I have enjoyed the Ploughman’s lunch in British Airways Club Europe business class before, but tried the “Ploughman’s Meat Snack Box” on my last BA flight in economy class.
Ploughman’s Meat Snack Box From British Airways High Life Café
British Airways offers a buy-on-board High Life Café on its flights within Europe, offering a selection of food and drinks for purchase.
I pre-ordered a Ploughman’s Meat Snack Box for £6.50 with contents including crackers, cheese spreads, chutney, and air-dried beef slices. Per the menu:
Hand-baked in England, dark and crisp charcoal crackers are the perfect accompaniment to the Ilchester cheddar spread, while the sea salt in the crunchy extra virgin olive oil crackers complements the smoky Applewood cheese. Add a classic Wiltshire Country Garden chutney for a sweet, tangy, and subtly spiced finish.
Sounds good, no?
But my snack never showed up. In fact, on this (delayed) flight the flight attendants handed out complimentary water bottles and pretzels, then sat down. I still thought my snack would be delivered, but when it did not show up, I asked a flight attendant walking by to collect trash.
She appeared flustered and said that there were no records of any pre-orders on this flight. I pulled out the email confirmation and showed her, to which she carefully studied it, apologized in that lovely British way, and said it would be refunded because the products were not loaded.
But not five minutes later, she appeared again stating they had found the pre-order in the Club Europe galley.
I was presented with the Ploughman’s box. Upon unwrapping it, I found the packaged products as described, though it looked like the cheese had a shelf life of at least two eons.
It was highly processed, but a decent snack…I would not order it again, though, because cheese is not meant to be served with that consistency…
As an aside, I also pre-ordered and ordered a hot bacon sandwich and it was not boarded (or maybe they just could not find that either)…many European stations are double-catered in London and as it was explained to me by the same flight attendant that sandwiches were not available on this flight.
Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.