British Airways

✅ Verified Review | Never again! Booked a round trip from to London from Paris return with British Airways in business as had a separate ticket from Paris to Johannesburg (with AF in business class) and Cape Town to Paris (with Qatar in business class). On the outbound flight no issues apart from the appalling lounge in London T5. Checked in for my return flight online and to my surprise they charge for booking your seat before check in opening which I found strange being a business class passenger. The reason I chose the BA flight was that it was from the same airport (CDG) as where my flight from Cape Town via Doha arrived and after a long haul flight the last thing I wanted was to have any hassle with the connection to London. The plan was to get refreshed in the lounge, rest for few hours and get on the flight. Unfortunately, my plans were trashed when I arrived at the check in and was told that my flight had been cancelled and that I had been rebooked from Orly (which is an hour away). It didn't stop there, no transfer was provided and when asked how do I get there, the unfriendly reply was "well, get a bus". No indication of where. The woman simply turned away from me and started talking to a colleague. Tried to get some more information to which the reply was "go online". She gave me a paper which I thought would be a map to the bus but it turned out to be a sheet of guidelines on how to get compensation. Thought ok, at least something. The next shock, when I arrived in Orly. The check in lady told me that instead of business they had put me in economy! As I was very tired and just wanted to get home, agreed but asked if could still use the lounge. Oh no, not possible! At this point I was absolutely appalled and asked to speak to the manager. Was told that it was not possible and that I could go online and complain. Gave up and went through security to find out that the flight was delayed again. Spoke to the same lady who tried to ignore me and kept repeating "go online, I don't care about BA". When back home complained to customer services and got a reply that no compensation was due as they had ran out of staff to operate that flight. Complained again as had the paper from the CDG ground crew about compensation. Generic reply after 5 minutes was, no compensation. Needless to say, I will never fly with BA again which is a shame as do like other oneworld partners who I frequently fly with in business class and am a FF (luckily not of BA).

✅ Verified Review | Not fair for the fare. Flew Bangkok to Paris via London with British Airways. Not allowed to choose our seats. The cabin was not clean (lot of dust). 8 seats per row in Business, no privacy, 50% of the seats don't have direct access to the aisle. Bad meals in small portions. Not enough toilets. Tiny PTV screen and poor movie selection. Crew was very friendly and helpful. We had to face the bad mood of the ground staff in London who were very aggressive and refused to let us take our hand luggage on the London to Paris flight. We explained that we were in Business class and that we flew with the same cases at the beginning of our vacation, they didn't care and refused us to bring it on board. After 30 minutes I showed that they were of a size allowed by BA. They recognized their mistake and let us take it. 30 minutes of stress because they didn't do their job properly. Won't fly BA again, except for the cabin crew everything was bad and looking like budget airline.

✅ Verified Review | Glasgow to London Gatwick with British Airways. Absolutely ludicrous approach to carry on baggage allowance on this flight. I arrived at my seat as the plane was only approximately a third boarded and already the overhead lockers in the 3 or 4 rows either side were jammed to capacity with huge bags that could not possibly have came even close to the permitted size allowed for a cabin. I struggled to squeeze my jacket into a gap between 2 massive cases and had to keep my small backpack containing only my change of clothes between my feet for the flight. No idea how how such visibly oversized and overweight bags were allowed onboard but it made for a pretty uncomfortable flight. Pretty disappointing from an airline whose standards seem to be sliding badly.

✅ Verified Review | British Airways is a very good airline. Yesterday I was coming back from Bangkok to London and I missed my flight, because I feel asleep at the airport (I had a sleepless night and food poisoning). They did me big favour and booked next available flight (next day) free of charge. Never happened to me with another airline. Very impressed.

✅ Verified Review | London to Cape Town. Galleries lounge at T3 tatty and overcrowded. Takeoff delayed by an hour because of weather issues, but we were kept well informed while waiting for push back. Seats 62J/K on upper deck excellent for a couple, although the plane was looking its age, with patching up wherever you looked. IFE long past its due replacement date, with small screen and poor resolution. Cabin crew friendly enough. Meal the usual sub-standard BA fare, with diminishing portion sizes and overcooked mains. Hotel Chocolat chocs have now disappeared. Arrival at CPT only 30 mins behind schedule. Cape Town to London, the Galleries lounge at CPT spacious, but quickly became packed with pax from two flights. Food options dreadful, with the worst hot food we've encountered in any business class lounge. Cheese pre-packaged. MCC available but no champagne. Push back 15 mins ahead of schedule. Same seats on upper deck. Meal barely average and we avoided the hot option at breakfast. Arrived ahead of schedule. Overall, the flight itself was the usual BA service. Onboard was another matter, with seats and service way below BA's competitors and at inflated prices.

