British Airways Club Europe catering …. it’s coming home

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According to rumours on Flyertalk, which have been confirmed by a British Airways short-haul crew member I know who has seen the in-house presentation, the new Club Europe catering – rolling out from mid September – sees the return of scones to Afternoon Tea.

In fact, you can pretend that the last 18 months was a Dallas-style dream.

It’s goodbye to getting wine in tiny portions from full-size bottles – the individual bottles are returning (champagne remains in large bottles on longer routes, smaller bottles on shorter routes)

It’s goodbye to the bizarre new zonal system which downgraded the catering on BA’s core European business routes – the old banding system returns

It’s goodbye to being served your meal a course at a time on longer routes

What is NOT going away are the small trays, due to storage issues with the refurbished and new aircraft. Your wine glass will also be pre-loaded onto the tray.

This means – on longer routes where the main course will no longer be served separately – you will receive a tray with lots of very small plates on it and a wine glass. That said, BA’s portion generally did not fill the plate space available …..

In all seriousness ….

We are told that the catering budget for Club Europe has been increased. What is provided should be of higher quality than what went before.

We are also promised more frequent menu rotations. Apparently the meal choices will be changing every two weeks, instead of every three months or so.

On longer routes where there were historically two hot options, an additional third cold option will be added. This is being done for logistical reasons (the ovens only take 48 meals at once and a full cabin can be 50+) although it has the benefit of also increasing choice.

As usual with British Airways, the proof of the, erm, panini is in the eating. However, as all of the cuts to long-haul economy catering have now been reversed, there is some hope here.

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