How Bad Is It at British Airways?

British airways is ok, but their customer service sucks! I would say the aircraft is only better than Air India but customer service is worst than any other. They are rude and racist. My husband and I had a very bad time dealing with the staff, many of them. I have traveled many international airlines and was always well respected.

I recently flew from Heathrow to Manchester. Flight time 35 minutes. They served free food and beverages. It was totally unnecessary for a flight of that duration. It was money down the drain. They need to cut back and start charging for everything, unfortunately.

BA sucks anyway...it's better if it dies. Having London as the hub is the major problem for international flights for BA. For example if flying BA from say Hongkong/Sanghai/New Delhi to say New York:

1) You pay transit fee of between $100-$250 just for transiting London. The question is, who asked you to fly to London and pay that extra? Compare that to travelling local internationl airlines or Middle Eastern airlines a lot cheaper and less transit fees.

2) In transit you all always lose luggage. BA is notorious for misplaced luggage. No wonder why those union Brits at Heathrow have more strikes and less focus on work.

and 3) The air hostess are horrible and they don't accomdate you unless you have a British accent...good luck with that...forget it if you don't know English. They look at you like you are some kind of a non-Brit, non-English speaking alien of some sort...

I used to love BA but now anymore...good luck BA, go Virgin.

BA would be better off helping Americans use health tourism providers, and set up routes to low-cost health providers around the world. America spends 14% of its GDP on health--and it's climbing--compared to 8% or so in other countries. There can be huge savings, for operations, 50%-80%. There are growing providers...Google "health tourism usa savings." Having regular flights to hospital destinations would help doctors and patients--including the uninsured, who could benefit.

Customer service says nothing when the food is crap. Despite Qatar Airways' 5 stars, I had a total nightmare when my stomach was killing me for over 5 hours last month. Though this CEO talks crap. He would be committed if he would turn down at least half his salary. Oh wait, he got a $5mn mortgage and two kids who go to college. Right.

The problem with BA is the poor customer service. Flight attendants are just not polite enough!

I've flown BA from London to the continent a few times as well as from London to Bangalore on multiple occasions. Each time I've found staff to be great, polite, and on the ball.

The shorthaul planes are a bit old but akin to what you would be on in the USA on the same flight. The longhaul was very comfortable, new and I'd do it again with them in a heartbeat (assuming they live).

BA sucks on all counts. I had really bad experience with this company. It is so funny how well they are organized when it comes to selling the tickets, but customer service is really bad. I sent a 2-page long email through their website facility to complain how they handled my lost baggage and trouble my family had in getting to the intended destination. My email NEVER got answered. It just went into the void.

I think BA had so many complaints that they just started to ignore people's voice.

Venki.boy,

It is your choice to transit through London onto the USA, so why should you be exempt from the airport fees that the BAA charge you not BA! You obviously have not travelled through the new T5, where bags now arrive at the belt before you do. It was a mess when it first opened but that was a long time ago and those problems have all been ironed out.

I find that most people who complain about others (or companies) for being racist are normally racist themself! Most BA cabin crew speak another language or two other than English. This comment also applies to NAMS...use the race card excuse!

Recent transit of Heathrow confirmed to me that the place should be avoided for many reasons, not the least being the attitude of the staff there. Avoid at all costs!!

I am Indian, speak English with an Indian accent, and have flown BA and continue to fly with them because of their Indian air hostesses. They are pretty and professional. Yes there are some of the English ones who are snobbish, but not all. I am treated without discrimination.

Winge winge winge... thats all you Brits can do, You should be PROUD of your FLAG carrier! Yes they do have faults, but they are only human! If you are not happy, walk next time! Loosers!

I have travelled the world with many airlines even the supposed best Emirates and I must say that BA beats them all hands down yes they have problems but all big compaines do.Knocking BA has become a British pastime but then again the Brits always knock the succesful.I hope BA survive as they in my view are the best.

