandwiches, salads, savoury nibbles and sweet treats from Marks & Spencer. All your favourite branded wines, spirits and soft drinks will also be available to buy.

Heard that this was going to happen but M&S really......... Food doesn't bother me but no more free "WINE"

Raptor.

[Lootman]

I don't believe that M&S actually prepares the food that you see in their shops. Rather they order it from Greencore - an Irish food manufacturing and preparation company:

http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Manufa ... -Greencore

It's LSE-listed, symbol GNC and is a constituent of the FTSE-250.

Greencore also supply Tesco's and others. Which makes you wonder why BA could not have gone directly to Greencore and bypassed M&S? Perhaps BA wanted the M&S brand rather than the relatively unknown Greencore?

To be honest, M&S is my choice for "on the go" food - it's generally healthy, reasonably-priced with many options and ubiquitous locations. So BA could do a lot worse - on one domestic US flight I was on they were giving out boxes of junk food. Ugh.

BA long-haul is not affected by this change.

[DiamondEcho]

This will replace the complimentary service currently provided in short haul economy cabins, including UK Domestic flights.
You can now relax on board and choose from a selection of delicious fresh sandwiches, salads, savoury nibbles and sweet treats from Marks & Spencer. All your favourite branded wines, spirits and soft drinks will also be available to buy.

So the take-away [sic] is that on these^ flights BA will now be charging for all your F+B. Reminds me of Easyjet etc, klassy!

[grimer]

I was pretty disgusted with this story and it appears that supermarket 'fair trade' and 'ethical sourcing' doesn't include British workers.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/14/outrage-among-northampton-over-sandwich-jobs-insult

I expect BA's decision will now lead to a lot of job losses in the 'Heathrow Kitchens'. [/rant]

[UncleEbenezer]

I was pretty disgusted with this story and it appears that supermarket 'fair trade' and 'ethical sourcing' doesn't include British workers.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/14/outrage-among-northampton-over-sandwich-jobs-insult

I expect BA's decision will now lead to a lot of job losses in the 'Heathrow Kitchens'. [/rant]

Did you read the story you cite?

They had advertised and attended quite a few jobs fairs locally. But that's buried quite a way down the article: being the Grauniad, such trifling details get only a grudging mention.

[Satsuma]

On my most recent short haul flight with BA (Dec 16) outbound was only a small (but surprisingly tasty) ham and cheese croissant; while return was a fairly measly small bag of crisps. Free drinks though, incl booze, although no free refills at your seat - but I imagine they would provide if you went to the galley though.

So any food you buy before or in-flight will probably be better, but it's always fun to have those dinky cans and mini wine bottles!

Sats

[Paultry]

On a recent flight I noticed very few punters taking up the offer of a £4 sandwich or £6.50 gin and tonic.

Previously, when it was free virtually everyone enjoyed a cheese roll and bottle of wine.

We took sandwiches with us!

[swill453]

We took sandwiches with us!

Welcome to budget airlines. Been doing that for years.

Scott.

[Lootman]

On a recent flight I noticed very few punters taking up the offer of a £4 sandwich or £6.50 gin and tonic. Previously, when it was free virtually everyone enjoyed a cheese roll and bottle of wine. We took sandwiches with us!

For about ten grand more, you can fly Emirates in First and have genuine caviar as an amuse bouche, washed down with Krug champagne, followed by a five course meal served on china.

Make that twenty grand for "The Residence" on Etihad, and you will have a personal chef, a personal waiter/valet/maid/batperson, and a living area, double bed and en-suite shower.

You pays your money and takes your choice . .

[Slarti]

On a recent flight I noticed very few punters taking up the offer of a £4 sandwich or £6.50 gin and tonic. Previously, when it was free virtually everyone enjoyed a cheese roll and bottle of wine. We took sandwiches with us!

For about ten grand more, you can fly Emirates in First and have genuine caviar as an amuse bouche, washed down with Krug champagne, followed by a five course meal served on china.

Make that twenty grand for "The Residence" on Etihad, and you will have a personal chef, a personal waiter/valet/maid/batperson, and a living area, double bed and en-suite shower.

You pays your money and takes your choice . .

Not on short haul flights, you don't.

And I for one am rather glad at the demise of the drunk getting off at the end of the flight and then getting into their car to drive home, or even worse, into a strange car on the wrong side of the road.

Slarti

[JMN2]

We took sandwiches with us!

Welcome to budget airlines. Been doing that for years.

Scott.

I take an empty water bottle with me, if it seems the water is drinkable I fill it up in the airport toilet, if water seems dodgy I buy a bottle. Usually I buy a snack from Pret a Manger, either all day breakfast sandwich or ham and cheese (Jarlsberg) baguette. Alcohol on board makes me drowsy, I'd rather hit the pubs when I land.

[DiamondEcho]

I take an empty water bottle with me, if it seems the water is drinkable I fill it up in the airport toilet, if water seems dodgy I buy a bottle. Usually I buy a snack from Pret a Manger, either all day breakfast sandwich or ham and cheese (Jarlsberg) baguette. Alcohol on board makes me drowsy, I'd rather hit the pubs when I land.

