[Closed] British Airways- are they the sh***est airline ever?

Never had a problem on B.A. the planes have been a bit threadbare but always found the stewardesses really good.

I've had problems on most major airlines. I've also had some really good experiences with most major airlines (mainly as a result of particular staff).

But yeah, BA can be a pain. Problem is, some people still view BA as a premium airline so their expectations are higher, and therefore they are more frustrated when things go wrong.

No, Garuda are the sh***est airline ever, closely followed by Air Chance and United

Yes, BA are snotty and no better than any other airline. My colleagues and I always avoid BA because they are the most expensive of all the airlines for any route. They have the arrogant attitude that they are the best and they hope that by charging too much for tickets, at least some of the public will believe their service is better.

Having flown Air China, Air Transat, Air Canada, Continental, Ethiopian Airways, KLM, Air France I can catagorically state that BA are not the worst airline. Not even close.

I'm not saying they are perfect but in my experience when things do go wrong they are much better than anyone else at getting them sorted.

I've a trip coming up in a couple of weeks which means flying BA to Rome, then Alitalia to Moscow then Aeroflot to Paris and BA back to London.
Are BA the worst of those 3? Anyone who thinks BA are the worst airline around can't have travelled with some of the carriers I've flown with.

Always been good on BA especially when things go wrong.

Ryan air would have just given you your money back and left you there

All airlines are subject to a raft of things going wrong from aircraft faults to weather issues. Having done over 1000 flights over the last 15 years my experience is that BA are about the best of the bunch. Their timeliness record is not good mainly because their key hub is Heathrow which is just too busy for its runways.

If you want surly staff and poor service you should try Air France, Iberia, TAP, Ryanair or any of the American airlines. IME SAS and KLM are not that great either. Lufthansa are pretty efficient, but are a nightmare if anything goes wrong.

To the point on pricing, if BA prices are higher than other airlines on the same route, don't complain about them, just book with the cheaper carrier

Always been good on BA [b][u]especially [/u][/b]when things go wrong.

Agreed. I fly rather too much, and most of it is on BA for that very reason. Always been very impressed with BA, except the temperature of the port, that is. Always a little too chilled for my taste. 😉

it's all relative, and BA are by far not the shittest
each of your problems: delays and losing luggage, are probably not the fault of the carrier

*phew*

flying with BA for our honeymoon and was getting worried for a bit then!

Air France seem to be the world champions at losing luggage (or CdG/Orly airport handlers).
Mine is running at 25% of flights with them. Within the group I flew to Cayenne with on a few occasions, at least 1 person would have bags not arrive on at least one leg.
99% of bags are reunited within 24 hours they say, which is why mine not arriving at 16:30 on a Saturday were delivered by UPS at 11:30 the next Thursday.

BA - one of the better ones, but not as good as Lufthansa and Swiss IME.
Alitalia Airbus A300 was the one where I thought I was going to die.

BA average at best but most of their competitors are the same, or worse
For excellence try Singapore, Gulf Air or Emirates. I believe that Korean Air are fab too but non of these guys do short haul which seems to be the source of most complaints

BTW stuff like missing bags is down to the local handling company who just employ people on low wages, so they really don't give a toss if they lose or break 1 bag out of the 3000 they've moved that day

Edit: Re Air France at Charles de Gaulle, they really are as bad as their press, been to Paris too many times to recall but they really are rubbish. CdG also has a deserved reputation for items being nicked from bags prior to arriving on the carousel. AF attitude is if it's valuable you won't put it in the hold. Magical levels of service

Are any of those complaints really BA's fault?

Delay will surely be down to the local airports running, & baggage down to the airport luggage system....

Now if the delay were due to faults on the planes, I could understand your complaints, but otherwise...

