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Home » British Airways » Passive-Aggressive Response from British Airways Over Breakfast Complaint
Airline MealsBritish Airways

Passive-Aggressive Response from British Airways Over Breakfast Complaint

Matthew Klint Posted onJune 26, 2018November 14, 2023 24 Comments

a plane with seats and windows

A man who complained about receiving a granola bar for breakfast on a $2.2K British Airways ticket was met with a cheeky response from British Airways.

First, let’s start with the “breakfast”. I know that flights from New York and Boston to London are short…often under six hours. I also know that British Airways offers a decent meal after takeoff and many passengers are not hungry before landing. But a granola bar for breakfast in premium economy? That’s just cheap.

Daniel Hayter expressed his disgust over the meager breakfast offering via Twitter:

https://twitter.com/danieljfhayter/status/1010779054037983232

A dialogue ensued:

a screenshot of a social media post

I sense they are mocking him, but perhaps am reading too much into it…

But the official statement from British Airways to The Sun over this issue is what I’d call passive-aggressive.

We offer a lighter second meal during our night flights as so many of our customers tell us they would prefer to have the extra time to sleep.

We hope Mr. Hayter enjoyed his three course hot meal served on fine china and linen served earlier in the six hour flight.

Translation: we gave you a beautiful three-course meal you fat pig. Only a glutton would be hungry again on a such a short flight!

British Airways describes its premium economy “World Traveller Plus” dining service in the following way:

Delicious meals and a full bar service

There’s plenty of ‘plus’ in your World Traveller Plus menu, featuring a delicious assortment of fine foods designed to keep your taste buds entertained throughout the flight:

  • three-course meals crafted to perfectly match the time and duration of your flight
  • a premium dining experience, featuring high-quality ingredients, fine china and linen napkins
  • a wide range of special meal alternatives to suit your dietary needs
  • complimentary bar service, hot drinks, juices and water (on some very short flights, a full bar service is not always available)

It’s true…no breakfast is promised.

But a granola bar for breakfast? That is pathetic, even in economy class. Passengers should at least have the option of a heartier meal before landing.

image: British Airways

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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24 Comments

  1. ed lewis Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 9:59 am

    All Airlines are nickel and dime-ing the service levels. British is no exception. United recently cut out the Stropwaffel, and substituted some disgusting cookie that is 50% less. They are all enthralled with the stock price. Only. They forget the other two constituencies they should be serving, passengers and employees.

    • Sj Reply
      June 27, 2018 at 10:41 pm

      “All airlines”? Nope. Try JAL or ANA next time.

  2. YYZFlyer Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 10:06 am

    A granola bar in premium economy! I was given a fruit cup, a muffin AND a granola bar on a recent Lufthansa flight in only economy class. This is embarrassing for British Airways.

  3. Mohammed Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 10:22 am

    Wow just under six hours!! that’s too short

  4. 121Pilot Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 10:30 am

    It’s amazing the decisions you see made sometimes. Offering a food bar as “breakfast” is just insulting. They would have been far better off doing nothing. They could then have replied nicely to him that the breakfast service on those flights was eliminated based on customer feedback that they preferred to sleep rather than eat again only a few hours after having a full dinner service. Thank him for his feedback and promise to consider it. They might have even thrown him a $20 voucher as a good will gesture.

    Instead they make him mad in the first place with a truly silly handout. Then when he complains the tone deaf people on the other end further enrage him by trolling him. The net result is he’s now even more angry, BA looks bad, and any attempt to offer a reasonable response gets lost. It’s just lose lose lose for BA on this one and it’s a completely self inflicted wound.

    Now if I a dumb airplane driver can see this why can’t the supposedly smart people whose job is PR get it?

  5. NB Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 10:52 am

    Talk about ridiculous moans. No breakfast is promised or served yet he has a hissy fit. Just as well he was happy with only three or four courses for dinner four hours before.

    And he could have had breakfast at the Arrivals lounge if he really was hungry.

    • Matthew Reply
      June 26, 2018 at 1:41 pm

      Would he have lounge access as a Premium Economy passenger?

      • HB Reply
        June 26, 2018 at 1:58 pm

        The galley is open all night and he could have grabbed some snacks then. There are plenty of opportunities to not go away hungry. If he wanted a bigger breakfast, he should have taken a longer flight. It’s his own fault.

      • Aztec Reply
        June 26, 2018 at 2:56 pm

        Only if he had Emerald status. Otherwise, no.

  6. Philippe Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 1:40 pm

    On AC, all European flights from East Coast are only served a slice of banana bread whether you are in Economy, Premium Economy or Premium Rouge. Even when you are on a 9.5 hours flight to Athens.

  7. Stephen Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 2:19 pm

    I avoid BA as much as I can.

    The best feature of their service in Club World that I have experienced has been on BA 56. This is the Joburg to LHR flight that lands at 5.30am. At around 3.30 the cabin crew wheeled the noisiest trolley they could find through the cabin to serve breakfast. No attempt to do anything quietly. Zero chance to carry on sleeping. They finished service by 4am. When I asked them what the point of such an approach and such early “ service” was, they just gave me a comment card.

    Shocking.

  8. Chris gosling Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 2:32 pm

    Recently had a promotion of 1/2 Avios for some destinations . Spent hours with all sorts of departure and return dates selected. Same responsev”no availability on this flight”. If they have seats then display availability . As it is I suspect its just a rip off designed to get you to pay full avios points. They don’t even reply to a complaint.

