British Airways

Two star rating? Yes, that sounds about right.
Beginning my rant.
A few months back I booked (via American Airlines website), round trip for two SFO LHR. The fare (given that I would be traveling during peak Summer) seemed reasonable and the flight times looked to be perfect.
Now for the problem
When I went to book our seat assignments,
referred me to British Airways. Uhhh, ok. weird, they are your partner airline and I booked through you but ok I’ll click over to
.
Here goes.
According to
(at the time of the booking) the aircraft on both the outbound and inbound legs is a 747. Awesome! This is one of my favorite planes and sadly is disappearing. I particularly like sitting in the upper deck as it makes for a super cool inflight experience.
Plenty of seats left, so I choose two seats in the upper deck at the front (closest to the flight deck). Now it’s asking for my credit card? Hey wait! You’re charging for seat assignments? I guess my status with American carries zero weight with their partners. Grrrrr, ok whatever it’s British Airways policy, but seriously should AA not have at least let me know before I booked my flight? And oh, by the way, it’s $ 128.00 per seat each way (side note, to sit in the lower deck the price is $ 113.00)! Again, kind of steep especially for Business Class. But I really want to sit upstairs and decide on my own to pay the added fees.
Fast forward to today and log onto
to book another flight (more on that on a future review) and notice that my London travel plans are listed. I click just to take a quick glance and I now see that there is an aircraft switch from a 747 to a 777. Hey! uhhh there is no upper deck on a 777! I paid to sit in the upper deck! This kind of irks me, but hey it’s a change in aircraft and things like this happen. And I’m sure I can get my $ 512 refunded right?
Now things really go to pot.
«no sir, that fee is nonrefundable and you are told that in writing at the time of booking».
But whoa! I paid the extra fee to sit in the upper deck, and now there is no upper deck!
Did British Airways budge and agree to refund my $ 512? No way. They didn’t even offer to at least downgrade me to $ 113 fee that they normally charge to sit downstairs.
This is NOT over!

The worst customer service at the ticketing counter at SFO international British airways airport. They should realize we are not beggars here. Bunch of dumb ladies standing and chatting at the counter without acknowledging people standing in line. The lady whom we went to was rude as hell. The flight was delayed and I had to ask if it was the case. Very very bad customer service. Hope ba takes action of such idiots and take them off. Very disappointed.

Worst airline ever! Despite the French Government declaring a State of Emergency! British Airways ABSOLUTELY REFUSES to allow me to cancel and reuse the $ 2827.97 that I paid the 3 tickets for a future flight beyond 11.28.2015 to Paris! Ridiculous! Most American based Airlines have had this policy in place for over a week now. British Airways SUCKS Big Time!!!

