"profoundly uncomfortable when fully flat"
G Dawson (United States)
✅ Verified Review | Flew from LHR to AUS. British Airways Club World seats are barely wider than coach, and the curvature of the shell makes it feel tighter in the shoulders than coach until the seat is almost half reclined. Profoundly uncomfortable when fully flat as there is a hard bulge at the hinge, best sleeping position is with head elevated a few inches. Could barely wedge myself into the window seat despite unrestricted aisle access, couldn't get out of the seat without putting my hand on and pulling down the seat divider. Footstool that makes up lower part of flat bed came unhooked and dropped to the floor four times on preceding flight. Plane is new with great windows. Restrooms a bit cramped compared to Airbus 330. Flight crew was fine, meal service was adequate, wines were good, in-flight kitchen has been cut back to almost nothing. My upgrade was heavily discounted and I would never pay full price for Club World.
| Aircraft | Boeing 787-900 |
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Business Class |
| Route | LHR to AUS |
| Date Flown | December 2016 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"had a good flight on the A380"
57 reviews A Wong (China)
✅ Verified Review | London to Hong Kong in business class. Having chosen the 'best seat' (this is important), I had a good flight onboard the A380 Upper deck. Service is good but unexceptional, professional but no pamper, as is BA. If on A380 with my chosen seat, this may be my preferred flight between LHR and HKG. I take numerous flights on this route in Business class.
| Aircraft | A380 |
| Type Of Traveller | Business |
| Seat Type | Business Class |
| Route | LHR to HKG |
| Date Flown | December 2016 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"extremely rude and aggressive"
W Cheung (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | Manchester to Heathrow connecting onto Virgin Atlantic to Shanghai. I arrived at Manchester terminal 3 at 08:00 and checked in to my booked flights. My outbound transfer flight BA1389 was delayed by over 3 hours (schedule 09:55, actual 13:10). At Manchester airport, the BA service desk were woefully under staffed and very unhelpful to customers. After a 2 hour queue, they refused to help me re-book any flights to Shanghai or reserve seats and promised everything would be sorted at the Heathrow BA service desk. I boarded the late flight to Manchester, hoping that BA Heathrow could help me with the connecting Virgin Atlantic flight when I arrived at Heathrow. This delay caused me to miss my connecting flight to Shanghai. My flight landed over 3 hours late in terminal 5 (Schedule 11:05, actual 14:06). Upon arrival at Heathrow (14:30), I proceeded to go to the BA service desk at Terminal 5 to find the next flights to Shanghai. After a 1 hour wait in the queue, the BA service personnel were not only unhelpful, but were extremely rude and aggressive towards me. They refused to help me book another flight to Shanghai, they refused to book me on a flight back to Manchester, they refused to help me retrieve my luggage, they refused to help me find a hotel and they refused to refund any of the £1814.60 air fare. I explained that I was now stranded in Heathrow with no other means of transport or accommodation and without my luggage, but they simply told me to leave the terminal as they would not be helping me any further. When I pleaded with the BA staff to move my return BA flight back to Manchester forwards to allow me to get home, the BA personnel called their manager to escort me out of the terminal so that I was no longer blocking other customers. At no point did they apologise for the delay or for the failure to help me and at no point did they acknowledge or appreciate the situation that I was in. I was left outside Terminal 5 with no transport, no accommodation and no luggage. Eventually, after asking several helpful members of airport staff, I retrieved my luggage from Terminal 2. I organised myself a hotel in Heathrow at 20:00 after an exhausting 12 hours and now need to figure out how to get home.
| Type Of Traveller | Business |
| Seat Type | Premium Economy |
| Route | MAN to PVG via LHR |
| Date Flown | December 2016 |
| 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 |
"quite enjoyable flights both ways"
Vincent Borlaug (United States)
✅ Verified Review | IAD-LHR return in World Traveller Plus. Quite enjoyable flights both ways with first-rate leg-room (38in in WTP vs 31in in regular WT remains a strong positive point with me), some of the best airline cuisine I've had in recent years, an excellent pre-meal drinks service including Tribute Cornish ale, on-time departure/arrival and the attentive, courteous cabin-crew service I've received through the years from British Airways. (Two tiny flyspecks though - no more newspapers on boarding and no nibbles with the drinks service, but nowhere nearly enough to ruin the overall trip.) This remains my favourite way of flying between the USA and Europe. I am a regular Skytrax reader and note the numerous negative reviews BA's regular tourist-class service has latterly received in this forum (haven't flown it myself in a couple of years though), but on this and other recent showings BA's World Traveller Plus premium economy remains as good as ever.
