For all the pictures that go with this report, please click here.

British Airways was in the news a while back when they decided to move from complimentary catering in EuroTraveller to buy on board. This meant the introduction of a Marks & Spencer (M&S) menu. You could pay for your meals with Avios or with a card - cash is not accepted.

The M&S offering actually looks quite nice and seems to be reasonably priced, but frequent flyers lamented the loss of free food. That that free food was sometimes a tiny bag of pretzels and a cup of water seemed to not bother the screamers.

It turns out you still get free food in economy class when you fly on BA CityFlyer, which does the routes into and out of London City Airport. What do you get? Check it out.

BA4463 – Dublin to London City (DUB-LCY)
10 May 2018
Embraer E190SR – G-LCYS
Seat: EuroTraveller 5D
Departure: 08:40 Arrival: 10:10

Travelling with hand baggage only is such a blessing after travelling with lots of luggage. Everything is so much easier and today is no exception. I arrived at the airport just under an hour before departure and was straight through fast-track security and at the gate. Our inbound aircraft was a little late due to congestion at Dublin Airport, so we boarded quite close to the departure time. All seats have generous pitch on the Embraer 190.



Happily I had nobody sitting next to me which is always a bonus when flying. In short order boarding finished, the crew gave the safety demonstration and we headed off to the runway. After a bit of a hold, we headed skywards and turned right towards the UK. Once in the air, the crew announced that Club Europe would receive a complimentary hot breakfast and EuroTraveller would receive a complimentary continental breakfast. The curtain was pulled between the classes and service commenced.



Asked if I would like something to eat, I naturally said yes. I had cereal at home about three hours beforehand so I was ready for something else. A nice looking little continental breakfast is presented. Croissants and jam are something I love so I was quite happy to discover this included. Ditto ham, cheese, egg and tomato – all in all the breakfast is a bit of a win as far as I’m concerned. It was also tasty with the only minor quibble being the chilled croissant. Like all bread it is nicer not chilled, but there’s not much that can be done about that.



I enjoy flying into London City, as the arrival experience is second to none. You’re out of the airport and on the Docklands Light Rail in minutes – far faster than any other London airport. Considering the fact BA CityFlyer still provide a complimentary meal just adds to the joy. Cabin crew based at London City are also universally friendly and nice too, so if you have the choice, fly into or out of LCY for a better service all round.

Have you flown BA CityFlyer? What do you think? Remember to click here for all the pictures. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

Having had relatives that have flown two segments in the past week on BA and didn't even receive complimentary water (much less food), it'll be interesting to see whether they will have a different offering on BA Cityflyer through LCY..

Yes I flew to Berlin last August from LHR and back on Cityflyer to LCY. I was disappointed to be refused a complimentary cup of water on the outbound, and pleasantly surprised to receive a complementary drink & snack on the return. I would fly from LCY again in a flash even tho I live a short distance from LHR. I agree the return crew were attentive and professional, the outbound crew explicitly expressed their dissatisfaction with their employer ''we're no different to easyJet''.

flyjay123 wrote:

I was disappointed to be refused a complimentary cup of water on the outbound ... ''we're no different to easyJet''.

easyJet will happily give you a cup of tap water.



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'The M&S offering actually looks quite nice and seems to be reasonably priced, but frequent flyers lamented the loss of free food. That that free food was sometimes a tiny bag of pretzels and a cup of water seemed to not bother the screamers.'

Do you honestly believe that a bag of pretzels and a cup of water was the free food that frequent flyers are missing?? What they miss is is proper service that BA has been missing for quite sometime now. For example they used to do a great bacon roll on morning flights. Don't let that get in the way of saying silly little things like that though, just to try and make your case in defense of BA's lackluster service more believable.
Personally I don't fly fly BA that often, as I'm not near the London catchment area. However it doesn't take a genius to be able to see a frequent flyers point of view.

kimimm19 wrote:

Having had relatives that have flown two segments in the past week on BA and didn't even receive complimentary water (much less food), it'll be interesting to see whether they will have a different offering on BA Cityflyer through LCY..

They should, it's done entirely differently to the main airline, which is actually quite cool. The crews for London City are also really nice! I've always found them to be very friendly and nice.

flyjay123 wrote:

Yes I flew to Berlin last August from LHR and back on Cityflyer to LCY. I was disappointed to be refused a complimentary cup of water on the outbound, and pleasantly surprised to receive a complementary drink & snack on the return. I would fly from LCY again in a flash even tho I live a short distance from LHR. I agree the return crew were attentive and professional, the outbound crew explicitly expressed their dissatisfaction with their employer ''we're no different to easyJet''.

Yes, you get nothing out of LHR or LGW unless you pay for it. London City is a totally different breed. Pretty poor form for the crew to say "we're no different to easyJet" - true, but even so. Sounds like they were delighted in their job!

I like to fly in to London City, but I never leave from there mainly because there is no lounge. So when I go to and from Dublin, I often go in to City and out of Heathrow.

GTTIC wrote:

easyJet will happily give you a cup of tap water

Good to know - thanks very much

Luftymatt wrote:

'The M&S offering actually looks quite nice and seems to be reasonably priced, but frequent flyers lamented the loss of free food. That that free food was sometimes a tiny bag of pretzels and a cup of water seemed to not bother the screamers.'

Do you honestly believe that a bag of pretzels and a cup of water was the free food that frequent flyers are missing?? What they miss is is proper service that BA has been missing for quite sometime now. For example they used to do a great bacon roll on morning flights. Don't let that get in the way of saying silly little things like that though, just to try and make your case in defense of BA's lackluster service more believable.
Personally I don't fly fly BA that often, as I'm not near the London catchment area. However it doesn't take a genius to be able to see a frequent flyers point of view.

Yes, the bag of prezels and cup of water was what I was served in EuroTraveller on BA. Pardon me that I wasn't served lobster between Dublin and London on a Trident in 1970. I can only relate to my own experience and yes, the M&S menu is a ton better than the tiny bag of pretzels and cup of water that was complimentary when I flew down the back with BA. The fact I was never served the clearly far superior bacon roll does not make my opinions any less valid.

It's probably best you don't fly BA very often - why give money to an airline that disappoints you? I don't spend my money with Ryanair for that very reason, so it makes sense you don't fly BA very much. Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it!