British Airways

I usually fly on Asian airlines (ANA, EVA, Korean, Asiana) and accustomed to their very good service and food. This was my first flight on British Airways from Vancouver to Lisbon via London. I selected it because of price. Overall experience was adequate. Plane was an older B747 and interior showed its age. IFE was outdated. Seat comfort was fine. Cabin crew not attentive between meals. Western food offerings just ok. Had several hours layover at Heathrow. British Airways ground staff good and pleasant. I might fly British Airways again if equipment is updated to A380 or Boeing 787 and price is lowest to Europe.

Had to fly British Airways London to Delhi, due to a rebooking as I had missed my connection from Frankfurt due to delays by United inbound from Houston. Ground staff most helpful, lounge impressive. Cabin crew friendly and attentive, food was good, unfortunately, the seats were a bit outdated for 2015 and desperately need to be upgraded. Flight was delayed by a bug in the entertainment system, which was fixed promptly and the Captain made up for lost time. All in all, it was a good flight.

Madrid to Los Angeles via London Heathrow. Smooth departure at MAD and LAX and transfer at Heathrow. Lounges at Madrid Barajas T4 and Heathrow T5 excellent, but overcrowded and a bit frayed at the edges at Los Angeles. No problems with baggage or delays. The Boeing 767s used between London and Madrid are so old they're almost retro, with LED screen TVs and blue leather seats, but comfortable, spacious and clean. The A380s seemed almost new, the seats are a little narrow but comfortable, and the inflight entertainment is excellent. Good amenity kit and simple but good quality food. It's nice that they serve traditional British things like brunch and afternoon tea, and they offer excellent wines and drinks. Nice cosmopolitan mix of friendly, professional and attentive cabin crew on all flights.

Copenhagen to Chicago via London Heathrow. British Airways club world is the worst business class cabin I've flown. TVs are tiny and the picture quality is awful - thankfully I had my laptop with me, as the TV was unwatchable. The tables hang at an angle, so expect your food and drink to slide off (although the floor is probably the best place for their food). I would advise you to eat at the airport and not rely on the inflight slop. You'll have someone climbing over you (or you'll have to climb over other people) to get to the toilet (this is business class!). And then they'll lose your bag, tell you it's going to take 4-5 days to get it to you and provide no information about what to do in the meantime. If you try and call to get answers, leave at least 45 minutes time to sit in a queue (and then expect to be put through to the wrong person, despite selecting the correct option in the automated menu!). Avoid British Airways wherever you can!

British Airways from Vienna to Newcastle via Heathrow return, flights on-time. Economy on an A320. FA’s much better on domestic legs, while both times on VIE legs the FA’s were professional, but nothing more and not doing more than absolutely required. Information from the flight deck was friendly and excellent. A snack and drinks were served - snack a highly processed sandwich (barely edible) on the VIE flights and crisps/biscuits on the NCL flights. Additional drinks on request. A320 featured the new slim seats and I miss the older more comfortable BA seats with better leg room. BA has recently changed the rules and travelling only with hand baggage now also means that one is no longer allowed to pick a seat during check-in, but a seat is randomly allocated. Selecting any seat (even a middle seat in the back of plane now costs EUR 18). If one later decides to check a piece of luggage the costs are a whopping EUR 75 at the airport or EUR 35 online. Being Oneworld Sapphire does not help either. No privileges here; still the same charges for seat selection and checked luggage. So, BA became a low cost model, except for drinks service. However the prices do not reflect this change in service. On the last leg LHR-VIE carry-on luggage was heavily policed. Although my carry-on luggage met the weight requirements and fits in the overhead bin and has so without any problems on the previous three legs and twenty previous BA flights, I was required to check it in. It was also not a question of occupied space, as it happened in the priority line. Hopefully just a power trip by the gate agent. However, here goes the main advantage of BA, which was a carry-on policy that enabled passengers to realistically travel without the hassle of checking bags. Boarding by the same agent was again bizarre. Instead of priority boarding, there were now four different types of priority boarding, and the procedure left everybody confused and everybody just stood there blocking the access to the gate, so that finally it became a cattle call with everyone boarding at the same time. Another thing is, that recent changes in BA’s frequent flyer program make it impossible to reach a meaningful status even for regular flyer unless you regularly fly Club on long distance routes. Obviously, BA is trying very hard to annoy its frequent travelers. While I stopped flying Business with BA probably a year ago after they downgraded their Club Europe cabin and I was avoiding their long distance flights for a long time due to their terrible seating arrangement, I believe BA’s European economy was a great product and I was using BA regularly for those flights. However, after all these recent changes, I will only book BA if they offer the lowest or close to the lowest fare. For flights to the UK, KLM starts to look pretty good again.