British Airways Take Advantage of Grieving Travelers!
This is a letter we wrote to American Express in hope of their assistance with our dispute. While we are not disputing that we did use these tickets to get home, we are claiming that these tickets should never have been issued in the first place, as they could not be used as intended. I have tried numerous times to duplicate this itinerary with out success. The BA website and BA booking agents could not book these flights together due to minimum time requirements between flights not being met.
While traveling abroad we received word that my mothers health was failing and she would only live a few days at best.
We tried in vain to find flights to get us home by Friday but only found flights arriving on Saturday.
John made arrangements with a British Airways agent that had us arriving on Friday and we were relieved.
The tickets were booked together by the agent and had us traveling from Ibiza to London, London to Dublin and internationally from Dublin to Boston, Ma. USA.
Upon arrival in Dublin we were informed that the flight from Dublin to Boston had closed 5 minutes after our flight landed in Dublin. Not 5 minutes after we deplaned or got our luggage, but 5 minutes after it touched ground, which was baffling to us because the flight had landed a few minutes early.
We were also informed (over and over in fact and by many airline employees) that these tickets should not have been issued due to the fact that time limits between flights were not met.
The agents also said that the computer shouldn’t have allowed the flights to be booked as they were due to the same time requirements between flights and seemed shocked that an agent of British Airlines had booked them for us. That we hadn’t done so ourselves online.
We were saddened to learn that we would not make it home to see my mom before she passed away. Her doctors were literally doing all they could to keep her alive as long as possible, but knew she wouldn’t live through the night.
And then angry that British Airlines sold us tickets that could not possibly be used as intended or as issued.
The agents in Dublin assumed responsibility for the mistake and rebooked us on a flight to Boston the next morning without additional cost and provided hotel accommodations as well as food vouchers for the hotel restaurant.
If in fact they were not responsible for these tickets being unusable as purchased then why did they rebook the flight without cost, pay for a hotel stay, dinner and breakfast for the two of us?
We had ample opportunity to book flights on our own that would have gotten us home on Saturday, July 4, 2015 at a cost of $ 600. each.
We only paid the British Airways ticket costs of $ 1800. each because the flights were to get us home on Friday, July 3, 2015 and would give us time to say good bye to my mother before she passed away. That was our only goal. To get home Friday, and the flights British Airways offered promised to do that, except that promise was never something that could be honoured and from all accounts should never have been made.
We aren’t unreasonable people. If we had been late, if any of our flights had delayed our travel we wouldn’t be pursuing recompense from British Airways.
But we were not late and our flights were on schedule … Our flight into Dublin arrived a few minutes early, in fact, but it did not matter because even if it had been 30 minutes early there was not enough time to deplane, gather our luggage, get through customs and get to check in on time for the flight to Boston.
British Airways website sights minimum time between flights at 2 hours and suggests 3.5 hours.
The time between our flight into Dublin and our international flight from Dublin to Boston, Ma. USA was 1 hour and 15 minutes.
So, what we are saying here is that we were sold a product that could not be used as it was represented to us. That the agent or agents, the computer system at British Airways, at some point in this transaction should have seen that these tickets weren’t viable as issued and stopped the transaction.
That they were culpable seems evident in that they compensated us by providing hotel accommodations and food vouchers as well as rebooking the flight without charging us.
Please assist us in making this right.
We were very open that this was a family tragedy and that we needed to get home Friday. We feel that these facts were taken into account and we were taken advantage of because of our circumstances. It is not right to do this to a grieving family and if they do it once and get away with it they will do it again and again.
Sincerely,
Karen White and John Danese.

WORST AIRLINE I HAVE EVER FLOWN WITH! Since purchasing my ticket in May of 2015 I have had nonstop problems with British Airways. I bought my tickets via Priceline, then in August (one month before my departure date to Uganda where I would be staying for three months) I received an email from Priceline (never from BA) telling me that British Airways had cancelled my return flight home and never contacted me to tell me this. So I went to their webpage to try to figure out what my options were for rebooking a flight. THE BRITISH AIRWAYS WEBPAGE DOES NOT HAVE A PAGE FOR CANCELLED FLIGHT ISSUES, it literally just kept taking me in circles to the same three pages that told me NOTHING.
So after 30 minutes on hold with British Airways i finally got to speak to a person, who (after I gave them all my information and was placed on hold again) told me that they were not responsible for reissuing me a ticket! They told me I had to go through my «travel agent» which was Priceline. Long painful story short, I spent FIVE HOURS on the phone being tossed back and forth between the two companies both saying that the other had to re-​issue my ticket!!! Firstly, Priceline was the only kind and helpful party in this exchange, British Airways people just continuously kept reading from their script as to what they were supposed to say, it was beyond frustrating! Because they never actually listened to what I was telling them! THE MOST UNHELPFUL «Customer Service» I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED.
As if this whole ordeal wasn’t enough, I will try to make this part brief. Currently I am in Uganda, my departure date is two weeks away. I just found out that one of my immediate family members just passed away unexpectedly. I have been trying to get home on an earlier flight due to this, and guess who is once again completely unhelpful, non-​sympathetic, and causing me even MORE STRESS… British Airways. After 40 minutes on a very expensive phone call (as I’m in a third world country right now), BA takes all my information, tells me there will be a charge, then transfers me to another person, then tells me that they cannot give me a price quote or change my flight because I «have not been issued a ticket by» my «travel agent yet»!!! Ridiculous!!! I’m in country, and Priceline HAS issued me my ticket. I kept telling the agent I can’t deal with this right now, I don’t know what he’s talking about, I have been issued a ticket because i already went through all of this in August and finally got things fixed. THEN THE AGENT HUNG UP ON ME.
I CANNOT EXPRESS ENOUGH HOW STRESSFUL, RUDE, AND UNHELPFUL BRITISH AIRWAYS HAS BEEN. NEVER FLY WITH THIS AIRLINE. YOU WILL REGRET IT.