Never had any real problems with BA and wherever possible I always use them, especially if I'm taking a bike. Never any trouble, bike always arrived safe and sound although I'm tempting fate there as I'm taking a one to Italy tomorrow. I don't even find them that expensive, particularly if you're taking luggage.
Sometimes you have to be philosophical about delays, I was delayed for two hours last month due to bad weather conditions over London. I didn't want to be sat on a stationary aeroplane for that long but its a long way from the worst thing that could happen.

I flew on Thomson t'other week. We were delayed due to a mechanical problem which was fixed on the apron. The captain explained as best he could what was wrong (in small words for the passengers) and why we weren't going anywhere until he was satisfied all was well. It was very reassuring. I thought he handled it very well but it didn't stop the muppetts moaning that they'd lost an hour of their holiday

BA are far from the worst in my experience. Do regular long haul flights and have tried KLM, Cathay Pacific, Air France and Finnair. Will never stray from BA again...

Go on a flight with Thompson, Monarch, Easyjet et al and you'll never moan about BA again!

I thought Ryanair were happy to hold this title, charge nothing, treat your customers like poo and watch the greedy little peppets come back for more.
BA have always been excellent, laying on transport between terminals, or excellent in dealing with problems, putting people up in hotels for a few hours.

Now United are shit!

We flew to Vancouver with KLM in March, out on a KLM flight which was spot on but then it was a codeshare on the way back so was United, which were truely rubbish. Poor service, poor food and rubbish TV!

Flew BA to Boston in December last year, while they did have a few problems with the entertainment the rest of the flight was great, staff really friendly and kept giving us bottles of wine to make up for the broken telly. Food was good too.

Emirates was the best though when we flew with them to Cape Town via Dubai 2 years ago.

For short haul there's very little difference in the whole experience with most airlines. You get there +/-1hr and all is well.
It's when things go wrong that the differences between airlines is apparent.
BA (like most of the big companies) systematically overbook flights as people with flexible tickets can change their plans. This has had me sleeping at airport hotels a few times when I didn't want to. Not nice.

Also, Jet2 seem to slip under the radar as they are really, really poor but they don't have an annoying self-publicising idiot chairman

+1 for emirates, if you can cope with curry for every meal

Also, Jet2 seem to slip under the radar as they are really, really poor but they don't have an annoying self-publicising idiot chairman

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BA are pretty good. My airline of choice for flights to Europe, US and Middle East. Number 1 to Asia is Singapore Airlines which does put every other airline in the shade.

I had try to blot Geruda out of my memory, I was a wide eyed innocent going to Australia on a bunch of tickets I had bought from a man in Earls Court. Aeroflot out of London to Moscow hysterical doesnt cover it. Aeroflot to Singapore via India 😯 on that flight I think I was the only westerner. Singapore to Jakarta on Geruda. Honestly thought I was going to die utter chaos and then on to Perth. I loved every second of it, in hindsight it was awful but it was a great adventure 😆

jota180 - Member

I do at least 4 trips a month and if its my choice (which it generally is) its either BA or Virgin.

BA's timekeeping can be a bit rough but as others have said, all airlines can and do run into issues. Its not about the problem, its about how they deal with it.

I should add all delays were due to mechanical issues; I appreciate the baggage issue is down to ground staff but ultimately my contract is with BA.

If a customer approached my company with a fault in a product I wouldn't refer them to the components company in Taiwan I' d deal with it as its my company they bought the the product from.

At every point I dealt with a BA member of ground staff they seemed genuinely disinterested and pretty much suggested I MTFU as s**t happens.

That doesn't change the fact that I missed the meeting I flew to attend and have returned without the info I need for meetings today.

A bag here and an hour there may not be much to them but when businesses rely on timely service this incident has effectively lost them our custom in the UK, when I told them this on the phone this morning they said " your choice Sir".

Possibly the most arrogant response I've had from someone who should actually be trying to Smooth the situation out.

BA lost my bags a few years ago in the first week of Decmeber on a return flight from the US, which contained all my xmas pressies in as well

Got reimbursed for everything I had a reciept for (all purchased on company credit card so no problem) present wise (didn't get taxed either which was nice) and claimed for two weeks worth of work clothes inc 2 suits, 2 jackets (smart and casual), 3 pairs of shoes\trainers and various other bits.