| Aircraft | A380 and Boeing 777 |
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Premium Economy |
| Route | IAD to LHR |
| Date Flown | December 2016 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"poor facilities BA now provide"
Simon Channon (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | Flew Club World from Chengdu to London last week, my first time on BA long haul for a few years. How they manage to retain their reputation is a complete mystery, with the onboard product being simply awful - and this on a newer Boeing 787 plane! The cabin was tatty - tables loose, problems with seat recline mechanism, IFE clunky and slow. The food was not even to economy standards, and the lack of choices in the lunch demonstrates pitiful money saving. Amenity kit second rate, the lavatory did not seem to be checked by crew from start to finish, and whilst the flight was quite empty in business, the service seemed to be on a go-slow. Staff (when they appeared in the cabin) were quite friendly, but they all seemed unhappy and quite ashamed of the poor facilities that BA now provide. I will go back to using my preferred Asian airlines, and I can only assume other BA "loyals" will also start switching as the management seem intent on driving BA down to low cost airline levels.
| Aircraft | Boeing 787 |
| Type Of Traveller | Business |
| Seat Type | Business Class |
| Route | CTU to LHR |
| Date Flown | December 2016 |
| 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 |
"disinterested and unhelpful"
Andrew Staton (United Kingdom)
Appalling food, especially on the Orlando-Gatwick return leg. Choice of a horrible-smelling curry and a vegetarian pasta, the pasta was as if it had been boiled for an hour and the tomato sauce tasted like it came from a chemical factory. There was a roll but no butter, instead a tiny pot of 'spread' that was whipped up to give it bulk and which virtually disappeared in your mouth the moment it entered. For 'breakfast' we were given a tough bagel with a filling of cream cheese that was probably only a few molecules thick. No juice etc. The attitude of the flight attendant was completely disinterested and unhelpful when I asked her to ask the person in front of me to return her seat into the upright position when drinks were served. The amount of space that the reclined seat deprived me of would have made the drinking of my drink very uncomfortable. The flight attendant suggested that I should recline my seat as well and couldn't understand when I refused to do this on account of it making me a complete hypocrite. Eventually the passenger in front of me must have got the message because she put her seat back off her own bat. I felt very sad that my national airline of British Airways has lowered itself to these standards of food and customer service. The seat was OK but nothing to write home about.
| Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | LGW to MCO |
| Date Flown | December 2016 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"service .. we don't really care"
26 reviews C Fordham (United States)
✅ Verified Review | London Heathrow to Seattle on a redemption ticket in premium economy. Boarding and departure both efficient. A few empty seats in the separate cabin so that contributed to a relaxed flight. Service was casual to the point of "we don't really care". Food acceptable - just. IFE adequate. Seat became uncomfortable in the last 3 or 4 hours of the flight.
| Aircraft | Boeing 777 |
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Premium Economy |
| Route | LHR to SEA |
| Date Flown | December 2016 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"great little short hop"
26 reviews C Fordham (United States)
✅ Verified Review | Manchester to Heathrow, similar to the flight up with efficient boarding and impressive that a trolley service is squeezed in. Unfortunately delayed again for the same time as the duration of the flight, due to gate unavailability. Otherwise this is a great little short hop.
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | MAN to LHR |
| Date Flown | November 2016 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"manage a trolley service "
26 reviews C Fordham (United States)
✅ Verified Review | Heathrow to Manchester. Short hop of just 35mins in the air unfortunately delayed by about the same amount of time due to someone not boarding. Done this flight a number of times and kudos to the fact they manage to get a trolley service in before landing. Alcoholic drink is free which is something considering this isn't the case even on 6hr trans-American flights.
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | LHR to MAN |
| Date Flown | November 2016 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"like some cut-rate budget airline"
S Mallen (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | I have been a loyal BA frequent flyer for a decade but with their recent cutbacks this might well change. On my recent long haul flight to Nairobi from London, I was shocked to find that the usual tray of snacks available through the flight was no longer available for free - like some cut-rate budget short haul airline, you have to pay. However, unlike a budget airline, BA fares remain higher than most. I returned from Nairobi in premium economy - yet instead of getting something for the substantial extra fare I paid to be in premium, breakfast consisted of 1 muffin - literally 1 muffin only - no juice, no fruit, no nothing. It is a disgrace and disrespectful to customers who have, as I have always done, accepted the higher fares for better service. Even the flight attendants are embarrassed with the new bare bones regime. It is no fun for them to suddenly be charging for token treats which have always been free. Note that BA never cut fares when the price of oil halved, making the current cutbacks about pure avarice. Disrespecting and providing poor service to your loyal customers while charging a premium is not a winning formula. And I wouldn't blame your invariably brilliant flight attendants decamping elsewhere where they will be better treated. The final insult was the response I got when I tweeted my above complaints. I was told that extensive customer research showed customers wanted to be charged for previously free snacks and preferred getting 1 muffin instead of the usual breakfast - while paying the same fare. Which as is apparent to all, a complete lie and insult to injury. I am flying again next week LON - NYC and hope, not optimistically, for better.
| Type Of Traveller | Business |
| Seat Type | Premium Economy |
| Route | NBO to LHR |
| Date Flown | December 2016 |
| 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