BA business class Dubai to Heathrow. Before meal was served, no hot towels to wash hands.
After dinner, no one came to pick up my dishes, so I had to put them aside the window.
Seatbelt in 61B would not work. Bathroom indicator light worked intermittently. A man waited 15 minutes in the aisle because the occupied light was on, but no one was in the bathroom Line formed — then someone noticed the door was not locked and it was not one of the BA employees. No water bottles distributed — had to get up and ask employee for a bottle of water on this long flight. She was sitting down busy putting makeup on, so pointed to the bottle. I always thought BA had a good reputation, but not now.

I had a very nice flight with BA Zurich-​London. Smooth, clean, new plane… i would fly with them again.

I recommend flying any other airline than British Airways. The fare looks reasonable until you get to where you have to BUY your seat! Plus, if you have to cancel your flight (in my case a meeting was cancelled) they won’t issue a voucher or a refund. I cancelled my flight six weeks in advance and they refunded $ 140.95 of a $ 1003.95 ticket! And, WON’T issue a voucher. I will never fly British Airways, they are so greedy.

Spent almost $ 10,000 USD on Business Class tickets from DEN to LHR to BGO to catch luxury 15 day Viking Star Cruise. BA LOST our luggage for 10 days coming from LHR to BGO. They DO NOT answer their email, phones etc. Long lines, poor, small, old, narrow, business class seats. Ran out of ice on way back and stewardess would not get any more, I had to walk down the stairs and over to first and get a bucket and then she got snarky when I came back up and walked by her with a NICE BIG COLD bucket of ICE. You know us large bottom Americans, we must have lots of ice!
Their business class seats FORCE you to take off flying backwards, very unnerving. And you have to stare into the face of strangers if not with family. These seats also, if you are on the inside, force you to have to move your seat mate’s feet out of the way to use the loo in the middle of the night.
Fly Virgin or Emirates or someone else who appreciates $ 10,000 USD ticket spend. I got a $ 499 economy class experience all the way. Their 747’s are run down on the inside. Better to fly to LGA and catch Virgin and get a newer plane and nicer crew.
Lived out of our carry on for 10 of the 15 days of our $ 30,000 cruise thanks to BA indifference. All of the europeans said «oh, BA, they lose luggage all the time».
Also, DO NOT believe their «Avios» propaganda. I paid $ 10,000 USD full-​fare business class. We were on 2^nd floor of 747, of 20 seats up there, only 4 were sold. The business class on the main floor was also ²⁄₃ empty. Where were all of the «Avios» upgrades? I called BA every day for the 14 days right up to the morning of take off and was told «no seats are available». Avios is fraud. I have 110,000 points that are useless.
And, BA on hold music on the phone is awful-​that twingy twangy nasty tone. They would be better off leaving the phone on blank until someone answers, which they never do. I have no «status» with BA and had to wait over an hour for someone to answer the phone, the fact that I walked in off the street and dropped full fare $ 10,000USD for the tickets meant nothing.
I am sorry to have nothing good to say about this airline, if I was in a $ 499 economy seat I would be a lot more forgiving, but $ 10,000USD full fare business will get you a lot more on other airlines.

