British Airways Updates Club Kitchen Choices & Changes Glassware In First

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British Airways has announced a couple of updates to the onboard passenger experience. The first is a refresh of the snacks on offer in the long-haul “Club Kitchen” and may actually be of interest and use to passengers flying in Club World, the second is a refresh of the glassware used in First Class and will almost certainly make no difference whatsoever to the passenger experience.

Club Kitchen Snacks

British Airways says that it had been monitoring requests from customers and the popularity of various existing items in the Club Kitchen  and used that information to “boost” the onboard offering.

According to BA:

We’ve increased the number of popular snacks, brought some old favourites back and updated our healthy options for those customers who are looking for something to snack on while watching their movies, as an accompaniment with their wine or just to help them relax before sleeping in their fully flat beds.

Among the new brands appearing in the kitchen is dessert and pâtisserie company, rhokett. Their summer season cakes, wrapped in individual portions, include moist Lemon Drizzle and a Millionaire’s Tart with decadent toffee topped with chocolate.

Old favourites will be returning, including the popular Cadbury’s box, with its selection of chocolate treats, including packs of Fudge, Crunchie, Twirl and Buttons, along with Green & Blacks chocolates, and retro sweets from Sweet Ideas like Rhubarb & Custard, Sherbet Lemons and Mint Humbugs.

Image and sugar overdose courtesy of British Airways

If those don’t sound particularly healthy it’s because they aren’t – they’re a recipe for a sugar buzz like no other!

Apparently there actually are healthy options in the Club Kitchen and they “have also been updated with the new selection of cold salad pots and sandwiches and a super seed snack bar from ‘9BAR’.”

Waitrose (a modestly upscale UK grocery store) will continue to supply fresh fruit (at least that’s healthy), fruit yoghurt with granola (less healthy) and Island Berry Shortbread (and we’re back to junk food again).

One of the biggest challenges frequent flyers face is how hard it can be to eat healthily on the road  and on board aircraft can be a particularly bad place for this – from the list of items mentioned above BA doesn’t really appear to be helping matters too much.

New Glassware For First Class

Sometimes I don’t understand British Airways. We’ve recently been hearing how the airline is cutting back on costs by removing the flowers from the First Class lavatories (were they really that expensive?) but now we have an announcement that the First Class cabin is to get “new premium glassware”.

Image courtesy of British Airways

Per British Airways:

British Airways’ First customers can soon sip their champagne and other top tipples in new premium glassware.

Crystal specialists Dartington Crystal have served up a new selection of specially commissioned glassware for customers flying in British Airways’ First cabin.

The range includes a tumbler, brandy glass, wine glass, champagne flute and a deep crimson red water glass, to provide a burst of colour in the stylish understated cabin.

So the airline that can’t afford a few cut flowers can apparently afford new crystal glassware for the same cabin. That’s a puzzler.

Bottom Line

I hope that there’s more to the Club Kitchen refresh that what we’ve been told by the airline because if there’s one thing flyers don’t need onboard an aircraft it’s a way to eat even worse. Hopefully there are a number of great fresh and healthy options available that the press release just failed to mention – if anyone is flying Club World in the near future would you please report back?

As for the glassware….does anyone actually care what make of glassware they’re sipping LPGS from? Sure, it’s definitely preferable not to have it served in a beaker but I really wish BA would spend money in areas that people actually care about and notice. This probably isn’t one of those.