British Airways

✅ Verified Review | New York to Cape Town via London Heathrow. A huge disappointment. Even worse when you put it in context of what British Airways used to be. We decided to fly First because I can't stand Club world (backward seats, forward facing seats almost on the aisle), claustrophic, poor overhead storage on some planes. Seats were narrow, poor seat controls (unable to independently control the different seat axes, foot rest had to be set manually), American Airlines and Cathay Pacific new business class products are far better than BA first class. AVOD great on one leg with the new Pansonic system, dreadful on the 2nd leg with the old system. Food was mediocre at best. Breakfast JFK to LHR was passable, dinner LHR to CPT passible - wife's fish was okay my hamburger was inedible. Meal service slow. Cabin Crew from JFK was excellent, to Cape Town was passable. Changing planes in Heathrow (T5-T3) a nightmar.. I am OneWorld Emerald, never Again

✅ Verified Review | Managed to get upper deck which is rare flying from London to Philadelphia. Cabin was unclean with earbuds and paper on floor from previous flight. No hello for Gold status. It became clear British Airways are some sort of work to rule. One stewardess for all upstairs. Three hours to serve dinner which was bland and tasteless. Cabin Service Director never appeared once despite my TV screen refusing to stay in open position. Never ever again will I pay thousands of pounds for bland insulting service.

✅ Verified Review | Florence to Bristol. A positive first experience and I will try to fly BA in the future. When I booked the flight for myself and my 11 and 13 year olds I was automatically allocated seats (no charge), 23kg of checked luggage included at no additional charge yet the flights still worked out the cheapest. A few hours before the flight, during online check-in, I noticed my daughter's name mispelt on the ticket. I telephoned BA's 24 hour helpline and the ticket was changed and reissued within an hour and I received a call back with an update part way through the process (no charge and no hassle). All staff from customer services to ground staff to in-flight crew were friendly. Staff on the return flight went out of their way to try and help a young mum with an upset child. We were given a meal with water and a further drink on our 2h 20m flight. On this flight to Bristol everything is included in your ticket. We had soft drinks but a couple in-front had G&Ts. Our meal was salmon with couscous, bread, cheese and a mint. On the way back there was a choice of falafel and couscous or chicken salad with a chocolate brownie. The meals were actually really nice. Both our flights did depart late for different and, what I believe were, unavoidable reasons but we were given adequate explanations and our flight out to Italy still arrived early. Some explanation before boarding the return flight might have been helpful although nobody seemed concerned and it was passengers who hadn't got themselves to the gate that further held the flight up. I wasn't bothered which airline I flew with. My criteria were that I could fly from a local airport as cheaply as possible and BA came in cheaper than any of the other airlines for this particular flight. My criteria will still exist but I will certainly be looking at BA first in the future.

✅ Verified Review | Salzburg to Gatwick. Awful experience. Flight delayed due to operational reasons but this is forgiven as these things happen and BA handling in Salzburg did apologise for the delay. Once boarded with a full flight there were 4 crew members, 2 to serve Club with about 8 passengers and 2 to serve about 120 or more economy passengers. Usual fight for bag space. I was desperate for some water and asked the crew can I buy some water as they dragged the trolley to the front of the cabin. I am in seat 23C right at the back. I am told no, I have to wait for the trolley. I wait and wait and as we fasten our seat belts on descent to Gatwick the trolley gets to seat row 20. The 2 members of crew are still struggling to take card payments, and tell row 20 that the service is now closed, and pass the trolley back to the behind galley. All this as the CSD stands chatting in the Club galley with the other crew member. 1/4 of cabin not given the chance to even buy a glass of water in a 2 hour dinner time flight. No smiles from crew as busy doing math on what they are selling. Not even a flight map to help pass time. Terrible airline. A national disgrace, worse than any budget carrier with high prices and terrible customer service. I am only rating this as 2/10 as they got me from A to B safely.

