BA to introduce pre-flight meal ordering for first, business class
By David Flynn, August 6 2014
British Airways will trial an online meal selection service through which passengers in first and business class will be able to choose their inflight meals before they even step on the plane.
Similar to Qantas’ Select on Q Eat program, the BA trials will begin “towards the end of this year” said British Airways’ Outbound Catering manager Adrian Jaski.
“During the pilot project customers in First and Club World business class will have the choice to order in advance a dish that’s on the inflight menu” Jaski told Australian Business Traveller.
“You can pre-order it to make sure you get it rather than, for example, if you’re sitting further back in the cabin and that choice has proven very popular on your flight and so you miss out.”
While there won’t be an option to select special meals not listed on the inflight menu, Jaski said that would be considered after the trials.
“This is a pilot project and first we want to see how the take-up is, how well it works, but it’s something we will look out, we can obviously adapt it and go forward.”
However, Jaski admitted that BA was looking at offering economy class passengers “a slightly upgraded meal” which doesn’t appear on the inflight menu, for an additional fee.
David Flynn travelled to London as a guest of British Airways.
Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter: we're @AusBT
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
12 Jun 2013
Total posts 732
>While there won’t be an option to select special meals not listed on the inflight menu
With just the inflight menu on offer there's not a helluva lot of incentive for most passengers to take the time out of their busy day to order airline food while sitting on the ground. Chicken or beef? I don't care.
Maybe it gives them an excuse to load "just enough" meals on the assumption that anyone who didn't book ahead is as generally un-fussy as myself.
On the other hand, you'd think anyone who pays $20K for a first-class airline ticket should feel entitled to get a choice of meal even if they don't bother to order ahead.
21 Dec 2012
Total posts 62
Agree this is nothing more than cost trimming.
Why of all service sectors, are airlines so clueless with customer service, stuck with a mantra of "the customer will believe whatever we tell them". This same error is made across all their service right through to the handling of flight delays. In case any airline exec's marketing or customer service folks are reading .... no, we dont believe it. Each time you do this, your brand loses a little bit of value.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2199
Oh, so they've finally caught up with Book the Cook.
To borrow from Draco Malfoy, if BA was going any slower they'd be going backwards.
Much like Club World.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 May 2014
Total posts 464
On a recent SYDNEY LAX flight the flight attendants in J commented that few customers use Select on Q Eat. On that flight my family were the only users out of the 18 seats on the 747 upper deck. It was discussed because they ran out of one of the menu items before serving half the passengers. I like the system because it helps me to manage my dietary requirements (without resorting to the the special meals) by providing better information on ingredients and ensuring I have the full range to choose from - plus the extra menu items that are not offered on board.
It should be a system that reduces costs while providing a benefit to customers, but with low up take the cost saving might not be happening. Some improvements Qantas could make : allow selection earlier (currently 7 days), offer even more choices and send reminder emails to enourage use.
QFF Gold QC gold
26 Nov 2012
Total posts 56
Does anyone know if any airline is providing this service for economy?
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on BA to introduce pre-flight meal ordering for first, business class