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I’ve previously been a tad negative about Select Service Partner (SSP), having been lead into thinking they promised a money back guarantee but didn’t hold up to it. I’d complained about food at Luton airport, received a letter from the Managing Directory promising to reply within seven days, but heard nothing. So I wrote again, calling into question their ability to deliver on promises.

Well, yesterday I received a surprisingly apologetic letter from Simon Turl, the Managing Director of SSP Air Limited.

… I must first apologise for the unacceptable delay in my responding to the matters you raised. I must take full responsibility for this administrative failure which was compounded by my being away from the office and not dealing with your comments in a timely manner.

With regard to your experience at Luton I must apologise for what was clearly an unacceptable standard of food service offered to you at the time of your visit. We have recently upgraded the display equipment at Luton and installed plate warming equipment which, together with the provision of cloche food covers, will ensure food is served at and maintains the correct temperature at all times.

The issue of table clearing and cleanliness you raised has been addressed with our management team at the airport. This has been a key focus for our teams since I took responsibility for the business at the end of last year, so I was particularly concerned to read of the time it took for the tables to be cleared.

The pricing is currently being reviewed to fall in line with our other airport restaurants.

Clearly we failed to delivery anything approaching an acceptable standard of service to you and your fiancee when you fisisted Luton; a matter which I then made dramatically worse by failing to manage the simple process of responding to your concerns. I can only assure you that we will improve on all counts.

I have enclosed a full refund for your purchases and hope that you will give us the opportunity to show you that this was an isolated incident by visiting our restaurant when you next fly from Luton

So enclosed were £13 of postal orders - something I’ve never actually received before, but will soon transfer to far more useful beer vouchers via my bank. Whilst I’m impressed by his response - he seems to have taken on board my complaints and apologised for all but one of them (they don’t label food very well, and this isn’t addressed) .

I’m not going to be in a rush to eat at Select Service Partner outlets again. Prestwick airport’s food outlet which we visited en route to Dusseldorf didn’t strike me as much better, and they’ve got a long way to go with regard food pricing labelling. I wasn’t asked if I was eating the sandwiches in our out, so they assumed in and whacked VAT on them, something I suspect they do to a fair number of people.

So something positive came out of a complaint. Getting my money back has certainly made me feel a bit better towards them, and I’d encourage anybody else to complain just to make sure that those who serve us are held up to their promises, even if it takes a bit of perseverance.