British Airways

✅ Trip Verified | Toronto to LHR and LGW to Toronto return in WT+. Finally, BA has moved back into it’s own lounge which has been refurbished with new furniture. However, Premium Plaza still staff and operate the lounge. Food was ok – but the drinks choices remain poor. Slick boarding and a full PE cabin on a 777. Water and juice offered on boarding but still no prosecco offered on flights TO London. (apparently 3 are loaded in London for the O/W leg but none for the return.) Friendly mixed fleet crew who offered good service. Fast bar service followed by Veggie pasta or chicken stir fry offered which was foul. salty, dry and overcooked with reheated rice and mushy vegetables. The salad is a nonsense – a few leaves and a tomato slice. Pudding was sickly chocolate sponge thing which was gross. Got a couple of hours sleep. However the IFE froze after take off due to the PA system remaining locked on and preventing the IFE from working. A reset halfway through the flight worked, though two loud renditions of Delibe’s “flower duet” burst out throughout the aircraft twice waking everyone up. The standard T&Cs and juice and the pretzel roll with cream cheese offered before landing. I continue to be amazed this breakfast is offered as so few people accept or eat it given how awful it is. (BA should be embarrassed that it’s even offered) After leaving Toronto 5 mins late, we arrived 5 early at the gate at Heathrow which was welcome along with fast bags. For the return leg, I took the seasonal LGW to Toronto flight which was a couple of hundred bucks cheaper. An upgrade to Club World was a pleasant surprise. Fast check in at LGW but slow slow slow security – even in the fast track lane. Gatwick Airport sell £5 premium experience and so the lane was full of folk paying 5 quid mixed in with BA Fast track customers. Excellent lounge once again with a good choice of food, and champagne available as a help yourself. Efficient boarding and a great reception from the Gatwick cabin crew. A fast offering of champagne (with a top up) before take off though the old safety video was still showing. The Gatwick crew remind me of long haul crew from Heathrow – more experienced, faster and a more relaxed service than mixed fleet crew at who follow service to the letter which results in a slow and impersonal service. Fast bar service once airborne, followed by the old Biz food service. Overcooked steak (again) alongside jerk chicken and a veggie option. Plenty of wine and drinks along with T&C. After a pleasant 3 hour nap, I woke to afternoon tea which was the standard old offering minus the clotted cream – off the menu due to supply issues. At the gate early and fast bags too. This club flight was weird in that its hybrid in nature and in transition to the new biz service. So new toiletries and bedding but the old menu. I hope Gatwick catches up so BA don’t (unintentionally) promote two levels of Biz service with LGW being the poor relative. On the O/W leg, premium economy was in desperate need of a revamp. The food is truly awful – both dinner and breakfast, and it really wouldn’t take much to add better food, bedding and an enhanced drink service as BA really lag behind Air Canada on this route with premium economy. I do not regard the experience as a premium economy service other than the seat. All that said, I felt that BA is regaining it’s mojo with great crew, improved on board experience (cuts reinstated) and on time performance. Long may this improvement last!

✅ Trip Verified | San Francisco to London Heathrow on the lower deck of the A380 - a very quiet smooth flight. Did not want to pay the usual BA extortionate seat pre-reservation fees but still got seats together. After the real scrum at the departure gate - no apparent order, struggle to get through to Priority Lane, announcements completely inaudible etc we boarded to the reasonably comfortable, if narrow, seats. Of course the usual BA Club Class "scramble over the legs" to get to the aisle and 8 abreast - not really a premium product in today's competitive Business Class World. Welcomed with glass of champagne by attentive FA. OK meal - beef - with decent wines to accompany. Much more up to date touch screen AVOD system but still a dreadful choice of "blockbuster" films. Very extensive choice for breakfast - continental and cooked if you wanted it. Really very good FA's - made you feel welcome. Landed on time but baggage, for some reason, took about 3/4 hour to get to the belt. As usual I have mixed feelings about BA - if we are lucky enough to fly Club/Business Class it is comfortable but you do feel a bit let down by the appalling layout and huge charge to pre-reserve seat. If Virgin Atlantic fly the same route I will always choose their Upper Class as everyone has aisle access and you don't have to pay to pre-reserve your seat.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Dublin. This was an early morning departure from Heathrow on a full flight. BA managed everything in a very professional manner. The bag-drop was efficient and the boarding process was conducted according to the rules. The cabin crew were immaculate in appearance and conducted the safety demonstration along with a video. During this short and very busy flight the crew were able to sell drinks and snacks and left a superb impression. I had a not so good experience with this airline earlier in the year and am glad to see that this time they were superb.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Paris. I wish that they would update their aircraft or perhaps even do a little refurbishing. Especially when the seats feel worn out and the quality for what you are paying for does not feel worth it. That being said, this is better than any low-cost carrier.

✅ Trip Verified | Delivering outstanding customer service onboard. British Airways may not have the cleanest, newest or comfortable aircraft but their customer service has always been a delight since I have flown with them.