  9. Donald Osborne Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 5:12 pm

    That’s ridiculous complaint. I could see an issue it is if that’s all he was fed but he was fed dinner maybe 3-4 hours earlier (meal service can take as long as two hours after the flight takes off). A granola bar is about as much as I would want at that point. This guy has too much time on his hands to make unreasonable complaints like this one.

    • john Reply
      June 28, 2018 at 1:52 am

      BA claims they offer Breakfast in the GDS display. The complaint is valid and BA is an awful airline.

  10. Mike Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 6:11 pm

    Again, not sure the commenters are being serious or trolling whoever dares complain about service levels.

    On a BA IAD-LHR night flight on First (which is as short as a NYC-LHR flight) back in April, I was offered dinner (which I declined, since I’d dined at the Concorde Dining Room at Dulles), and everyone was offered a full multi-course breakfast 75 minutes before arrival.

    Of course, BA can’t offer the same type of brekkie on all classes of service, but to imply that they offered PE travellers a granola bar because they couldn’t possibly be hungry at that point having dined 5 hours prior is ridiculous. By that same token, they should offer First customers the same granola bar. Well, maybe a posh, hipster branded one…

    Even a justification on the grounds of the lower ticket price is ludicrous, given it was $2200. What is reasonable is to note that, not so long ago, on East Coast flights to Europe, BA did indeed serve a breakfast tray prior to landingnin regular economy. Iberia still do it (admittedly, it’s a breakfast box, but way better than a lonely granola bar).

    So what gives?

  11. Hans Reply
    June 26, 2018 at 11:33 pm

    For such short flights, I suggest to have no meal service at all (at least in C). Additional hours of sleep are much better than the mediocre food on board. And flight attendants are usually very noisy before and after every meal.

  12. Brad Reply
    June 27, 2018 at 6:36 am

    British Airways is the epitome of cheap. An awful airline all around and I am ashamed that they are the UKs flag carrier.

  13. Ron Reply
    June 27, 2018 at 11:05 am

    I find this amusing. I flew yesterday on ba from London to Phoenix. We upgraded from pmm economy to business. It was not cheap. Our lunch upon arrival was okay for my wife but as I was dozing and they came back I was given a sandwich that the bread was folded under, dry, tried to cut the chicken and put the first bite of my mouth and couldn’t chew it. Never got the little package of toothpaste and amenities, had to ask for water. That was by tenants on my side of the plane. We were in the middle seats. My wife’s attendance made absolutely sure if she was taken care of. So a combination of bad service on my side and bad food was a bit off-putting. My wife just listening to me to me make this comment said her first role was hard and stale.
    That said, we also upgraded to business on the flight over. That was a beautiful flight great crew and good food. It can be hit and miss. But for that price this should not be happening!

  14. Tony Reply
    June 28, 2018 at 1:25 am

    Its a 6.5 hour flight. you really need 2 meals? I know I just want to sleep on a TATL flight.

  15. Mike Reply
    June 28, 2018 at 3:46 am

    So, let’s timeline a typical JFK-LHR flight.
    Block time often less than 6 hours.
    Let’s give them a little slack and say seatbelts sign off +20.
    Crew prepare trolly and commence service.
    Drinks and dinner service 1.5 hours, absolute minimum.
    Trash collected.
    Less than 4 hours to go.
    If you want to do a full breakfast service, that’s lights back on at ETA -90 minutes, so just 2 1/2 hours after dinner service.
    Bars secured ETA -60
    Cabin secured for landing.

    Let’s not forget, dinner is a full service with 3 courses and snack prior.
    Throughout the flight, snacks are available on request.
    The amount of waste previously from attempting to provide a breakfast was eye opening – because no-one wanted it 2 hours after a large dinner.

    Empirical evidence shows the vast majority of people prefer as much time as possible to sleep and a dark cabin on these short transatlantics, many also forgoing the dinner service.

    British Airways has it right in this instance. The old days of ridiculous, excessive waste, which all ended up being unenvironmentally incinerated, are over.

    As a passenger, we will have to adjust to the new reality.

    • Aaron Reply
      June 28, 2018 at 6:55 pm

      I don’t think a full breakfast service is required. But how about something a little more substantial than a granola bar? How about maybe a pre-packaged chicken pita wrap or even a chicken caesar salad? Those are items that can be served cold and would require no heating. It’s easy to push a service cart up and down a dimly lit aisle. For the passengers who are awake, hand them the food, and bypass the ones who are still asleep. This doesn’t have to be an all or nothing affair.

      • Mike Reply
        June 29, 2018 at 3:28 am

        Because the produce you describe are perishable.
        The airline would have to load X amount for each flight.
        Each item not used is waste and is incinerated.
        Waste is cost and you, me, everyone these days want that ticket for the least cost.
        The granola bars are long dated and can be stored.
        It is a fact we are going to have to accept; expect others to follow.

  16. Tomri Reply
    June 28, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    I got the same bar with yogurt in seat 37 on my lhr bos flight. He got ripped off

  17. Pingback: The Worst Behavior I've Ever Seen in a Lounge and Mocking a Passenger Over Breakfast Complaint - View from the Wing

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