✅ Verified Review | Nice to London Heathrow. You must downgrade your rating of British Airways if you truly reflect how bad things have become. Flight delayed, that happens I accept, but the BA ground staff handling was awful - to the point of zero in reality. Once boarded and fighting for overhear bin space, pilot did give a polite and nice apology, but the cabin staff service (that has always been their stronger point) was terrible. Aside from the fact 2 stewards smelt as if they had poured a complete bottle of aftershave over their heads (most unpleasant in a confined space), their service to us lowly passengers was condescending and rude. They seemed intent with making stupid faces and snide comments about some passengers in full hearing of many of us, and that is just not acceptable. Sadly they were almost stationary in the aisle trying to sell food and drinks and we had to suffer long periods of such rudeness. BA management should be fired, or at least the CEO, Mr Cruz, who is destroying our national airline. I'm not a grumpy old man, just a customer with over 50 years experience of flying British Airways (and BOAC and BEA), and a direct witness to the demise of what was a great airline.

✅ Verified Review | Athens to Newcastle via London. Another miserable experience. Woken at 7am by text to say 13.30 flight to Heathrow cancelled for operational reasons - phone numbers listed to rearrange. One not open till 9am GMT, the Greek one no longer in use. Website also useless: 'We are experiencing technical difficulties - try again later.' 2 stressful hours later managed to get rebooked onto much later flights - but downgraded on both sectors. [Still not happy that I was involuntarily downgraded on my last BA flight at Easter!] Athens used to have a great BA lounge. Now it's provided by someone else for varied airlines and was pretty grim. Partly because it was filled with numerous disgruntled passengers also downgraded from the cancelled flight. Flights adequate but no different really to service of any budget airline. Crew apologetic about situation but clearly feel they have no voice in BA's direction. Athens ground staff were superb in dealing with unhappy people - albeit unable to say much other than to apologise and say make sure you complain / claim. BA are lucky to have such brilliant front of house staff and cabin crew - without them I'd have already deserted. Still waiting for any response from airline re EU compensation / downgrade almost 2 weeks after submitting forms / emails. This could surely be automatic [managed by most US airlines] and contrasts with a recent Air France experience of far more trivial nature where within 24 hours I'd received a voucher and a personal apology.

✅ Verified Review | London Heathrow to Paris Orly. Terminal 5 busy. Lounge was ok but kids area T5 North limited we had to take our youngest downstairs. Aircraft was ok but could have been cleaner. Lunch was ok for this short sector. In summary all was ok. However, we really do expect more in the premium cabins. It is with regret that I have to admit that I have booked our next longhaul business class flight with another provider. BA will not retain their premium clients if they continue with their current model, I am sure that those who use point etc will remain loyal. However, those of us who pay their hard earned cash for club world will begin to take their business elsewhere. It's not this particular flight that's at fault, more a general trend downwards.

✅ Verified Review | Toulouse to London Heathrow. This airline will one day get its comeuppance for posing as a quality flag carrier (it has to be said, no expense is spared on its branding) while operating as a cheap and sleazy budget airline, thanks to the rationale of its greedy and cynical new management. I have Bronze status with BA Executive Club, have flown a dozen times over the past year (both in Business and in Economy) and am increasingly irritated with myself that I chose to collect points with this particular airline. I was caught up in the IT meltdown in May (flying from Rhodes to London), and I was one of the lucky ones (who doesn't remember those surreal news reports of passengers stranded all over the world for 4 days?). I had to purchase a new ticket on a charter flight from Rhodes airport when my flight was cancelled (along with hundreds of other BA flights in May); this (incidentally: ghastly TUI) replacement flight arrived so much later than the flight I booked that I lost my pre-paid hotel booking at the airport, which the airline refused to refund when I lodged a claim. The airline only refunded me for my cancelled flight and my new flight, along with EU compensation, after I sent a second email a month after my first claim, as they simply neglected to raise a cheque for me, according to the customer agent. Their customer service is beyond atrocious. I suspect they swear company oaths never to genuinely apologise for BA failings (all you get is "bear with us, we're trying really hard"), lest actually saying sorry should incur legal liability. I am unfortunately due to fly with them again at the end of the month to Belfast, and after two calls to their contact center (based in India, with a poor connection and amateur communication overall) still do not know if my travel companion will be allowed to travel on a domestic flight as a Canadian citizen without a UK ID document. The customer agents I spoke to gave me contradictory answers, which, in turn, run contrary to the (almost non-existent) information provided on their website. On the flights I have booked which have actually taken place, I have by turns found myself stuck along with fellow passengers on the tarmac for an hour and a half in BDX when the plane lost its takeoff spot, having waited for delayed passengers (would they admit this was their fault? Nope, it was all air traffic control's fault!), been held on the tarmac in TLS for an hour whilst they sorted out luggage which had mistakenly been put on our plane, retrieved a used bottle of rancid baby milk from my Club seat (no apology from the flight attendant who seemed annoyed at having to handle it), sat in a seat totally encrusted in potato chips apparently used as confetti by a previous passenger and found myself wedged between totally drunken and abusive passengers in Club and a scolding flight attendant threatening to have them arrested on arrival. As I mentioned, I have been one of their luckier passengers.

