BA Club Nosedives to the Maldives
Winter 2009
When BA announced non-stop flights from Gatwick to Male, the Maldives instantly became much more accessible. The flight times were also ideal - a 19.10 departure, dinner, a movie and a sleep before waking at around 8.30 local time for breakfast and a 10.15 arrival. With boats leaving from the airport and most resorts no more than 45 minutes away, you’d be set up in paradise before lunch.
The first indication that things were different from the usual BA ‘business class’ service was when a sweet, friendly stewardess offered to hang my jacket and asked for my ticket. Aren’t they called boarding cards? A petit steward, barely out of diapers, passed through the cabin distributing wash bags, like a student offloading flyers on Oxford Street.
“Do you want one of these?” he questioned, reticently clutching the bags to his chest.
The Club configuration of the Maldives Boeing 777 is a large cabin with 6 rows at the front of the plane (no First Class), a galley area, and a small cabin with only two rows just before Premium Economy. All 48 Club seats were occupied but Economy looked fairly sparse.
It was two hours into the flight before dinner was served and three hours before it was cleared. Unlike BA’s New York flights, where the strategy is to get the eating out of the way quickly and encourage everyone to sleep, there seemed to be an over relaxed assumption that everyone was going on holiday and sleep wasn’t on the agenda.
The menu offered a choice of Starters, Smoked Salmon & Crayfish timbale with dill crème fraîche or Buffalo Mozzarella with chipotle chilli jam. The steward asked for my order and I requested the mozzarella. “There’s no mozzarella left”, he replied. Then why ask, I thought.
He went on to explain that the flight had been allocated 10 portions of Mozzarella and 38 of Smoked Salmon and that it was all to do with costs. Did that mean that the people who paid more for their Club tickets got the cheese? Apparently not. It is BA’s Gatwick policy, he informed me, that Club cabins are always served from the front first. I pointed out that I’d been on many BA flights where service began at the back. “Maybe that is Heathrow policy”, he replied.
It seemed all main course choices were available but when it came to Citrus Curd Tart or Cheese, the cheese had all gone, presumably to those naughty mice at the front of Club.
I have never, ever been on a business class flight in over twenty years of flying when the dinner service ran out of cheese.
It seems that when flying BA Club to the Maldives a new cabin has been introduced - Cattle Club.
Be Frank: agree or disagree? What do you think?
