United Airlines no longer serves afternoon tea onboard its westbound flights from London. Still, I thought I would compare tea service on United and British Airways this week for my Meal of the Week installment. Why? Rumors are swirling that United may bring back tea service on the ex-LHR flights.
I mentioned in my British Airways first class review from New York to London that I loved afternoon tea because it is just not something I would ever treat myself to at home or even in a restaurant. Maybe one day I’ll do afternoon tea at the Burj Al Arab, but that would be a very special exception…
The British Airways business and first class tea service is the same in substance, but different in style. Imagine my beautifully laid out meal below placed on a single tray with the sandwiches and cakes wrapped in plastic:
The sandwiches were fine, I did not touch the cakes, but I loved the scones and clotted cream. Delicious.
United’s tea service also included scones with clotted cream, as well as three crustless sandwiches and a slice of cheese. While British Airways offered a variety of teas, United offered only black tea.
I miss the tea for more sentimental reasons: it was always just part of the United experience when traveling from London.
CONCLUSION
United’s current pre-arrival meal now includes a hot dish with salad:
Do you prefer this or a tea service?
My answer: why not offer both?
Tea service hands down. And/don’t forget United’s classy plasticware….
BA dumped afternoon tea on Westbound West coast flights in biz and eco quite some time ago, and you get something very similar to the UA picture above. Hope they bring it back
I noticed that…which I think makes sense for a flight that long. Still, I think that tea should be offered along with the heartier meals.
Why would anyone choose BA given their recent downgrades and propensity to “forget” to load adequate provisions for the passenger load? (I’m a Brit who no longer uses BA having arrived hungry 5x in 2016 simply because meals are “complimentary” and they hadn’t bothered to provision the aircraft)
I’ve flown United between San Francisco and London dozens of times and I was ALWAYS served tea service on their china and never plastic. The service has always been polished and the tea cakes and scones were lovely. Absolutely no complaints.