I'm proud to be working for BA - 20 years so far, over the last ten years the company has made huge profits rising to 900million last year. The big change this year being FUEL - which was bought (hedged) at the top of the oil price - increasing the fuel bill by 1 billion. Other airlines 'hedged' more successfully.
I'm astounded to read the comments that staff are racist/snobbish, it's not what I see everyday on board. Generally Crew are the most caring individuals - of course there are exceptions. I'm still smiling and warmly greeting everyone as they board - even though 60% ignore me. I'm still trying to do the best job I can under the worrying conditions. Still PROUD to 'fly' for BA!

Venki boy, I agree with you on all counts about your complaints for BA, but you mean English accent not British. Great Britain consists of four countries so that would be a very strange accent to have and does not exist.

I find BA generally an excellent airline airside. I've flown maybe 20 times in CW the last 25 years with few problems. The test of any airline though is how they handle the problems and on this BA is one of the worst.
Telephone customer service both in the UK and the USA is usually very polite and cover all the right points but in reality have no authority to actually fix anything. Groundside staff is in the same situation.
In the event you actually have a really big problem...well good luck. You hear really nice words of condolence but no one does anything. If you escalate it all the way to Willie, NOTHING not even a “sorry”.

Well I'm a british asian and I love to fly BA and chose them over any other airline. Never had anyproblems with cabin/ ground crew. I did fly Virgin and it was APPALING - food was inedible and unrecognisable. Stewerdes was so rude. So I am voting with my wallet - I have 2 further trips planned and will make sure I fly BA.

Well I'm a British Asian and I love to fly BA and chose them over any other airline. Never had any problems with cabin/ground crew. I did fly Virgin and it was APPALLING--food was inedible and unrecognisable. The stewardesses were so rude. So I am voting with my wallet--I have two further trips planned and will make sure I fly BA.

I have flown with many of the worlds airlines, BA is one of if not the best airline in the world. Now they have Terminal 5 which has to be the best in the world, they have a major advantage.

Of course BA will survive there is no way the government would ever let it fail, and all of there competition including Air France/KLM lost over £400 million last year so they are not alone. What I dont get is why its taking so long for BA to hook up with Iberia. There european rivals seem able to merge way faster, look at Lufthansa buying Swiss, and part of Alitalia, and KLM having a total monopoly out of Amsterdam owing Transavia, and Martin Air how do they get away with it and BA is always penalised!?

Honestly! Some people on here just wanna get a life! Try flying with other airlines regularly and see what a mixed bag you get. It's not always great -- it's like life, when it goes well, it's great and it smells of roses, when it goes wrong, we bitch and moan and it smells of the brown stuff.

I hope they get through this! I've always had a soft spot for BA and anytime I've had problems (very few) they have been more than accomodating! Even when Qantas stuffed my flights up once, BA got me on a flight AND upgraded me.

My wife and I will be flying BA this weekend. It is my favorite airline and I wish them all the best. It speaks in their favor that they are trying to resolve their problems without a government handout. Other companies should pay attention! Thanks, BA!!!!

British Airways are reluctant to redeem air miles earned, they are stuffy unhelpful and not creative at all to assist you to use the earned miles - my opinion is that they do not want to let you use them at all and do not even care.

I'm British. Proud to be. But certainly not proud of our 'flag carrier'. My wife travelled with BA recently with our small baby. Took the pushchair/pram right up to the gate. Fine. On arrival however -- no pushchair. She had to get strangers to help with her bags and found the pushchair damaged on the carousel. Complained to BA and received emails saying sorry, but damage has to be reported in 7 days. That's it. BA don't care about passengers! Don't they realise that's where their revenue comes from?!?

I had really hard time in Hyderabad with hand luggage check in. They were just simply refusing to take my hand luggage which is 1 inch bigger then their specs. The ground crew was really making me pay $200 for regular size hand luggage, which by the way was allowed from SFO (US) Airport.

It was not just me but all other passengers were arguing with ground staff about the same problem.