Got my cash with no problems, and had the luggage arrive unannounced on the 23rd of xmas which meant double pressies for everyone !!! BA didn't want any money or items back either.

The staff at the airport were shocking, however everything else was handled very efficiently

(I did notice that the two yank pron mags had pages removed which I thought odd but wasn't going to worry about in the grand scheme of things)

I hate flying with BA.

Before you've even got anywhere near the airport he starts saying "I ain't gettin' on no plane, fool".

The receipts is going to be an issue, I tend not to keep them for clothes; did they want receipts for everything?

BA are not the best but definately not the worst and they do help you if you with problems not like the Luttwaffe or other carriers, of late Allitalia get my vote absolutely gash, American airlines are poor especially internal flights, picture the Yorkshire Airlines on youtube sketch and you get the picture.

Emerates or Singapore are without doubt very good.

I'd fly BA/Virgin over United any day of the week, they really are the most unhelpful bunch of prats I've ever experienced.

It's not just the fact that i was stuck in Frankfurt airport for hours on end on both legs of my journey but they swapped the gates for the flight.

There must have been 10+ groups of Chinese travellers coming up to the gate and asking the bloke where the flight for Beijing was now boarding, now despite KNOWING which gate that was now departing from he directed every single one of them back up to the concourse to look at the screens themselves and basically treating customers with derision. Prick.

BA the worst? - you've not flown much have you?

As someone who usually flies once a month, mostly from HK to Europe, the States, India, China and Singapore I would rank United high up there for poor service.
Last flight with them in June involved a 13 hour flight (HK to SanFran) on a plane with no personal entertainment system and they also managed to miss-lay my baggage.
I also avoid where possible BA (poor service/timekeeping), Iberia (goodbye Baggage/running out of fuel mid-flight and dropping off in another country!) and any Indian airline on a flight longer than 4 hours.
Where possible I fly Cathay, Air New Zealand and Emirates.

Never had a problem with BA.

If you want bad you should have tried PanAm back in the day, they really were CRAP.

Eight BA flights in the last year. All close to timetable. No issues with accepting my bike or any damage to it. One time my bike didn't make the connecting flight on the way home - only 40 minutes to change at Heathrow. Spoke to BA staff at the airport and it arrived at the house by courier the next day.

All their staff have been good. I can't fault them.

I mostly fly KLM for work who have always been perfect, in fact I've never had a problem with Jet 2 who most people slate; it just seems ever time I get on BA flight something goes tits up and Heathrow is always involved.

I deal with airlines every day at work and I can easily say that BA are nowhere near the worst one. One of the best, in my experience, is Virgin. Always helpful and better looking cabin crew 😆

If you're flying from Heathrow, you can almost guarantee that any airline that uses Terminal 4 is crap.

I choose BA for transatlantic when it's not too expensive. The staff are always really nice and helpful, unlike many of their competitors on our route. And the planes are better. Never been seriously delayed, bike bag was "lost" twice (subsequently found out that oversized bags are prone to this because of space constraints) and they had it on the next flight a few hours later and couriered it immediately to my final destination three hours drive away, arriving at about 1am!

Can't really complain about that. American Airlines are much much worse.

You do realise that delays are often not the airline's fault, don't you?

If you think BA are bad then try Wizz Air from Luton. Truly terrible.

BA isn't the worst, but their fantastically arrogant snotty cabin staff are infuriating.

At least with Wizz Air and stuff, you don't expect anything more than transport.

All airlines have been picking up delays today due to thunderstorms over Europe. BA is no exception.

AS above, do BA have issues occasionally? Yes.

Are they the worst? Not by a long way!

Unfortunately nothing is going to pacify me at the moment with my things missing and business affected; this could have been dealt with well at every point with decent communication and that is where they've failed, all I can take from my experience is that the staff seemed to think the 4 hour cut off before compensatory mechanisms kick in meant they could do sweet FA about the situation until that threshold was reached.