London Heathrow to Barcelona, and for some reason British Airways continue to run this Barcelona service from the dated Terminal 3 at Heathrow, rather than new T5. That apart, this service was fine. Boarding was quick and efficient. Seats in Economy are now pretty similar to those on low cost airlines. But this handluggage only ticket cost no more than one with Ryanair from Stansted would have. Food and drink was the now standard minimalist option on most European flights these days. Just one question - why, when this is the British national flag-carrier, does the drinks trolley not stock some British beer, rather than identikit continental fizzy lagers? Departure and arrival in BCN was on schedule, and exiting the airport a breeze.

London to Newcastle. Been a while since I last flew British Airways, sad to see the same old planes in use and now very much looking their age for domestic use. Technical issues delayed departure, normal sure, but the noise the plane made on taxi lasted far too long and was slightly alarming and not the norm. Seat pitch belongs on a dodgy charter not the national carrier surely? Last time flown I got a nice sandwich and drink, this time it's small bag of crisps and juice? It's time BA stopped taking it's domestic (no competition routes) for granted and upgrade the fleet on short trips, the numbers onboard justify a better level of service considering the extra fees now attached for checked in luggage versus just carry on, puts me off using their long haul option with ever increasing fees whilst oil prices have been rock bottom for how long now? Kudos to the pilot for landing in Monsoon like conditions with very limited visibility - if only the aircraft quality matched their pilots!

Jeddah to London Heathrow with British Airways. Punctual, clean and efficient. Good quality food and multiple drinks served including red and white wine plus some excellent British beers. Film selection good with the video on demand 6 inch seatback screen; slight delay in screen registering your finger pressure and 3 minutes of advertisements prior to each film. Economy class cabin was half empty and the front of the plane was virtually empty, so plenty of space to stretch.

London Heathrow to Lisbon return with British Airways. Decent aircraft but the service onboard was dreadful. Pilot and first officer sounded friendly and professional and kept us up to date with flight details etc but cabin staff were cold and had a completely "couldn't care less" attitude. Why do this job if you seem to hate it? Same service when I flew London Heathrow - Lisbon. Such a shame, especially as when you are really scared of flying you could do with a crew with a different approach to passenger service.

I booked a non-refundable round trip ticket, New York to London; Paris to New York. I showed up at JFK 2 hours before my flight and was informed that my ticket had been "refunded," which meant I had no ticket. When I spoke to British Airways customer service, they said they would investigate how this happened, which would take 24-48 hours, but that meanwhile I had no ticket. They would not rebook my ticket. They were entirely unsympathetic, even though they had made a huge error cancelling my ticket. I was forced to purchase an expensive ($1300), last minute ticket, for which I have still not been reimbursed, even though, finally, British Airways acknowledged that they had made a big error. I can understand making an error. I cannot understand their unwillingness to help me, when they put me in such a compromised position. Subsequent to the problem on first leg, British Airways Customer Service assured me that my return ticket was not affected, and they even sent me an E-Ticket confirmation of my return. But, again, the morning of my return flight, they told me I had no return ticket. Only then did a Supervisor finally admit that an error had been made, and he rebooked my return, at no cost. Over the course of 2 weeks, however, I spent at least 10 hours trying to get my problem sorted out, first at Heathrow Airport, then on the phone and on email, and I was still left stranded for my return flight. I am amazed that British Airways was so insensitive to the problem which they created through a huge error, and that I have still not received a refund for the outbound ticket I was forced to purchase.