✅ Trip Verified | This was a night flight New York JFK to London, so it was difficult to assess the service onboard, although what I experienced was certainly not bad. I think this was a very quiet flight, judging from the number of people around the gate, and there were only another 4-5 pax in First. But it's quite hard to tell when wrapped in the cocoons of the Concorde Room and First cabin. The former felt very exclusive but, as commented elsewhere, to the point of being fussy. It's irritating that they don't have any showers in the Concorde Room; I wasn't amused to check in at the Galleries (business) Lounge, be brusquely sent on to Concorde, only to have to return to Galeries upon learning that that were no showers in the former (it was 7pm, early August in NYC - of course I needed a shower!). Departures from NY were running around 3 hours late that evening due to weather, and we were warned about a 60 min taxi to the runway. But we were very well looked after at that point; the cabin wasn't secured until just before takeoff, and the boredom of the taxi was eased by multiple - and very welcome - top-ups of champagne, seved by various members of the crew. Likewise, all the perks of first class were there; I was addressed by name, the crew introduced themselves individually, dinner and drinks orders were taken, etc. All very courteous and professional. After such a long delay, I decided to have some more dinner as I was quite peckish; this came with some excellent wine, and was served promptly, so there was still plenty of time for sleep. But the soup was cold, and the main wouldn't have been out of place in business class. Moreover, it would have been nice if someone had mentioned that the BA arrivals lounge at LHR would be closing by the time our delayed flight reached its destination; had I known this, I would have had breakfast and a freshen up on the plane. A very annoying oversight that led to quite a lot of inconvenience (picture a spoilt guy trying to insert contact lenses in T5 arrivals toilets...perhaps you saw me?). The cabin layout and bed: well, it's easy to find details of this elsewhere online. But it's certainly nothing special for First Class. Overall, a very acceptable flight, but I felt that the overly-fussy service sometimes got in the way of the practicalities of a short overnight Atlantic crossing (where can I have a shower in the morning? Where will I be having breakfast?). I've had business class flights from other carriers that have absolutely nailed these aspects.

✅ Trip Verified | Amman to London. Appalling service both on the flight and subsequent customer service. We are strict vegans so pre-booked vegan meals for our flight. Meals were delivered as usual, and had the vegan slip on them, but as I was about to start eating I noticed that I had been given butter - this made me doubt the authenticity of the meal. When I called the staff over she had no idea what a vegan was, informing me that there was no meat in it. I had to explain to her what a vegan was (i.e; no dairy or eggs). It turns out that the so called 'vegan meal' had milk and egg in it. Needless to say we did not eat our meals and they had no vegan meals. Shortly after they came around with the drinks/trolley, so we asked for a coffee with Soya Milk - the staff to whom I had had to explain what a vegan was said "oh I don't think we have that, but we have semi skimmed milk". I had to re-explain to her that a vegan does not have milk she said she would go and ask. When she returned she said 'We don't provide that sort of thing." That was strange, because 2 weeks ago on the outbound journey you did. So we had no meals, no hot drinks, and our video screen did not work. The Customer Service that followed from was more appalling, they could not care less, it took ages to get replies and when i did I was just palmed off. After several months of having to write emails I was informed that I had to submit everything by letter as they needed it on paper, which was just another way of getting rid of us. So we did this, after several more weeks they offered us the most pathetic compensation - basically the value of the meals that we could not eat - in vouchers.

✅ Trip Verified | Paphos to London Gatwick in Club Europe. We had checked before leaving our hotel and realised that the flight was delayed, as were many other flights, due to bad weather the previous evening in UK. We checked in on time, only to be advised that there was no lounge available for Club Europe passengers and if we wanted to use the premium lounge we could pay! Whilst we appreciate that there may not be a BA lounge it is normal that BA would have an arrangement with the local lounge provider as we have experience at many other airports when travelling in business class. We were offered a €10 voucher each, due to the delayed flight!! Paphos airport was extremely crowded and having paid good money to travel in business class we were very disappointed with BA, that no lounge access was available. The flight itself was OK, although two hours late. The cabin crew provided good service and the meal service reasonable, my wife chose the chilli con carne and I chose the roasted chicken, both were a little dry. On arrival at Gatwick at 01-00 we were through passport control quickly and then waited 45 minutes for the cases to be delivered, again very poor show. BA has some great assets, particularly the cabin crew, but we felt let down by the ground services at both end of this flight Like us many travellers like to travel with a 'full service' airline and in this case BA were lacking.

✅ Trip Verified | Gatwick to Paphos in Club Europe. We travelled on the first Saturday of the school holidays and whilst Gatwick was busy the check in for business class was not to bad. We expected the lounge to be busy but there was plenty of free seats. The flight boarded slightly late but we were not long in the take off queue. We are used the BA's Club Europe offering and whilst would prefer a little more leg room the flight was reasonably comfortable. Service from the cabin crew was good. It is nice that BA have gone away from the miniature bottles of wine in Club Europe and now serve by the glass. The meal service was quite good, we both chose the chicken curry for the main course, which was tasty and not dried out. Flight arrived 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Very happy with the service.

✅ Trip Verified | New York to Nairobi via London. Flight Attendants were wonderful, friendly, cheery and helpful. But the business Class seats that face aft cause the passenger to have to crawl over the legs of a sleeping stranger, even if you are seated next to a companion. There is no easily accessible storage space by the seat; even for a bottle of water. The IFE on the LHR-NBO leg reminds me of the game "pong" in its resolution and food is mediocre, at best. BA charges to select Business Class seats. For my family of 4, it would have cost over $1,600 to get 4 assigned seats on the 4 segments.