“extremely poor customer service”
Jason George (United States)
Not Verified | We had a Premium Economy return flight Los Angeles to London. The outbound flight was cancelled with under 12 hours notice, and we had to instead take an economy flight via Dublin to London. That's annoying but it happens. What is really difficult to understand is BA's response since I raised this as a claim once our return flight had completed (as I was instructed to do). It is now nearly 5 months and there has been no response other than one in early March with the title "we've not forgotten your case" and "We're really sorry you're still waiting for a response from us. We know it's been a long time since you contacted us and this isn't the service you should expect. Rest assured we've not forgotten your case. Our Customer Relations team are working extremely hard to respond to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued patience. You can check the status of your case here. Please accept our most sincere apologies. We look forward to speaking with you soon." I called about a month ago to enquire and was told i'd be hearing within the week. This is just extremely poor customer service, in addition to the inconvenience and stress of the late-cancelled flight, delays and change in class of flight. British Airways really seems to be on the decline, i have so many friends who are long-time customers like us who are having flights cancelled or delayed with little commitment to make it right. I have been a member of their Flying Club for 20 years, is this how you treat loyal customers BA?
| Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
| Seat Type | Premium Economy |
| Route | Los Angeles to London |
| Date Flown | January 2024 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
“a pleasant and civilized journey”
S Barton (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | I should like to review my flight with British Airways from Hannover to London Heathrow. Firstly, the website was very easy to use, however, I object to the policy put in place with regards to having to pay for preferred seating. Checking-in online was a very easy process other than being presented with the fee to select a seat. At the boarding gate in Hannover the staff were superb, they insisted that people with larger bags turned over the bags for check-in. I was included in this. The staff were very fair and polite and imposed this policy evenly and in a firm but polite manner. The flight took off reasonably on-time. The cabin crew were very good and coped really well with what was an entirely full flight. The now usual small bottle of water and a tiny snack the size of a UK 50p coin were issued to the passengers. On this flight, the Captain was very vocal in the nicest possible way. He oozed a sense of professionalism and was well spoken with clear and informative announcements. Disembarkation was orderly, however the cabin crew were nowhere to be seen when leaving the aircraft. Given that this was a very short flight and given the full nature of the flight too the cabin crew deserve an applause for their professionalism. This experience has turned around my less than positive experience with this airline a few months ago. Well done to the ground staff and cabin crew for making this a pleasant and civilized journey!
| Aircraft | A320 |
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | Hannover to London Heathrow |
| Date Flown | May 2024 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"the worst BA flight we've experienced"
Marvin Daugherty (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | We have flown with British Airways a few times but this last trip was by far the worst experience. We weren't able to check in online because the system wouldn't accept any of our passport info, so we had to wait to check in upon arrival at the airport. We arrived two hours before our scheduled departure. The line was backed up with only 4 stations being staffed where there was room for at least 6 more attendants to help expedite check in. We talked to a few people in line and they too were unable to check in online. It took the desk attendants an hour to check in the people ahead of us. We told the agent we had tried to check in online but it wouldn't accept our passports, she replied it was because they need to verify each passport personally. I asked that wouldn't they verify them that way anyway? I also let her know we attempted to move closer to the front of the plane and could see there were seats available but couldn't secure them because we couldn't finish check in. She went on to tell us it's a full flight so we wouldn't be able to choose our seats. We reached the gate and ask the agents there about moving to another section and she confirmed there was no availability. During the flight, the service was not what we expected based on previous flights. We only saw the flight attendants during food service and twice to pickup trash. Every time I went to the lavatory, there were at least 6-8 attendants standing around chatting, instead of taking care of the passengers. The attendants seemed uninterested and inexperienced, even snapping at a confused passenger regarding their seat belt. The flight attendants were disappointing to say the least. No available air control vents above us, so no option to have any air flow other than what the whole plane had. Upon landing, we went to the baggage carousel to claim our bags. An hour later, still no bags. Finally a message came over the loudspeakers that the elevator on the plane was broken and the ETA of the bags was still unknown. About 30 minutes later, the bags started to slowly appear on the belt. Overall, this was the worst BA flight we've experienced.
| Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | Austin to London Heathrow |
| Date Flown | May 2024 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"Never again British Airways"
Markus Hornek (Austria)
✅ Trip Verified | I sat in the plane at Vienna airport for three hours and didn't take off. After arriving in London, I was sent on my connecting flight, only to be told that the plane had already closed and that I should go back to the other terminal. I was then flown to Johannesburg with Virgin and when I arrived my luggage had not been taken. I only received it five days later. I have been waiting for compensation for nine months. Never again British Airways
| Type Of Traveller | Business |
| Seat Type | Business Class |
| Route | Vienna to Johannesburg via London |
| Date Flown | October 2023 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"only been offered half a glass of water"
V Smart (South Africa)
✅ Trip Verified | It is almost 11pm we were supposed to take off at 19.20 we are still sitting on the plane at the airport. The worst part is not the technical issue that has kept us grounded but the fact we have only been offered half a glass of water the entire time we have been on board. Being hungry and dehydrated has not helped the situation.
