British Airways no longer have a drinks trolley

[SkyFlyers]

I’ve just flown on a short haul European flight.

I asked when they would be coming round with drinks, as I fancied a gin and tonic.

Reader, they told me that they no longer have an onboard trolley service, and if you want food or drink you must preorder it. There is no way to purchase anything on board.

At least EasyJet and Ryanair are desperate to sell you things - but nothing at all… come on BA.

Be warned if you are using them for your summer holidays.

I flew on BA last month and both journeys had food & drink trolley and that was for a 1 hour flight

I gather trolleys were still roaming the aisles last week on the BA short haul flights into our local European airport, so maybe the OP's problem was an unfortunate one off on their service on that day...

Difficult to get the full picture without knowing the route.

I'm flying BA (not my choice) premium economy to Japan soon and worried about their service, so thinking of upgrading to Business but have heard that it's rubbish too. Which country did you fly to?

@highlandcoos I've just flown 10 hours each way at Easter in the new business class layout and its really really good. I flew in the old business class layout before Christmas and it is a pain getting in and out of your seat if you are on the inside. Check the layout on your plane. I've always found service on board excellent though.

I do think BA gets a disproportionately bad reputation generally - I've flown 32 times with them in the last 4 years and always had a great service both on the ground and on board. Clearly bad things do happen to some people but it is often presented on here as if it as an absolute dead cert which is just not my experience at all!

@highlandcoos We flew to India and it was definitely worth it, the flat bed, smaller cabin obviously. The food was ok, I chose one thing when I checked in but changed my mind when they bought the menu round.

I flew premium economy once but to me wasn't worth it, If im flying economy I pay extra for a window seat. If you are stuck in the middle seat in premium on the plane I was on it really seemed the same as economy.

Someone said to me that on the flights to India BA use their older fleet, whereas to New-York and Middle East they use newer ones. I dont know if thats true but the planes ive been on have always been a bit shabby.

@highlandcoos i recently flew premium economy BA to the far east and back. Very good service, definitely a drink trolley and no complaints about anything

@highlandcoos meant to add the service was really good and nothing was too much trouble for the crew.

@mrsfennel

Someone said to me that on the flights to India BA use their older fleet, whereas to New-York and Middle East they use newer ones.

There's a lot more to it than that and what gets used depends things like route economics and umpteen other factors rather than somebody simply saying lets put old aircraft on XXX-<> YYY.

I'm working from memory so happy to be corrected, but I'm pretty sure in it's early days of being served by BA places like Bangalore got very freshly out of the box 787s on the route.

Problem was the initial 787's bought by BA were a (relatively) small variant so once demand on that route grew BA switched to using( sometimes slightly older but bigger ) 777s, I think the last time I was there it on a big, newish 777-300.

Another example is Heathrow - Chennai which is currently a BA 787 (newish aircraft), OTOH a lot of the Gulf and JFK routes are currently operated by the (older) 777....

It's all down to economics.

I always thought that if I was cabin crew the drink and food trolleys must be so bloody annoying, same on the trains. I last flew bay long haul just before covid and there was a full service.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/food-and-drink

This confirms that on short haul you have to pre order from a limited range. And is my experience on recent flights. It explains what to expect on each category of flight.

It does seem bizarre and I did miss my glass of wine.

There’s also the comment on the page that:

”A limited range is available for purchase on board, in addition to a complimentary bottle of water and snack.”

Bit of an odd hybrid system…but it’s BA…………

I know somebody who flew BA short haul who bought snacks, on board, with no notice, last week..

Those who got the complimentary snack and drink, was that on a flight to / from London city? Because it’s a small airport and therefore a smaller plane, they don’t have space for their usual trolley of things to buy so give a complimentary snack and drink.

OP, you can usually buy online whilst onboard. Never heard of having to pre order.

Actually ignore that. They do now give a complimentary snack on other flights. I usually fly from City but flew from heathrow a couple of times recently and was surprised to get a snack!

We are in Aus and I only fly Qantas as it is a full service airline (although they only serve alcohol after 4pm on domestic flights under 2 hours in economy), otherwise it is soft drinks with your breakfast/lunch/snack. Last few flights I have done Sydney/Melbourne they have also offered a second bottle of wine as they are clearing rubbish. If I am flying with a discount airline I am totally happy to accept whatever they advertise with my fare, full service I want better.

Every shorthaul flight from Heathrow will offer a snack (pretzels) and water.

Unless it is a very short flight there will also be a trolley service selling drinks and snacks.
There is also the option to pre order drinks and snacks.

Flights from London City are slightly different.

Haven’t flown short haul with them since August, but we were given food and drink for free on that 2hr flight. Surprised to read previous poster saying that it’s been gone for years.

Just flew with them long haul and they were very generous with drink including alcohol- eg if you asked for a wine they gave you two mini bottles to have at your leisure and they offered a full bar.

BA can’t win. When they offered a greater range of “free” food and drink in economy people complained about the ticket price compared with the budget airlines. If you look at their prices now, they are often on a par with the likes of Ryanair and EasyJet.

BA do offer a drink and snack in economy which is more than the budget lines do. If people want better food and drink, they can upgrade to premium or business. We can’t expect a premium service with budget prices. We’ve got used to cheap flights over the last decade or two. A compromise has to be made somewhere.

I’ve flown all classes of BA and never had a problem with them. I’d still choose BA over most other airlines.

This actually makes me want to fly BA short haul. I just want to sit there quietly and read my book for an hour. I'd have been delighted.

Ive flow multiple short haul flights over the past year and a half and I've never had a problem- always ordered via their web page. They kept the drinks coming !

Just water and a packet of pretzels. No alcohol, tea/coffee or anything else for sale on this BA route.

I flew Cardiff to Edinburgh with Loganair a few weeks back, hot drink and choice of Tunnocks wafer or shortbread provided - Tunnocks won - which was a nice surprise as hadn’t been expecting anything.

I flew BA to/from Edinburgh over Easter. They definitely had a drinks trolley - the person sat next to me had a vodka coke at 9.30am!

They also served some very delicious crisps.

Yes, no tea or coffee sadly. Cocopops bars and water on the morning flights which is bit odd.

This is a disgrace! You expect a nice, middle class airline like BA to provide a quality journey, especially when travelling across the Fing continent! Last year, went on our holibobs to Italy and got downgraded to economy! And not so much as a cup of tea offered! This country is going to the dogs

We flew BA into Gatwick about a week ago - were given pretzels and water and the had a (fairly limited) trolley selection available to buy on board. The trolley was no worse than the budget airlines I've flown on recently; in my experience they all have stock missing.