British Airways CityFlyer food from London City Airport continues to excel

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I have mentioned the good London City food before but after a pleasant flight on a recent Friday I thought I would flag it again.

I flew back from Berlin into London City on BA CityFlyer. Club Europe food on City Airport flights is very good. Even for short hops such as Berlin, you get a menu and a choice of two hot main courses.

My meal is pictured below (click to enlarge) which was ‘salmon with pumpkin tortellini garnished with asparagus on a seafood bisque’. It was a little overdone but generally tasty. The other option was ‘pork teriyaki garnished with rice and red pepper slice’.

The reason the food is good, of course, is that the other Club Europe benefits are minimal. You don’t get an empty middle seat flying into London City as the aircraft are 2×2. Flying outbound, you don’t get lounge access at London City because there isn’t one.

If you are travelling in Economy on BA CityFlyer, there is good news for you too. British Airways does not operate ‘buy on board’ on CityFlyer because of the lack of storage space, so you will receive a free drink and a (tiny) snack.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Kumar says:

18 Mar18 March 05:00

Hi Rob, Who did win the United lounge passes,Can you please give the results as I would have to fly with United from EWR and need to consider buying on Ebay if I haven’t made it to the winners list.
- Rob says:
  
  18 Mar18 March 11:27
  
  The winners have been notified although 1 has not confirmed (and will be redrawn tomorrow if we don’t hear). Anika has the names, not me.
  - Kumar says:
    
    18 Mar18 March 13:32
    
    Thanks for letting know.
- Julian says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 09:25
  
  I’m really curious about this because I have a flight from Heathrow T2 in a few weeks and would love to use the United lounge there. Are the one time passes on ebay OK to buy and use? Or are there any scams going on, such as them being fake or suchlike? Any advice appreciated.
  - Rob says:
    
    19 Mar19 March 10:04
    
    The passes are transferable (well, put it this way, they don’t have a name on and United doesn’t control who they are given to by partners like Chase and Hyatt). Plenty of Hyatt status members get 5 per year but never use them – like the person who donated them to us. If an eBay account has sold more than 5 in the past year then it could be dodgy but up to 5 is OK.
Lewis King says:

18 Mar18 March 06:59

That reminds me! I was at first aid course on Thursday and the guy running the event used to work for BA pricing fares/loads. Somehow we got talking about it, and a few people taking the course had heard the show on Radio 4. They seemed to think it was quite good!
Roger says:

18 Mar18 March 07:02

Excellent video post.
Erico1875 says:

18 Mar18 March 07:31

With no middle seat and no lounge access, then that was an expensive meal in Club Europe wasnt it?
- Genghis says:
  
  18 Mar18 March 07:46
  
  We’ve a flight back to LCY later today. Already get fast track / lounge / priority boarding etc with status so paying an extra 4k avios (say at 0.75p ea) and £7.50 taxes = £37.70 per person for the CE food really isn’t worth it (though I have burned an expiring upgrade voucher before on the E190 and if you get 2CD it’s rather spacious).
- John says:
  
  18 Mar18 March 07:57
  
  I only buy CE for the TPs. I notice that on “commuter” BACF CE flights many passengers don’t even bother eating.
  - Bagoly says:
    
    18 Mar18 March 09:58
    
    I had that same meal on the same flight recently (cash ticket was only EUR38 more than ET)
    Yes, it tasted rather nice, but it was so overcooked that the flesh was grey – I wondered whether they had substituted tuna for salmon?
    
    Genghis – there is also the champagne (if timing fits one’s obligations), or do you abstain?
    - Genghis says:
      
      18 Mar18 March 11:06
      
      @Bagoly I rarely drink on SH. And CastelNOT? No thanks. Each to their own though.
- Rob says:
  
  18 Mar18 March 11:25
  
  4500 Avios 🙂
  - Rob says:
    
    18 Mar18 March 12:02
    
    No that was the difference between Y and J one way.
  - Genghis says:
    
    18 Mar18 March 12:03
    
    And £7.50?
    - Rob says:
      
      18 Mar18 March 12:48
      
      True. The £7.50 (indeed the full £25) got expensed though!
  - Genghis says:
    
    18 Mar18 March 13:13
    
    @Rob given spending avios is not tax deductible, what’s your accepted selling price for avios for HfP related flights and how does that differ to personal usage?
    - Rob says:
      
      18 Mar18 March 15:34
      
      I don’t even try to work it out. Logically …. I should probably have paid for the Marriott in Berlin because the 50% discount I get (factoring in NI as well as income tax) by charging it to the company would have made it better value than points.
      
      I didn’t fancy a £600 credit card bill though. And on that basis I’d never spend the points …. and arguably the points come from referring readers to SPG Amex and Amex Gold cards in the first place.
      
      It also makes articles messier if have to explain the tax shield every time I use cash when a reader would logically use points.
Darren says:

18 Mar18 March 08:32

Great video, thanks Rob.

O/T hotel related – looking for a nice hotel in NYC for my wifes birthday in December. I’ve made a cancellable booking at Crosby Street using a booking agent called Grand Luxury Hotels as they offered a number of benefits, breakfast/guarenteed upgrade etc. after joing their ‘club’. I actually thought it was Firmdales own loyalty scheme (my mistake). There have been some discrepencies with the benefits and email to and fro to get things sorted out. Anyone have experience with them?

Did I say great video, learned a lot.
Oxonlad says:

18 Mar18 March 08:57

Hadn’t seen the video before but it’s miles (groan) better than the trite Radio 4 documentary.
- Roger says:
  
  18 Mar18 March 09:52
  
  Couldnt agree more.
  Radio 4 programme tried to listen several times but gave up, couldnt connect (not internet connection problem) personally to the format, where as this video did work for me!
Jonny says:

18 Mar18 March 09:10

Love the Gabriel Leigh mini-doc.
Darren says:

18 Mar18 March 09:53

Think I’ll calculate my miles redeemed (Avios) so far after watching that, might be interesting.