British Airways flight attendant ‘embarrassed’ to serve ‘unacceptable’ chicken caesar roll

A British Airways passenger said cabin crew seemed “embarrassed” to serve her a lacklustre chicken caesar roll on a flight to New York.

Jo Henderson-Tchertoff shared a photo of the offending pre-arrival snack on Facebook, along with the caption: “BA catering getting worse.”

Henderson-Tchertoff was served the roll, described as “chicken breast in a creamy mayonnaise with slow roast tomato topped with crispy iceberg lettuce served in a seeded roll”, on a flight from Heathrow to JFK.

She said: “Even the steward was embarrassed and said he wished he didn’t have to serve it.”

The picture shows a roll with a few pieces of chicken on it and a slathering of mayonnaise, with no tomato to be found.

Although travelling in economy class, Henderson-Tchertoff said she thought the snack would not be acceptable on any flight: “This should not have been served on any airline, in any class as it is not really fit for purpose.”

Other social media users weighed in on the debate.

This chicken roll fell below some BA passengers' expectations (Facebook/Jo Henderson-Tchertoff)
This chicken roll fell below some BA passengers' expectations (Facebook/Jo Henderson-Tchertoff)

“That’s turned my stomach!” wrote Emily Williams, while Karly Chick commented: “Absolutely horrendous.”

However, Simon Rowland commented: “What’s wrong with it? I assume the tomato is under the chicken.”

British Airways said in a statement: “We pride ourselves on the quality of the meals we offer onboard, and have heavily invested in our catering, in all cabins.

“We are sorry that our standards fell below our customer’s expectation on this occasion.”

It’s not the first time an inflight sandwich has proved a let-down.

An Emirates passenger was left “frustrated and angry” after being served a disappointing Cajun chicken sandwich on a flight to Dubai.

Paul Carlin said he spent thousands of dollars on the flights from Brisbane to Dublin via Dubai over the Christmas holidays. But on the return leg, the inflight meal left a lot to be desired.

“I was looking forward to the meal as I had seen it on the menu,” he said. “Then the air hostesses went around handing out the food.”

A picture taken by Carlin shows a roll with a square of what looks like processed cheese, with a very small piece of chicken in the middle of the sandwich.

He said the roll left him “as dry as the Sahara Desert”.

While Carlin found the situation funny at first, he was disappointed in the airline’s service.