Been on hold for 15 minutes and counting. They make it impossible to book award flights. Sure– they offer you the world with massive promotions with big #s like 100,000 award points if you do X.
Problem is — you can’t book ANY USA award travel on line (if you can even figure out how to use their site and then actually trust the ‘lack of’ information… and then if you call on the phone to book they leave you on hold forever, charge you more because you called in — even though you have no choice — and still can’t ‘find’ you a flight.
A waste of my time and I’m so disappointed in BA.

Worst carrier ever. Literally. I flew Lufthansa and Air France before, and steered clear of BA (instinctively), but this time I allowed myself to be persuaded. against my instincts…
1. Both flights (SFO to Barcelona and Barcelona — SFO thru Heatrow) were late. I think if BA by some miracle is on time (never seen it on time) they just sit there for an hour. Just to piss people off. so late — 100%.
2. Both flights my luggage did not arrive. Thats right! 2 out of 2! I mean I been flying for 20 years and this is absolutely the FIRST time (twice in a row) when my luggage was lost. Both courtesy of BA.
3. In Barcelona clerk told me to send the bills (and go shopping). She said BA will reimburse me for out of pocket expenses. Well, once I tried to get reimbursement. I heard a different story. So not only those people can’t operate an airline. they are also liars.
4. Heatrow is single worst airport in the world. Yes, I am counting strips of dirt in equatorial Africa. There are very good airports, where to transfer on nations carrier, all you have to do is a short walk between gates. There are slightly worse airports where the walk is longer. There is a normal airport, where to get a transfer you need to take a short ride on a bus or a train…
And then of course, there is Heatrow. Designed by a sadist… first you need to take a LONG unpleasant walk to the «train». Train takes you to a BUS! Then you wait for the bus! Then bus takes you to another walk! Then you walk to another train!
You think 4 hour layover is enough to transfer from one BA flight to another? Think again. First you are lucky if your flight is only 2 hours late. Then the whole ordeal with transfers and second security check takes at least 1.5 hours. So no… if your connecting flight would have left on time, that 4 hour wouldn’t be enough… however if you are flying BA, the connecting flight will be 2 hours late anyways. And yes, they don’t post gate numbers and «late» for other terminals. so after running like a madman, trying to make your flight. you arrive to correct terminal to see that your connecting flight is going to be delayed for 2 hours…
Yup, and did I mentioned out of 2 flights they lost my luggage twice?
Remember, FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS FLY BRITISH AIRWAYS!!!

Do not book with British airways. They have the worst customer service ever. They will tell you they have charged your card, but they won’t until you are right about to leave, which can really screw your savings. Even though multiple people from the airlines will have told you they have charged you, and it shows up on your bank statement, they will refund the money and charger at a later date. Do not book with them. They will do nothing to make it better and will treat you like a jerk the whole entire time

After seeing nothing cheaper than $ 1800 for flights to Paris flying around mid-​June, we found a reasonable fare via Kayak on British Airways on their SFO-​LHR flight. We’re like that’s great. Why not see London too after a couple of weeks in France? However, our fare of around $ 1350 each quickly ballooned when we had to add the fee we had to pay for «choosing» our seats for each segment. We ended up having to pay $ 90 for SFO to LHR seat assignments, and $ 120 for LHR-​SFO. Granted, it was still cheaper than buying a plane ticket to Paris, but it would have been nice to have known about this before buying our tickets. Moreover, I have not had the experience of EVER having to pay for seat assignments on international flights. We fly on an international flight every year, and this is the first time I’ve ever had to pay to choose my seat in Coach/​Economy.
Luckily, our flights to and from London went smoothly. No delays or problems with lost luggage. Service on board was just okay, more like the kind you receive on American than Asian airlines. It’d be nice to get smiles once in a while. Six months previous, we flew ANA to Asia, and service was very good.
Food and drinks are only served at the beginning of the 9 – 10 hour flight and again at the end. In between flight attendants come by maybe every couple of hours offering water or juices to passengers. I don’t think that’s often enough, considering how dry it is in the plane. We did fill up my Cal water bottle before departing, but we quickly exhausted that a few hours into the flight. I had to send my husband to the galley to fetch some water and a snack. On Singapore Airlines, they come by with snacks (ice cream, candy bars, crackers, etc.) in between meals! On BA the food’s not very good too. On the way to London, I had a mushy Chicken dish with veggies and coming back, I declined the meal since I brought a sandwich and snacks with me on board. But really, they need to provide more water!
Just a warning though, if you’re at Heathrow, make sure you head to your gate at least 45 minutes before your plane’s departure time. You have to take a train to your gate and walk. You don’t want to miss your flight! There is a small duty free shop and a Starbucks by the gate, so you can grab gifts and coffee there respectively. Thank God the person who checked in our luggage told us this important detail!