I also take an empty water bottle with me. Once air-side through customs etc I fill it up from a water fountain [usually near the toilets]. And if there is no such fountain then I ask at a bar or cafe. I've never been questioned on the latter, never mind charged, IME they're happy to help.
If it's a budget airline and a longer flight I'll eat at the airport pre-departure, or have brought a sani and couple of bananas with me, as the latter are an ideal longer-duration source of energy. On budget airlines the inflight offerings are expensive and poor, but with a bit of planning you're not at the airlines mercy.
Quite often I'll also check the F+B outlets available at the airports I'm travelling through. For example here abroad I simply can't get fish and chips, or steak pie, etc so that's something I'd look our for at Heathrow etc, or good sausages [Munich*], decent curry [many ports of call in SE Asia]. If you know there's good F+B awaiting at an airport it makes the time waiting to fly fly by.


* If you've a few hours in transit, and can be bothered going in/out to streetside, last time I was there they had a beer-garden right outside with great F+B. And just 20-30M away a supermarket where we loaded up local produce we can't get here, at high-street prices, sausages, sliced meats, cheeses etc

[DiamondEcho]

Oh and it's not like I'm fanatical about saving every penny, rather it's just I don't like being egregiously gouged for often poor goods. And the tips I mentioned above have become habit over many years of frequent flying on my own tab.

[swill453]

Quite often I'll also check the F+B outlets

Frankie and Bennys?

Scott.

[swill453]

Oh and it's not like I'm fanatical about saving every penny, rather it's just I don't like being egregiously gouged for often poor goods.

It's particularly galling in, say, hot Mediterranean countries where bottled water is 20 cents for 1.5 litres in the shops, but 3 euros for a small bottle at the airport.

Scott.

[DiamondEcho]

Oh and it's not like I'm fanatical about saving every penny, rather it's just I don't like being egregiously gouged for often poor goods.

It's particularly galling in, say, hot Mediterranean countries where bottled water is 20 cents for 1.5 litres in the shops, but 3 euros for a small bottle at the airport. Scott.

It used to be like that at just about every airport in the world IME. You could argue that it still is. Though the likes of Heathrow are definitely better than they used to be. That followed a popular national campaign in.... IIRC circa late 90s, after which the government legislated that outlets at UK airports could not charge more for a product, than they charged for the same product on the high street. IDK but it could have been that that later put such a squeeze on profit margins, it indirectly led to the airport airside VAT 'non-rebate scam'.

[chas49]

Oh and it's not like I'm fanatical about saving every penny, rather it's just I don't like being egregiously gouged for often poor goods.

It's particularly galling in, say, hot Mediterranean countries where bottled water is 20 cents for 1.5 litres in the shops, but 3 euros for a small bottle at the airport. Scott.

It used to be like that at just about every airport in the world IME. You could argue that it still is. Though the likes of Heathrow are definitely better than they used to be. That followed a popular national campaign in.... IIRC circa late 90s, after which the government legislated that outlets at UK airports could not charge more for a product, than they charged for the same product on the high street. IDK but it could have been that that later put such a squeeze on profit margins, it indirectly led to the airport airside VAT 'non-rebate scam'.

Leaving aside the VAT question, is it true that shops have to charge to same price airside as on the High Street? This link to MoneySavingExpert suggests not. Boots apparently have a uniform pricing structure but that's a choice not a requirement, I think??

[DiamondEcho]

That's interesting, as I hadn't considered the issue of franchise operations and variable pricing.

What I do recall is 'a right hoo-ha' back in the 90s about airport pricing, a campaign in the Evening Standard led by a group of IIRC celebrity chefs/food critics and legislation being introduced as a result. It was a big campaign back then and as I recall the legislation fixed the problem. Perhaps later changes have added more flexibility?

[youfoolishboy]

I passed through T5 on Monday and needed ibuprofen gel, I went to Boots and bought it for £6.49 just looked it up on Boots webpage and its £5.99 or 2 for £8. I must admit I feel everything I buy airside is more expensive than outside but never normally check the prices as only buy what I really need.
Regards the MS sandwiches I have been flying regularly before and since they were introduced and never noticed any problems getting one, not that I ever bought one but the trolley has always been full I even flew on Jan 2nd, the 2nd day of their introduction, and did not see panic buying on the breakfast time flight.
I notice some people here seemed to use the bar a lot on the plane and felt others did I rarely did and all the flights I went on most people went for tea or coffee so don't think removing the free booze will upset too many people. For me the free tea and coffee is the only thing I miss but am now changing to other airlines because BA keep allocating me a middle row seat even though there are aisle seats free when I checkin online a day before and want to charge me to change it. This may have been in effect for a while but only in the last year have I been flying with only hand luggage after booking cheapest flight which is where you get this problem.

[Lootman]

am now changing to other airlines because BA keep allocating me a middle row seat even though there are aisle seats free when I checkin online a day before and want to charge me to change it. This may have been in effect for a while but only in the last year have I been flying with only hand luggage after booking cheapest flight which is where you get this problem.

BA is far from the only airline that charges for seat selection. And it's not totally unreasonable given that seats do vary a lot even in the same fare class, and different people want different things, e.g. seat versus window. Some people even like the middle seat because, in theory anyway, you get two armrests.

I don't know how much you fly but if you reach BA "Bronze" status then you can choose your seat for free 72 hours before departure. If you are "Silver" status or above, you can choose your seat free of charge at the time of booking (and use the Club check-in and lounges even if you have an Economy ticket).

So BA's seat allocation strategy basically rewards their elites, premium and regular flyers at the expense of their occasional and discounted flyers, which makes commercial sense even if it is annoying.