The lot of them were with young infants. There is one guy named Vishal supposed to be Duty Manager, threatening to bump/cancel my ticket.

My problem with BA is, how can any large company make millions if not billions profit one year, then the following year get into so much financial problems that they have no money left? Surely any company that makes so much money should reinvest it within the airline so as to maintain a good and profitable company. If any other business fails to do this, it will end up on the scrap heap... Are the shareholders more important than the passengers? If so, "goodbye" British Airways. The time of your monopoly has been over for the last 7 years. Get a grip and face the real world.

2 reasons why this may be

A...they have to pay share holders all the profits they make and as such not put the money back into the business to improve and maintain good customer service and the good name it has or had.
or
B...BA bosses are monkeys and could not even run a monkey pen in chessington zoo

BA has some of the most highly paid staff members. I have friends that work for BA and they get immense amounts of sick leave and lots of vacation. These policies are too often abused. BA ought to look into changing some of these policies to control their costs. When a stewardess makes close to $100,000 (with all her perks and benefits)I'd say you have a problem because let's face it...you don't need a college degree to serve coffee and tea.

BA , used to be a good airline, but now it sucks. If i travel to HK, I rather go in cathay , always very attentive staff, excellent food, and clean and neat aircraft with excelent entertaiment system.Compared BA loks like third world airline. Have you flown lately on a good asian or middle eastern airline.? Most of them much better than BA and cheaper. one of the big problems of BA, their staff make too much money and work much less, this is a fact, whether they like it or not and they are cutting costs, making their service lousy. I used to fly BA`all the time, in my family we are 10 gold card holders, and we are all switching airlines.

After doing Internatinal travel using BA, I have vouched never to travel using BA. We have always travelled in Singapore/cathay but never had this problem.

I have lost all my baggages and there's absolutely no customer service... all automated service in U.S.A.
I would say avoid BA at any cost.

We just had 30 min to board another flight(transit) in Heathrow.

And haven't heard any thing about our baggage yet. The crew were rude including the security personnel. Do not use BA if you are travelling with kids.

I will never use BA again. I fly in and out from NYC to London using BA, thought they were great until a recent experience. Never in my years of flying have to deal with people that are so incompetent to the fact they make a donkey seem smart. I do not know what goes on in that HR department, but they need to fix it. Customer service is the worst. People who think this airline is great hasn't experience BA when things go wrong. I have had flown with many airlines that I did not have a good travel experience but the customer service was always great. BA was the first and if not only the airline I know that treat people with disrespect. They have official made it one of the worst day for me. And that takes a lot for someone who doesn't sweat the small stuff. How is it possible for someone to be a first/business class ticket holder and get bumped out of the flight after they are check in with baggage already in the aircraft and the flight hasn't even board? Oh because you need to be in security 45 minutes. and you can't be a second late. I was literally a half a minute late to go on a fast track lane which had no one on it and they said sorry you just been taken off the flight?!? How is that even possible... the flight hasn't even board yet and my luggage is on that flight. Not only did they not put me on another flight , they lost my luggage. I was stuck in london, with no flight, no luggage and was at the airport for 5 hours dealing with people who couldn't help me get on the flight or another flight nor find my luggage! I will never use BA again. I hope they go down, especially if they treat people like this. I am writing this because I really think people should be aware of customer service when choosing an airline. BA definitely takes the cake for being the worst!

Michelle, Great Britain has three countries not four. England, Scotland, and Wales.

If you are thinking of Northern Ireland as the fourth, it is not on the island of Great Britain, it is on the island of Ireland.

I have flown about 250,000 miles with BA, mostly long haul business class. I find the whole company has a snotty attitude. Their fleet is also quite old. I generally try to avoid it these days. I also agree it should be renamed London Airways.

"Venki boy, I agree with you on all counts about your complaints for BA, but you mean English accent not British. Great Britain consists of four countries so that would be a very strange accent to have and does not exist."