$ 750 taxes and fees for an award ticket from Chicago to Athens?..
Bunch of crooked robbers!

Never using BA again. No pre-​assigned seating unless you pay $ 45 per person per flight? What are you, RyanAir? CheapoJet?
W

Went to Santorini in December as a anniversary present from my Boyfriend and British Airways ruined my trip as well. They delayed my baggage for the ENTIRE trip. Not to mention Santorini shops are closed in December because it’s the off season so I couldn’t buy ANYTHING. Talk about most horrible trip of my life. & I tried to talking with customer relations and all I get is «I’m sorry». No compensation for when I arrived in Athens or after my travels. Well British Airways I am sorry that I spent thousands of dollars with you and cannot get the minimal customer service people deserve.

If you want to make a donation to BA, then book a business class round trip ticket on a fairly long ride with miserable flight attendants. Was traveling over holiday and was unable to make my flight due to circumstances out of my control, asked BA to have sympathy and let me on a flight later that day or week. They agreed but for the price of a a brand new ticket, almost $ 10,000! This company simply does not care about you, they are money hungry mongrels. Stranded in a country I CANNOT COMMUNICATE IN, I was forced to book with another airline.
Scoreboard: BA — 1 and Customer — 0.
My advice, fly Singapore airlines!
P. S. BA, YOU SUCK!

Never thought I’d review an airline on Unilocal but here goes.
Planned a vacation to India and was super excited to fly British Airways — SFO-​LHR-​BOM. My wife and I bought a business class ticket and given that it was high season, it turned out to be pretty hefty 5 digit fare for both of us. Add to that, a $ 90 per person, per segment to choose our seats in advance ($ 720).
Our flight to LHR was good, we were on the upper deck. While my wife fit comfortably into her seat, I had a few challenges given that I was bigger than her. The two flight attendants were friendly, smiling and offered us good service. The segment from LHR to BOM was on a 777 which seemed more crowded and the flight staff seemed angry right through out.
So why the 1 star review?
Firstly, if there was a 0 or negative star option on Unilocal,BA, you’d get it! Now that we have that out of the way —
I missed my flight from Bombay to LHR — We arrived at 2:45PM instead of 2:45AM, were not even close. But it was a genuine mistake — it happens when your timezone is off by 12.5 hours. BA sent me a reminder on my outbound from SFO-​LHR, but none from BOM-​LHR. It would certainly have been helpful to get a reminder. There was no one at the airport to help us out (and there was a BA flight about to leave) which was odd, so I went back to the hotel and called their office. To my horror, they said we missed our flight and was considered a no show — hence we had to forfeit the entire ticket and that was apparently a strict policy (BA, learn from Singapore, Cathay, Emirates etc, they help when their passengers are in trouble). What a load of crap, mistakes happen, people miss flights and you can make exceptions to help in situations like this. We paid an arm and a leg for this ticket. After calling them multiple times and after getting disconnected each time due their pathetic phone systems in India (they don’t have an ability to call you back either), they said «OK, after talking to our manager and because of our deep concern for your situation, we have decided to rebook you, even though this is against our policy»
They offered to waive the $ 100 re-​book fee (gee thanks) and put me on a flight 7 days later at a cost of $ 7,000! After arguing like hell, the service rep told me to book myself on another flight if I did not like the option, yuck!
Long story short, we were stranded in India with no forgiveness on a fully paid business class fare.
Being sickened by this highway robbery, we chose to book ourselves on Cathay Pacific on a business class fare for much cheaper than the immensely helpful — NOT!!! — British Airways option.
The service on Cathay was incredible!!! I thought British Airways had good inflight service, Cathay blew them away. The staff was friendly, seats were wide, the configuration was private unlike BA’s alternating seats, their TV screens were new and big (BA had antiquated screens) and the food delicious! Not only that, they sent me text messages in BOM and HKG reminding me of my departure times.
British Airways — listen up, you lost a life time customer on a stupid technicality. We found an airline that was far superior to yours (we would have flown with you again had you just put us on the next flight and not help us discover a better product). Dumb move on your part, we’ll never fly with BA again. Also, not everyone can afford to buy themselves a new ticket — it was a rotten thing for you to do.
Oh and BTW, thank you for refunding the $ 175 in unused taxes, it really makes up for everything else you did to screw us over.