| Aircraft | A380 |
| Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | Johannesburg to Heathrow |
| Date Flown | May 2024 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"told by cabin crew I would be refunded"
Isabel Mondorf (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | I booked a long haul flight to Singapore with British Airways because I thought I could rely on them to provide good and reliable service. Unfortunately this wasn't the case hence this review. Knowing I would be able to fall asleep watching movies or TV shows on their in flight entertainment system was something I was looking forward to on this overnight flight. However, my console didn't work and instead I had a loud screaming toddler in the seat behind me that kept kicking my seat and some babies in Front. Only two hours into this already hell of a journey were we told that we should buy the WiFi pass for which we will get fully reimbursed. I followed up several times throughout the flight with the cabin crew who assured me they will take a note of my seat number and someone from customer service will contact me with reimbursement. This wasn't the case. After waiting for several days I contacted them myself and instead of the 21.99 reimbursement that I can use towards a nice meal on holiday they've given me 5000 AVIOs. I never want to fly with them again so why give me service points when I was told by cabin crew I would be refunded - the only reason I even bought this WiFi pass as it's not even good enough to watch anything with because the connection quality is so poor. What a waste of a flight and £22. These are 14 hrs of my life I will never get back and forever remember. I will remember BA as the brand that once was that no longer is. Their cabin crew seemed overworked and overwhelmed and even when you pressed the attention buzzer no one came. If you can avoid booking with BA go ahead.
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | London Heathrow to Singapore |
| Date Flown | May 2024 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
“premium price for a sub-par product”
L Tomlinson (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | A premium price for a sub-par product - flew BA (031/032) LHR and HKG and return in May. We had originally booked when the aircraft was allocated the club suites - paid for seat selection. A couple of months prior to the trip, the aircraft was changed to the 2/3/2 layout with the yin/yang seat configuration. We had been allocated 2 of the 3 middle seats, so paid again to select the window and aisle. The hard product is poor - the seat space lacks any form of storage that remains accessible when the seat is in the flat position - nowhere to put specs, a book or phone. Additionally, the window seat passenger has to climb over the feet of another passenger to use the toilet etc - really poor layout. The planes on both legs of the journey were tired and shabby. The crew on the outward journey were enthusiastic and helpful - the return crew seemed less adept at managing the service. The outbound catering was acceptable - but the presentation on tiny plates does not compare favourably with competitors. The catering inbound was very poor. The welcome ‘champagne’ was truly awful. This is a poor product at a premium price - and sad to say, this pair of self-funding passengers won’t choose to repeat the experience. The lounge at Heathrow on the outbound sector was packed to the rafters and was a poor experience. Very disappointing.
| Aircraft | Boeing 787-9 |
| Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
| Seat Type | Business Class |
| Route | London Heathrow to Hong Kong |
| Date Flown | May 2024 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"can't even choose my own seat"
G Layne (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | Really terrible user experience. British Airways website is full of glitches. I can't even choose my own seat due to cookie problems. Never had this problem with any other airlines.
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | Boston to London |
| Date Flown | May 2024 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
“Very impressed with BA”
H Harrison (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | Very impressed with BA. Check in online was a little convoluted but once through that everything was great. We flew in standard economy and paid to choose our seats - this seems to be standard for all airlines now and how they keep initial prices down, but worth doing so we could sit together. Meals were excellent and drinks great. A simple water and biscuit on our short internal leg but still included and then 1 drink, 1 main meal and 1 snack on our 7 hour leg was better than our last trip on Emirates!! They gave out double drinks at drink service - that was 2 cokes and 2 beers for my partner and he was well pleased! Staff friendly, bags transfered and arrived in good condition and entertainment on route was good too. Will definitely choose BA again over other airlines.
| Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | New York to Manchester via London |
| Date Flown | May 2024 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"appalling customer service"
1 reviews E Burton (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | LHR - SFO, LAS - LGW August 2023 in Club World. It's a shame that the British Airways experience is split into a mixture of fantastic ground and cabin crew, and dated products and dreadful after service. Our flight to San Francisco was on an A380, the interior of which was showing it's age. Two of our 3 seats had issues, 1 would not recline, the dividing screen to the next seat would not stay up and the other was temperamental with it's recline and the IFE would not respond to the controls. Crew on board were great but the dated and aging product for which top dollar is charged for should have been upgraded years ago. A shame for such a great aircraft. Coming back from Las Vegas to LGW on an tired 777. We were informed at check in that there was an issue with the seats we had pre-booked and paid for and that we would need to be moved. Seats we were moved to were fine and worked. The original seats had people in them and they appeared fine! Flight was late landing and departing due to weather conditions in Vegas but the aircraft was turned round in a super quick time - which was impressive. Where BA have really let themselves down is the after flight experience. After 3 1/2 months we got an acknowledgement and avios credit for the issues on the flight to SFO. We are still waiting 9 months later for the Avios points we used to pay for the seat selection to be refunded for the Las Vegas to London Gatwick leg of the flight. Despite numerous attempts to contact they haven't got back to us. Our Avios account page through BA won't load our recent transactions and does not list the flights we've taken in the last 12 months! Won't be travelling with BA for a long long time now - dated and poorly maintained on board products and appalling customer service.
| Aircraft | A380 / Boeing 777-200ER |
| Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
| Seat Type | Business Class |
| Route | London to San Francisco |
| Date Flown | August 2023 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
Flat bed seat / suite
In-seat &/or USB power
Onboard WiFi
Audio / video on demand
On demand dining
Fine wines & beverage service
Pillows & duvet / blanket
Pyjamas / Sleepsuit
Amenity kit
On demand dining
Seat pitch : 31 ins
Seat width : 17 ins
In-seat &/or USB power
Inflight entertainment
