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Peep this: British Airways economy food for purchase

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Peep this: British Airways economy food for purchase

British Airways cut their free food and beverage service (you can request tap water free of charge) last year for short haul flights. Yep, if you were starting at a location within England that didn’t offer a business class seat to London (even if you were eventually flying in Business or First long haul from London onward) – you were paying just like anyone else. People were not happy. While I’d read quite a bit about the controversy I hadn’t experienced the new service. Well, back in May, I was scheduled to fly out of Stockholm and needed to get there from England. I ended up redeeming some avios and flew economy. If you’re flying BA economy, short haul ( rumors of Long Haul following suit ), here’s what you can expect to see offered.

M&S food offerings

Honestly…I think the menu is very attractive and presents the food options quite well.

a menu with food on it

Want bottled water, coke, etc? You’re paying

The food

There have been many reports that the food runs out, hasn’t been loaded, but when it came time for me to order they had everything loaded.

I’d recommend buying food in terminal, or snagging something from a lounge.

I’d completely forgotten about the food for purchase on the outbound to Stockholm. UGH! I’d even went to the British Airways First Class lounge before the flight, and wish I’d have at least brought some chips, water, and cookies with me. I ended up getting a bottle of water and a coffee on the plane ( I quite enjoyed the coffee actually), but my advice would be to grab something ahead of time, even at in terminal prices.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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3 Comments

  • Gray February 10, 2018

    In BA’s shoes I’d probably comp something for folks with onward connecting flights in F/J, particularly if the flight doesn’t have anything but Y. Especially for someone in paid F onwards, this is really quite the slap in the face.

    Of course, the adjunct to this would be, since intra-European flights really don’t have a “proper” J cabin (it’s generally just Y with a blocked-out middle seat), to allow onward-connecting flights in F/J to carry a “fake J” boarding pass code even if the cabin nominally doesn’t exist, and throw in a disclaimer. They could /easily/ make more off of doing this (and eating the resulting mileage/tier point credit) than off of acting to nickle-and-dime long-haul premium-cabin pax. Heck, even if they traded blocking a stray middle seat or two when this happens they could probably cover it on the resulting upcharge.

    (And yes, if it seems inane that charging an extra £50-100 for that through ticket would be less insulting than charging £2 for a soda I feel compelled to point out that £50 on what would could easily be a £5000 fare will likely stand out less at booking than the onboard drink charge would).

  • Evan July 20, 2017

    Seriously it’s no big deal. Since BA went buy on board I either haven’t noticed because a) the flights are all pretty short or b) I’ve done exactly what you didn’t and grabbed a can of coke and a bag of crisps in the lounge or c) I’ve bought a couple of bottles of prosecco which you couldn’t do before…So from an American’s perspective who probably doesn’t fly with BA every week it really is no big deal.

  • James July 19, 2017

    Isn’t it ironic? You see famous chef on safety video, but you must spend extra pound for a meal even drinks….

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