✅ Verified Review | In September 2016, I flew with British Airways in First from London to Kuala Lumpur on flight BA0033. Initial impressions were positive. The check-in was efficient with polite and friendly staff. The Concorde Room was a nice place to be. My First suite (2A) offered a good amount of comfort, space and privacy. Fast forward 12+ hours. Would I fly in British Airways First again? No. Would I fly with British Airways again? No. This is why: On the flight there were two members of cabin crew in the First cabin, with 8 passengers. The 1st cabin crew member was polite and professional. The 2nd cabin crew member was extremely unprofessional. The supplied headphone set was faulty and did not work. I had to ask twice for a replacement set. It took over 40 minutes to receive this. Once airborne, I ordered a cappuccino. I had to ask three times for this and wait over 50 minutes for it to arrive. There were multiple issues with my dinner: - I was the second person to order my dinner; yet the last person to be served. It took over 2 hours to get my dinner. Someone who had ordered after me, got my dinner option (I was told some 30 minutes after placing my order that only one option was available). It would appear that this passenger had a higher Executive Club membership and therefore was given my choice of main course. I was only given the option of a Club World main course (which was delayed further as I was initially given the wrong order). This delay in service had a detriment to my own sleeping plans and I was extremely disappointed at the service from the 2nd cabin crew member. There were issues with my breakfast: Despite being the first passenger to wake up and order my breakfast, another passenger was served first and given my breakfast. I ordered a Cappuccino; the 2nd cabin crew member ignored this order. When I enquired again (some 40 minutes after I had placed my order) I was told that the seat belt sign was now on and therefore I could not have this. I was extremely disappointed as at the material time I placed my order (and for some time after this) there had been no seat belt sign displayed. The First cabin toilet was not cleaned properly throughout the flight. Formal Complaint Within 24 hours of landing in KUL, I wrote a formal letter of complaint outlining the aforementioned issues and emailed this to the CEO of British Airways, Alex Cruz. The ‘You First’ department at British Airways confirmed receipt of my email. Subsequently, I received a very generic response from British Airways Customer Relations. No attempt was made to address (or even explore) the issues that gave rise to my complaint. This was disappointing. I was simply offered 10,000 Avios points. I responded by return, rejecting this offer and again asked for an explanation to why I had received such poor service during my flight and why no attempt had been made by British Airways to address the issues that I had outlined in my formal complaint. The response from British Airways Customer Relations was again disappointing and did not offer any explanation other than the matter would be dealt with internally and that the gesture of 10,000 Avios points was because British Airways “have to be consistent so we’re fair to all our customers”. I found this statement somewhat ironic.

✅ Verified Review | St Petersburgh to London. I don’t know where BA got this market research to say stop complementary meals, we prefer to pay for it ! I’ve yet to find anyone who agrees with this idea and certainly no one asked me for my opinion. If you want to buy something different, you always have the option in the endless airport shops before boarding. I suggest they look seriously at their market research company if this is true, though I suspect the real reason is cost cutting, BA just doesn’t want to admit it. BA would be better off to admit it, customers would have more sympathy than trying to promote this policy as some benefit to the customer when clearly they are removing benefit and keeping price the same, we can all see through the attempted deception and it does the image no good. To tell me that charging £1.80 for water or soft drink is a bargain when I can buy the same thing in Tesco for 63p insults my intelligence, they are exploiting the fact that passengers cannot carry liquids through security so they have a captive market, again a great image to promote to the world. Where possible myself and family will now actively seek to avoid being a BA passenger where any alternative exists. Pay extra for checked luggage, Pay extra for drinks, pay extra for food, I’m sorry to see our flag carrier in such a state that it is reduced to that of a budget airline.

✅ Verified Review | British Airways is a budget airline at premium airline prices. Flew from Gatwick to Cancun. However, if you wanted snacks (on a very long flight) you have to buy them on board, and with a long flight and meals only at the beginning and end people get hungry. You do not expect to have to buy snacks on such an expensive flight. There was also nowhere to plug in laptops, which you expect on a long and expensive flight-especially when you have work to do. The plane was also so cold (too cold to concentrate on work). It would take a great deal to choose them again.

✅ Verified Review | Shanghai to Zurich via London return, and British Airways is absolutely appalling. I have never experienced such terrible customer service from an airline. I booked two return premium economy seats for my mother and I to go from Shanghai to Zurich via London. On the way there, the flight to Zurich was cancelled due to French strike, not BA's fault so that part is clear. However, they kept the flight on the board until very last minute then told everyone it was cancelled, furthermore, they ran out of hotels to put people up and we wasted about 5 hours (after a 12 hours flight) to go through customs (thank god we can enter visa free unlike a few other passengers), find a hotel, arrange our own transport there and back. So the first leg already left a terrible impression. Then, on the way back to Shanghai, they overbooked business so they pushed business passengers into premium economy and then pushed my elderly mother and I to economy for a 12 hour flight. I booked premium economy for a reason, my mum has health issues and need the room in premium economy, did BA care? No. Told us that we were involuntarily downgraded upon check in but that likely we will still get a seat, then at boarding, told us sorry it's either fly economy now or wait till tomorrow to see if there is a seat. Because I had work the next day, we had no option but to fly and BA ushered us on with the promise that they will put in the fare difference request on my behalf which will be processed asap. Three months down the track, I have yet to see a single cent of fare difference and of course there are no customer service phone numbers/emails to write to, only an impersonal link online for you to submit a reference and compliant to their customer service black hole. Needless to say I will forever boycott BA for its incompetence and insincerity towards a paying customer.

✅ Verified Review | We travelled Business Class from Gatwick to Barbados return for Christmas 2016. The outbound flight plane had not been cleaned well at all - food crumbs around seat area, stained carpets, wet toilet floors etc. The cabin crew member was not aware of taking passenger coat procedure and suggested we "hang it up wherever you can find space" - we collected our own coats prior to landing. When the food was served we had been noted as 'not eating' - when the mistake was realised and the mistake initially made by the senior stewardess, the two hot options were unavailable - I had cheese and biscuits and my husband went without. The quality of the video/audio was very poor - the picture clarity poor and the sound distorted making certain films unwatchable. On the return flight the Executive Lounge was fully booked and we had to use the packed lounge in the main terminal. During the inbound flight the young cabin steward was constantly chewing gum - not a very professional image! On our return the only response by BA to our complaints was additional Avios Points - an unacceptable response a fair and reasonable complaint and an offer that we are unlikely to take advantage of.