What is the British Airways temporary catering like in First Class?

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Two months ago, British Airways revealed its temporary coronavirus in-flight catering.

Unlike other airlines, BA reconstructed its food offering from scratch. The old recipes and menus went out the window, to be replaced with a smaller, more limited selection.

The change also involved a move to cold dishes (mostly sandwiches) in virtually all classes. First was the only cabin to feature hot main courses.

Instead of being presented on trays, your food would arrive in a box to avoid cross contamination:

BA’s temporary covid catering in First class

Thanks to reader Joe, we now have some photos of what the temporary catering really looks like in First. Joe was on a flight from London to Hong Kong.

Drinks are being served in plastic cups in all classes. British Airways is serving Nicolas Feuillatte Réserve Exclusive Brut NV Champagne, which has previously appeared on the M&S buy-on-board short haul menu:

For dinner, you are given this large box:

…which includes two cold starters/sides, a bottle of water and some bread. Your main (hot) meal comes in a separate box, with an economy-style metal foil covering:

It doesn’t look quite as bland as an economy meal, but it’s not far off!

For dessert you get three little plastic-wrapped cups including DO&CO’s signature chocolate dessert:

British Airways is currently serving afternoon tea as its second meal, at least on this flight. It features a selection of finger sandwiches, macarons, a fruit salad and some clotted cream and jam to go with what I imagine will be a scone:

Is it time to improve catering again?

At the time British Airways re-introduced its Covid-19 catering measures, sit-down restaurants across the UK were still boarded up. BA’s meals were a sensible compromise between comfort and safety: an improvement on the ‘cheese sandwich and a kit kat’ that the airline had been offering in previous months but with fewer contact points than pre-Covid catering.

A lot has changed since then as lockdown restrictions have eased. Crucially, restaurants were permitted to open in early July and whilst measures have been taken to minimise cross-contamination, you’re unlikely to see your waiter or waitress bringing your food in paper boxes or with plastic lids.

It is not entirely BA’s fault. Government guidance to airlines still suggests that they offer “pre-sealed and pre-prepared food and drink,” which British Airways is clearly following.

Whilst BA’s temporary meal service is an improvement, it is now generally lagging behind in comparison with its competitors and the hospitality industry at large. Virgin Atlantic, for example, is offering hot meals in every cabin, whilst Lufthansa is offering its meals in a more normal service on trays with real crockery.

Is there a way that British Airways can safely improve its offering whilst still adhering to government guidelines? I’d say so. Pretty much all in-flight food is pre-prepared and packaged anyway, with cabin crew only required to re-heat and present dishes. I’m not sure that boxing food rather than serving it on re-usable crockery really moves the needle.

It will be increasingly important for British Airways to prove that it is offering a good service, especially in premium cabins, as it encourages people to make future bookings.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Dickie H says:

9 Aug9 August 08:53

But for their protected slots at Heathrow this embarrassment of an airline would have disappeared years sgo.
- J says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 11:17
  
  Exactly this. BA have no reason to do anything beyond the bare minimum. The same is true of Lufthansa but perhaps due to higher expectations (Germans like to complain) LH outperform BA in terms of service and product (good luck getting a refund though).
Deborah says:

9 Aug9 August 08:57

If other airlines can offer near normal catering why can’t BA? It’s becoming like a low cost airline, apart from using my Avios I try to avoid BA, on long haul I now use other airlines due to quality & that was pre Covid. BA are penny pinching & passengers paying high prices to have food like that in 1st or Business is outrageous & plastic glasses, so tacky!! They will lose business if they don’t improve all round. They’re our national carrier & we should be proud but at the moment I’m embarrassed! Part of the holiday for me is the travelling experience, that would ruin the start for me.
- Alex Sm says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 09:12
  
  BA has become a de facto low-cost carrier long before the covid pandemic… in all classes it was in the bottom of the class, if you pardon the pun
  - J says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 11:21
    
    I’ve been saying this for a long time… If it wasn’t for the convenience of Heathrow, for someone without status (or only Bronze) Ryanair offer a better hard product (more legroom and guaranteed hand luggage for small fee are important to me). I only fly short haul economy for work so I’ll never make Silver and with my own money long haul there’ll always be a better option.
makrxx says:

