British Airways has indefinitely delayed the rollout of an inflight meal pre-order system that would allow passengers in all cabins, including Economy, to pre-select their main meal ahead of the flight.
The system would guarantee passengers their first choice of meal and may even open up the possibility of allowing customers to pick from a wider selection of meals than what is available from the onboard menu.
British Airways started making plans to introduce the pre-order service last March, but nearly a year later, the system is no closer to being introduced and has instead been shelved for the foreseeable future.
The reason behind the delay may not come as a surprise to many of BA’s frequent flyers… IT systems required for the pre-order system need upgrading, and there’s no timeline for when this project will be completed.
Before the pandemic, British Airways allowed Business Class passengers travelling in its long-haul Club World and Premium Economy passengers in World Traveller Plus to pre-order service their main course ahead of the flight, but this system was suspended in early 2020.
The airline is planning to introduce an upgraded system which will extend the ability to pre-order the main course to Economy Class passengers in World Traveller for the first time, although it remains unclear when the IT upgrades to allow this will be completed.
Last July, Emirates introduced a Business Class meal pre-ordering system which allows passengers to preselect their hot main meal between 14 days and 24 hours in advance of their flight.
In the same month, German flag carrier Lufthansa doubled the number of meals available for long-haul Business Class customers to preselect from three to six dishes.
The dinner from YVR to London is usually superb but breakfast could use some fresh frui and yogurt of a cottage cheese plate with one of you famous scones. A little lighter than bacon and tomato ketchup.
British scones aren’t typically a breakfast item, but for afternoon tea, unlike their poor bland American cousin ‘biscuits’. American scones are something else again too, sweeter than real scones.
(Hopefully American ‘biscuits’ and ‘scones’ will never ever appear on a BA menu).
In combination with the policy of underprovisioning so that the menu isn’t available beyond the first fwe seats to be served…. Certainly provides another reason (in combination with IT systems, absent functional phone liness, badly maintained cabiins, etc).
So why do they still have the option on their website for this service at all if it’s not working? It works all the way to check-out only to tell you it’s unavailabe and to try again later!