✅ Verified Review | London City to Dusseldorf return, flights operated on behalf of BA by Eastern Airways. The cabin was clean on both aircraft and the check in and wait at the both the airports were reasonable however then the good part of the trip ceases. Cabin Crew must of been members of the Basil Fawlty school of Catering. The outward flight there were 3 passengers in the business class cabin and the onboard menu was handed out to the three of us. The young stewardess took our orders, then we heard a crash as the young stewardess promptly dropped one of the meal and told us that the aircraft only had two meals and asked for a volunteer to give up their meal. The meal was of a reasonable quality and well presented. On arrival at Dusseldorf the aircraft was parked at a remote stand and we were taken by bus to the wrong terminal. The arrivals boards in the airport say terminal B and we were dropped off at Terminal C. Our delivered to terminal C and we had to walk to Terminal B if you were been met. The return flight was another example of the sub standard ground handling agents that BA is becoming famous for at overseas airports. Check in did not open until 90 minutes before the fight to LCY and 2 hours before the flight to LHR. I can see that this was a money saving wiz by the ground handling agents at Dusseldorf. As the flight to LCY may only have max 100 pax and they would of been able to see the flight loading the day before. The check in staff were reasonable and two were very smart only to be let down by the young female on Club Europe who was tattooed and had a slightly outlandish hairstyle. Which looked totally out of place in uniform. The flight again seemed to have catering problems in business class with 6 pax and only 3 meals, which meant that 3 passengers were offered a so called Ham & Chasse croissant which looked if it had seen better days. Again the cabin crew fell below the standard expect on budget airlines such has Wizz and Ryanair, in fact they have better staff than Eastern Airways so these crews maybe the one who have failed these airlines selection process. I was disgusted with the lack of professionism and customer service skills these crews displayed. On arrival at LCY it become apparent that the ground handling agents at Dusseldorf had failed to load all the bags for the flight and left somewhere in the region of 8 passengers case behind. The handling agents at LCY could not be bothered to take a proactive approach to ensure the bags followed on the next flight. I did phone on Monday evening and a gave more details of the contents of the case to them which they did update on the system. This morning I spoke to a member of senior management at Dussledorf Airport. About 4 hours after this call the bags had been found in the baggage handling area at the airport. They will be put on the late flight tonight which means I will get it nearly 4 days after it became missed. It is a pity that we cant review the ground handling agents at airports as no they would have to have to let negative results be posted.

✅ Verified Review | What is happening to British Airways? Flew Vancouver to London. The A380 has to be my favorite long haul aircraft, but BA is definitely not. Cabin crew were friendly and professional, despite not being a full complement of crew. Several dishes were crossed off the menu, apparently due to ongoing dispute? Why? Food was inedible, the worst I have ever been served on a business flight. The seat configuration is outdated, blankets threadbare and pancake thin pillows. The constant cost cutting by their management is now laid bare for all to see, they need to spend some time on a Singapore Airlines aircraft to see what business class really is! BA's golden years are well and truly over, it will take a miracle to bring them back!