BA used to be amazing when I was a child 20+ years ago. Well, things change. Their rewards program and Visa rewards program are useless.
It costs 100,000 points to travel from the U.S. to Asia. Taxes are $ 350. But BA charges $ 500-​$ 600 as their ‘carrier’ fee. So a so-​called free ticket costs $ 850-​$ 950 dollars. I could purchase the same ticket on Air France or Lufthansa or several other airlines for $ 1,150.
BA’s credit card program supposedly rewards you if you spend $ 30,000 in a calendar year by providing you a complimentary companion ticket good for 18months. Well, after paying the taxes and ‘carrier’ fees and being forced to pay for your own ticket on BA (which is a couple hundred more than the other good brand airlines), it’s the same as purchasing 2 airline tickets yourself. Instead of paying $ 100 for this credit card, you’re better off getting some other credit card and racking up rewards somewhere else.
BAs rewards program is no reward at all. It’s a misnomer meant to trick you.
DON’T BE FOOLED! Stick with the other European, Japanese, Taiwanese brand airlines.

I had an 8 day trip to London planned months in advance. To get there, I would first fly with Air Berlin and transfer at Tegel to British Airways. Unfortunately the transfer time was short and they must not have had the time to transfer my bag despite me having boarded the plane. After I arrived at Heathrow and realized my bag was lost, I filled out a report and left without being given any compensation.
For the next 8 days, I became increasingly frustrated by the complete lack of efficiency and knowledge of how to do their jobs. It was not until the fifth day when the man I spoke with at the baggage tracing office even told me where my bag was. It turns out that my bag had been sitting at Tegel undisturbed for my entire trip. There had been no effort made to send it on a new flight. I had spent the first few days still hopeful and only buying bare minimum but by the fifth day I went out and bought all the things I should have bought on the very first day. I guess I just really didn’t think an airline like British Airways would so blatantly not care. At all.
At the end of my London trip I headed to Tegel for my 4 day trip to Berlin. Once there I was informed that the situation with my bag was not handled because no one would accept responsibility for dealing with the bags and sending them forward to their owners. So while I was crying by myself from sheer anger and frustration, they were literally doing nothing.
I have been trying to send the Baggage Compensation Form for the past week. Unfortunately, every time I try and fill it out, an error box appears at the top without any clue as to WHAT was filled out incorrectly (though to the best of my knowledge it is all correct). Every time I have attempted to call Customer Relations they have hung up on me! I sent Customer Relations an email and they put me on their long line of complaints. It is impossible to get in touch with anyone on their side and when I have had the joy of hearing someone on the other side I was met with impatience, ambivalence and downright rudeness (one operator very snarkily told me to calm down despite me having been separated from my baggage for over half my trip).
At this point, British Airways will have ruined my trip, forced me to buy necessary clothing, toiletries and other necessities that would have otherwise been unneccessary had I had my bag and now I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to send the Compensation Form because I can’t get in touch with Customer Relations. It infuriates me that they can have such a blatant disregard for their passengers and not be penalized for it. More than that, the money I need back is pennies to them but a big chunk for me.