"worst sort of management bureaucracy"
S Wajani (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | At check-in desk at T5 Heathrow was told by BA staff that Sweden only allowing Swedish nationals into country. This was contrary to advice on Swedish Government website. I rang the border control office at Arlanda airport. They confirmed that EU/EFTA/EEA & UK nationals were clear to enter the country. I offered the phone to BA staff to clear up any confusion. They declined and then changed their story saying it was their own company policy. I spent the next hour trying to get through to BA on the telephone for a refund. The calls were being disconnect due to high call volumes. BA standard of service compared to the other major European airlines was dishonest and obstructive. Furthermore if the other airlines can provide customer support on the telephone or via email at this time BA should be able to do the same. While in-flight staff at BA are still terrific, they are let down by the worst sort of management bureaucracy.
| Type Of Traveller | Business |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | London to Stockholm |
| Date Flown | April 2020 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"poor customer service"
Ivana Baranova (United Kingdom)
Not Verified | I booked a flight with them on 26 of March, but was unable to flight to the destination due to coronavirus restrictions. Since then I am trying to call them every day! I also filled out the form to request a refund but no reply in a week. Today I finally managed to spoke to the lady on the phone from their CS, but she just directed me to their website or she gave me another number. This number directed me to call again the first number I called already! After minutes of waiting again I spoke to another lady, she asked me for my reference and said she will transfer me to someone else, when she hang up on me!! Unbelievable!! So you can not even call them, and when you finally speak with someone no help at all! I never thought company like this have this poor customer service especially in situation like this with the corona virus.
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | London to Budapest |
| Date Flown | March 2020 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"lies and lack of informatio"
J Meers (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | A journey of 2 halves. Before hand, multiple lies and lack of information from the BA website. They cancelled my flight but they weren't honest about what they had done and lied. They claimed that I could re-book and showed lots of flights - none were in fact scheduled to fly but BA claimed that they were full. Then my return booking completely disappeared and the website claimed that "all journeys complete". Website at no point gave any indication about how difficult it was getting to fly from the USA to UK. Impossible to get through to BA in London. USA BA much better - a total wait of 1 hour 40 minutes to make 2 calls. Staff at the call centre efficient and helpful. Chaos at Chicago as most passengers had American issued boarding passes for the BA flight to London and BA weren't accepting those boarding passes. No explanation for the change in policy. Everyone I saw merely handed in the American boarding pass and was given a BA boarding pass. On the plane the staff were excellent - as usual. Food was good - verging on very good. Breakfast a little small but tasty. I even got a 2nd cup of tea! Journey smooth with some sleep. I stopped flying BA for 10 years because the head office is so poor - the staff on the ground are good but BA as an organisatiion comes over as badly managed: e.g. over securing client's data, telling passengers what is going on, running a decent frequent flier programme, design of the business cabin (stepping over the legs of the next passenger to go to the loo!) and so on. I only fly BA because of the lack of choice on most routes - whenever there is an alternative I try that (not American Airlines which somehow is consistently poorer than BA).
| Aircraft | Boeing 747 |
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Business Class |
| Route | Nashville to London via Chicago |
| Date Flown | March 2020 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"understand the turmoil caused by Covid-19"
K Schale (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | I flew to Vancouver mid March to see my mother, then in hospital. Three days after arrival my mother passed away and I subsequently needed tochange my return flight to be able to attend her funeral. I tried to manage my booking online, as BA suggest. But, because I had bought a package that included car hire the BA site said I was unable to change this online and I had to call their customer services. I spent over 19 hours hanging on a telephone trying to call the numbers listed online. I set up conversations Facebook and Twitter, they went unanswered. On the second day of my telephone ordeal I actually called a different number and spoke to a guy in ‘holidays’ who said he couldn’t help me either but that he would try and add me to the queue for the help line. When this was finally answered after another hour and a half of waiting I managed to blurt out my Ref number, nothing else… before that call was disconnected. Thankfully the one person I had briefly spoken to in the Duty office that night then emailed me back and I was able to have a conversation about my need to change flight. This change took about 10-15 minutes over a few emails. But the person helping me couldn’t extend the car hire because the vehicle had already been collected. The only way this could be managed would be by myself calling the car hire company. But two days previously, when I tried to manage my booking online I was told I couldn’t do this because I had bought a package and that this could only be done by BA. I do totally understand the turmoil caused by Covid-19, but never again BA.
| Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | Vancouver to London |
| Date Flown | March 2020 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"A voucher is not sufficient"
Greg Woods (United Kingdom)
Not Verified | Very disappointed that BA are not making it straightforward to claim a refund on cancelled flights back due to covid-19, effectively holding onto my money illegally. Do what’s right and make it straightforward to do it online. A voucher is not sufficient. Or get more phone operators. The virus is stressful enough without you making to check your site for updates and a 2 hour wait on the phone. Very disappointed - I expect much better from you!
| Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | London to Marrakesh |
| Date Flown | August 2019 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"use the travel credit by May 2020"
A Lee (United States)
Not Verified | I booked my flights to the UK in May 2019 and had to cancel our trip to the UK on March 12, 2020 .. 4 days prior to leaving because a travel ban was going to start on March 16, 2020 and because I am older and have pre-existing health conditions, my doctor asked me to postpone our trip. The British Airways customer care associates I talked with were great and caring and they were able to issue us travel credit for tickets that were non-refundable. Now the problem is, I need to rebook and use the travel credit by May 2020 for travel to the UK by May 2021 or lose all the credit from our trip. How can I make travel arrangements by May 2020 with the coronavirus out of control throughout the world and travel bans in place? I understand BA has policies in place, but I cannot understand how you can expect someone to make travel arrangements while the world is dealing with COVID-19. I feel this timeline is unfair to any consumer who has trust with their preferred airline, my preferred airline is still British Airways. British Airways needs to reevaluate their policies during a world crisis....and make adjustments as needed to be fair to consumers who trust them. Whether a consumer has purchased refundable or non-refundable tickets should not matter, because forcing a consumer to rebook while a world pandemic is happening and not adjusting your policies to the situation can change your loyal customers, remember, there are many other airlines out there to choose from. The coronavirus is something that no one has any control of. I guess the bottom line is I think British Airways needs to put some common sense to their policy. I want to rebook and travel, but I am hesitant to this at this time. Hopefully, May 2020 this pandemic is over for all of us.
| Aircraft | Boeing 777 |
| Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | Seattle to Heathrow |
| Date Flown | March 2020 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"thank our crew in particular"
Felicity Nicol (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | Mumbai to London Heathrow. I wish to highly commend the professionalism of the stewards on this flight. Someone had erroneously accused me of being on a flight from Goa to Mumbai and coughing throughout the journey. Categorically I was not on that flight, but in his agitation the passenger could not hear me when I repeatedly said so. The stewards dealt with this situation with tact, absolute professionalism and great courtesy. All the staff must be working in difficult circumstances at the moment. They are putting themselves at more risk than most to ensure that holiday makers and business people can get home safely and I wish to thank our crew in particular for what they did.
| Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
| Seat Type | Premium Economy |
| Route | Mumbai to London Heathrow |
| Date Flown | March 2020 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Food & Beverages | 12345 |
| Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | yes |
"such deceitful practices"
Vic Payne (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | I have a booking for March 19th, London Heathrow to Valencia, and BA still show this flight as operating and are not providing any refund option. The BA website was updated on 17 March to state "We’re working closely with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) to continue flying, where travel restrictions allow and where it is safe to do so." I then checked the FCO website that was also updated on 17 March and it states: "The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises against all but essential travel to Spain." So it is clear that BA deem it "safe" to fly to Spain despite the FCO statement. I know the airline is suffering, like the rest of UK industry and business, but how can they get away with such deceitful practices. It is clear they are expecting customers to change their booking to the future and keep the funds, and are not complying with the British FCO advisory. Is this actually legal?
| Type Of Traveller | Business |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | London to Valencia |
| Date Flown | March 2020 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"not surprised they are in trouble"
M Lavelle (United Kingdom)
Not Verified | London Gatwick to Funchal. British Airways are still forcing people to fly to Madeira when the Foreign Office has advised against anything other than essential travel. My wife and her friend were due to fly to Madeira on 17 March for a week's holiday when we found out that the FO had advised against travelling there. The Madeira government had ruled that new arrivals would spend 14 days in quarantine no matter how long their stay, that's a week longer than their proposed stay. Her friend contacted BA but was told they could not have a refund as the flight was still on! They offered a voucher. If this is an example of BAs customer service I am not surprised they are in trouble.
| Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
| Seat Type | Economy Class |
| Route | London Gatwick to Funchal |
| Date Flown | March 2020 |
| Seat Comfort | 12345 |
| Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
| Ground Service | 12345 |
| Value For Money | 12345 |
| Recommended | no |
"narrow business class facing seats"
12 reviews D Gold (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | Lower Deck Club Class seat, with the current awful, narrow business class facing seats. British Airways premium passengers are treated with indifference at best, and Club Class is simply terrible. My food was not fit for consumption. WIFI broken. Crew morale low. IFE quality a bad joke. To add insult to injury, the amenity packs are contemptible. What makes BA management think that business people require, (or indeed would retain) a package of socks, mask, plastic pen, and disposable tooth brush? The ongoing decline of this once-great national airline is palpable.
| Aircraft | Boeing 747-400 |
| Type Of Traveller | Business |
| Seat Type | Business Class |
| Route | Chicago to London Heathrow |
| Date Flown | March 2020 |
| 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 |
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
