British Airways Passenger Reviews and British Airways Customer Trip Reports

LHR-SIN in World Traveller. Service was very poor and was to the point of disrespectful. The cabin was comfortable with a decent entertainment system. Food was just okay. Overall, an average experience but the competition such as SQ on the same route is way ahead.

Business class from London Heathrow to Nassau, Bahamas. An ancient 767 with the old business class seating (the ones with a dividing fabric-fan). Not a comfortable flight, with a loud engine, dirty seating and a broken toilet, so only one toilet available for the Cabin for a 9 hour flight. In-flight entertainment options good, but very poor quality personal IFE. It is about time British Airways lifted its game and finally upgraded its business class cabins throughout the network, or, offer cheaper business class fares on those routes where it has decided to offers a sub-standard product. The cabin crew were very nice however, and very helpful.

Flew LHR-Cairo-LHR on WT. Outbound in an ageing but well kept 767. Flight departed 1.5 hrs late due to technical issues but arrived 1hr late. Service very good, FA's very pleasant and helpful. Food served not bad at all for this class. Return on a packed A321. Service was acceptable but very slow. IFE on both flights worked ok with good selection of movies. Inbound flight arrived on time but had to wait for around 20 mins for a stand - not BA fault.

Travelled SIN to LHR on 777-300 in Premium Economy on Flight BA16 - Date April 10 2013. A trolley service drink was only offered once during the entire 13 hour trip and on very few other times a cabin crew member would rush past with a tray of small plastic cups of water. General courtesy from the flight attendants was very much amiss with the attitude that if you want a drink be it a small cup of water or anything else you would have to walk to rear of the plane to get it yourself. You are also told you cannot use the closest toilets but must go back through the economy cabin to use their toilets. Do not use BA if you can avoid it but certainly don't waste the extra money on premium economy.

Travelled in Club Europe on an ancient 767. Cabin old and frankly very dirty. Toilets horrific. Very poor seating layout with only the middle seats in the advertised Club Europe configuration. Seating near windows basically economy, with no additional space between seats. Having paid a premium for Club Europe for a 4.5 hour flight, I felt very ripped-off. My advice is don't bother booking Club Europe on British Airways for flights to Istanbul as there is hardly any difference on this sector between Business and Economy. Shameful stuff from British Airways.

LGW-ALC. After many years of Loco trips to ALC it was interesting to fly with a legacy carrier. Checking in was easy, once I'd sorted out how to stick the bar-code to my case [and my wife's], and the 23kg luggage allowance was generous. Checked in online prior to departure for no cost and got seats immediately behind club - obviously we didn't get champagne but still got a decent 'wrap' and a glass of wine. Cleanliness of plane was OK , but in my opinion could do with a deep clean. My wife really wanted to buy some perfume, but no sales were offered during the flight - what were the cc doing? Overall I'd choose BA over EZY, but if I were BA management I would be agonising over lost revenue streams.

SYD-SIN-LHR, 26-27 March 2013. Having flown to SYD economy class with Qantas - a very pleasant experience with friendly helpful staff and nice food - I had high expectations for my return trip with BA Premium Economy. However, I was doomed to disappointment. The attitude of the flight attendants particularly on the SIN-LHR leg of the journey was disgraceful. They were uniformly unhelpful, unsmiling and avoided eye contact and spent a lot of time chatting amongst themselves in the galley. A meal was served very early into the 13 hour flight, consequently it was 10 hrs before the next food was served. Cold drinks were proffered every few hours, but at no time were snacks given or offered on a 'help yourself' basis. The food was not good, particularly breakfast with half cooked sausage and bacon, leathery scrambled eggs, unmentionable mushrooms, though the tomato was nice. I would never consider flying long-haul with BA again, that being my first and definitely my last experience with them.

Hong Kong - Prague and Budapest - Hong Kong via Heathrow. 3 out of 4 flights were slightly delayed. I was rather surprised by how much this airline has changed since I last flew them. The European flights are just like any budget airline, with a pathetic wrap and I found the 747 on the HKG - London stretch to be very mean with regards to seat pitch (terribly uncomfortable), a poor TV screen and disappointingly meagre food. What further highlights how much BA are offering budget service is the fact that if you want to choose your seat, you must pay more in advance and for the 4 sectors I flew, this would have cost about £100 extra! Cabin crew are a mixed bag, with some friendly and polite while others are highly unprofessional with their chat and gossip amongst themselves, although it is also funny to hear them slating BA too. This is the last time I pay a full fare for a budget service carrier and will return to using Emirates, MAS, Thai, Jet, Qatar or Air China. Goodbye BA.