9 Aug9 August 09:30

Looking forward to my meal deal package from SIN – LHR in Economy…
Josh says:

9 Aug9 August 09:31

There are a lot of BA cabin crew commentators today it seems
- Andrew says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 09:54
  
  Nope, we are just customers who are sick of the continual cost saving that goes on at BA dressed up as something else: Buy-on-board “gives customers more choice”; meal in a box and cheap champagne in a plastic cup “for your safety”. Unfortunately as much as we protest, for many routes we are kind of stuck with them which is why it makes it more annoying – if you’re sick of service standards at one restaurant, you just wouldn’t go back, whereas with an airline it’s not quite as straight forward which is why BA continue to be able to get away with this rubbish.
  - Roger Jones says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 09:59
    
    What a pity having to put up with this effort at catering. One should insist on a personal chef for each seat with perhaps a disposable BBQ.
    - Jamie P says:
      
      9 Aug9 August 10:11
      
      Goodness aren’t you witty Roger!!
    - BlueHorizonuk says:
      
      9 Aug9 August 11:20
      
      Yet the ME airlines seem to manage this ok with a Chef on Board?
      
      So…..what’s your point?
      - Jamie P says:
        
        9 Aug9 August 16:12
        
        A chef and BBQ for each F seat. You both sound as intelligent as each other.
    - Secret Squirrel says:
      
      9 Aug9 August 14:31
      
      What like Turkish airlines minus the BBQ 😃
      - ankomonkey says:
        
        9 Aug9 August 15:51
        
        Turkish have dropped the Flying Chef 🙁
Tim says:

9 Aug9 August 09:42

I’ve got more photos of a JFK-LHR in F if you’re interested? Can never find an email…
Joe says:

9 Aug9 August 09:49

Those images are just miserable. How on earth would anyone tolerate that when they have paid so much for a First ticket? I really feel for BA cabin crew having to ‘serve’ that. It’s sad that BA [mis]management think this remains acceptable when other airlines are offering so much more. As if I would waste my money or Avios on a First Class flight right now.
Cavallinorampante says:

9 Aug9 August 10:02

British Airways food service is now both laughable and a disgrace! It may have been justifiable in the initial pandemic panic when little was known about the virus transmission, and erring on the side of caution was acceptable, but it is now simply a product of cost-cutting and laziness. Adding in BA’s cynical opportunism in using COVID-19 to treat its staff appallingly, we are now seeing BA as the Ryanair model that is either incompetence or the intention of Alex Cruz all along.
I have cancelled all my future BA flights that they have not cancelled themselves and rebooked on Qatar and Etihad, who will be my airlines of choice going east and south, plus Virgin going west. Sad when I consider that I am only 3000 tier points short of my Executive Club “Gold for life” target of 35,000 tier-points but I have no desire to fly BA now other than the airline of last resort.
- Dr Minesh Shah says:
  
  10 Aug10 August 01:46
  
  Well spoken. Couldn’t agree more. Alex Cruz has destroyed BA which is now my airline of last resort whereas it used to be first choice.
Shimon says:

9 Aug9 August 10:28

At least until COVID-19 I travelled frequently both across the Atlantic and within Europe with the occasional foray to the Far East. Virstually all my travel was with BA. As an observant Jew I always order a Kosher meal. The meals out of London were always extremely high quality. In order to guarantee the integrity of the Kosher status of the meals they are wholly prepacked, but served in regular crockery with regulkat cutlery. The quality even in Business class is vastly superior to the regular so called First meals shown in your review. The Kosher meals would seem to comply with all the so called COVID-19 requirements so why can’t they be ordered now? In fact why can’t they be served to everyone. I can assure those who might be sceptical that the food is superb!
- ankomonkey says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 15:54
  
  Are you Shimon from Ram Trilogy?
  - Charlieface says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 21:27
    
    Shimon is a pretty common name among Jews.
- Lady London says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 22:58
  
  If BA can order a box then why cant they order a kosher box?