LYS-LHR: boarding etc all fine and doors shut ready to go. Pilot then announced we had to wait as an inbound aircraft had overshot the runway. We sat on the tarmac for 1.5hrs but crew were friendly, provided regular updates and served food and drinks. Eventually the flight had to be cancelled as the airfield would be shut overnight, which was a shame but within 15 minutes of the announcement I had disembarked, collected my bag, rebooked and been checked into a hotel. BA handled the cancellation - which was entirely outside their control - exceptionally well, and I flew back the next day on an ex-BMI A321, which they had changed from scheduled A319 so more passengers could be fitted on following the cancellation.

LHR-Hannover, Euro Traveller. I was visiting Paderborn (a 2 hour train ride direct from Hannover Airport) to see friends and BA was offering a very decent return fare despite Easter holiday peak demand. Clean Airbus A319 both ways, ahead of schedule. Crew very friendly and generous with snacks and drink on a short (70 minute) flight, giving out additional rolls. BA manage to strike a nice balance between being professional yet informal and not overly officious. However, BA needs more check-in staff at Terminal 1 as in the early morning the check-in queues are very long which can cause people to nearly miss the check-in deadline.

LHR-DOH-LHR. Both flights on time and baggage off quickly. Outbound, the aircraft had a very old AV system, but inbound it was proper on demand. Food pretty good both ways, and while I found the wines on offer to be poor, this is a matter of personal taste. Due to the very short trip I was doing (one night away) it was the same cabin crew out and back and they were excellent.

LHR-CPH-LHR. Trip to Copenhagen was a widebody B767 with regular Club Europe seats in business. Flight was on time, service was ok but seemed a bit slow at times. Meal service was afternoon tea which was perfectly fine for the short trip. Arriving early in Copenhagen was then spoiled by the baggage handlers who took 45 min to deliver the bags, quite poor. Return journey was an A319. Again the flight was on time, this time service were impeccable and the CA even took the time to address all passengers by name. A small thing that does make a big difference when it comes to personal service. Meal service was again afternoon tea.

Flying British Airways? Take a sandwich with you. Flew BA from Male to Gatwick. They ran out of food on first meal service and again on second meal service. Decided they would not feed same group of people both times. Was offered a newspaper by cabin manager who incidentally did not condescend to leave upper cabin to deal with customer complaints. Subsequent complaint ignored by BA. Also, don't know whether it was just our headsets but inflight entertainment system almost inaudible. Couldn't really watch a film. Gave food and beverages 1 star only because I had to give it something.

DAR-LHR T5 - on B767. Last BA flight from Dar to London - as pulling the route due to profitability issues. A very sad day that BA are no longer running this route - although with the plane about a quarter full (maybe even less) you can understand why. The only daytime flight from Tanzania to the UK, and this will be sorely missed by Tanzanian residents and expats alike. The flight crew professional dealing with some difficult passengers. Food excellent - sausages for breakfast and 3 meals offered for a flight less than 10 hours - very good. Movie selection fine, and communication both from the cabin crew and the flight deck excellent. 30 minutes from arrival on the tarmac to clearing all immigration, baggage collection and customs - very impressive. As with other reviews and what cannot be underestimated, is the quality of the crew.

World traveller plus London to Las Vegas. Good online check in and seats comfortable enough. IFE OK with a decent library of titles. Food average to good. Cabin crew, as usual, in a rush to serve passengers in first 90 min so they could go to rest area leaving only 2 for economy and world traveller plus (the plus just seems to be extra legroom, not a patch on Virgin which has a proper upgraded service). Had to go for drinks/ snacks to rear of aircraft. No beer left 3 hrs into flight. Snacks available on a patchy basis. When requesting snacks cabin crew made me feel as if I was really bothering them (especially the one crew who made no eye contact and continued playing games on her iPad).

MAN-LHR-GVA-LHR-MAN, Friday 22nd March, return 29th March. Delayed departure from Manchester due to conditions at Heathrow but regular announcements regarding onward connections and staff at T5 gate on hand to assist. Good professional service on all flights with a smile! Overall very satisfied and good value.

TLS-LHR-NCL. Returned home on evening flight out of Toulouse, and last flight of the day back to Newcastle. The TLS flight was actually fairly disappointing (compared to the outbound). Unfortunately, this was thanks to the staff. Crew member checking boarding passes was slouched in the galley (chewing gum) and barely mustered a half-hearted 'hi', and certainly no smile. Another FA doling out sandwiches (which I didn't much want) simply thrust it into my face rather than asking if I wanted one. She then dropped my seat-partner's drink bottle onto the floor and stood there staring at me impatiently until I got the hint and scrabbled around under the seat for it myself. Was sat up front on the Newcastle segment so looked after by very friendly and professional purser, although this flight was 30 minutes late arriving thanks to delayed crew. Overall, fairly underwhelming. As always, it's the crew that make or break a flight.

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