Lufthansa - booked a flight, but not seat. Checked on seatguru, then tried to book preferred seat. Flight cancelled. Oh good, you let me book myself on a flight that had been cancelled? Called the call centre where they let me book my preferred seat on the flight that had been cancelled before I asked them to check the status of the flight, then they told it it was cancelled and actually my booking and been transferred to another flight (operated by a different airline), leaving 20 minutes earlier.
Return flight from Portland changed to Seattle - did they tell me, did they fk. I only found out because I was advised to check "because somethimes they do that".

Not the worst by far in my experience, on an internal flight in Poland once the back of my seat fell off. I showed the stewardess and she just rolled her eyes! On another small flight in Nepal I was sat next to a chicken, that was actually a pretty good flight though, had extra room as a result. Worst flight ever was with an airline called Zoom, think they may be out of business now? The most uncomfortable 8 hours of my life do far sweating it out like cattle over the Atlantic.

Worst flight ever was with an airline called Zoom, think they may be out of business now?

Wow now I remember Zoom....

Sh*t food, plane that could have been in a museum, TV out the roof showing the Sat afternoon version of Die Hard 4 (more roll over quietly), undrinkable wine.

When I travelled long haul for a living I used to like BA. There was something comforting about the service. Once you sat down you knew you were going home.

KLM on the other hand... once you were in your (small, hard) seat you knew you were in for a miserable 14 hours.

Jet2 deserve a special mention for being shit.

All in a very nice experience, nice staff, sensible policies good flight times etc but...

They don't seem to have enough planes which leads to flights regulalry being delayed by 10 hours or more while the figure out how to find a plane to use.

Bangladesh Biman, where a woman tried to light a kerosene stove in the aisle to cook lunch for her family.
Sudan Air, where the Norwegian pilot was visibly drunk.
Aeroflot, where I genuinely thought I was going to die as bits fell off the plane.

On the up side, I once got upgraded to 1st class on Lufthansa. That was a taste of luxury never to be forgotten.

In defence of Air France, apart from their under-trained pilots killing a lot of passengers in the south Atlantic about three years ago I've never had any bad problem with them; have been using them for Manchester to Africa for years because the prices used to be good and they arrive earliest of all the major airlines into Lagos. I think they've lost my bags about three times but they'e always arrived the next day. The food is good and the seats OK, especially on the A380 they use for Johannesburg.

If you want BAD try some of the African airlines. Kenya Airways and Ethiopian aren't too bad but the rest.....

When I travelled long haul for a living

That sounds like a pretty cool job.

I have to fly long haul for work, but it's not my actual job.

If you want surly staff and poor service you should try Air France, Iberia, TAP

F***sticks, flying TAP for the first time in a couple of weeks, are they that bad?

rogg - Member

If you want surly staff and poor service you should try Air France, Iberia, TAP

F***sticks, flying TAP for the first time in a couple of weeks, are they that bad?

I worked on a project in Porto for 7 months and had to use TAP 10 times, Take-Another-Plane was our final verdict.
Not one of the flights even went on its original route!!!

I've flown around 100 flights with BA in the last year, who I try to stick with. I do fly with some other airlines. Longhaul transatlantic to Detroit (their hub) United are terrible. No seatback or overhead TVs on a 10hr flight! I was Ok with my kindle but some of the families on board were less than amused.

East China airlines and a few internal Chinese airlines have been interesting. BA might not be the best but are are miles away from the worst.

BA average at best but most of their competitors are the same, or worse

I think you might want to re-check your calculations there.

any internal flight in ukraine

aerozvit or UIA both flag carriers both nauseus from the AVgas in the passenger cabin for the whole flight

That doesn't change the fact that I missed the meeting I flew to attend and have returned without the info I need for meetings today.

Man - if I were that important, I'd give myself a little more time to make sure of things.

..or use the flight time to learn a bit about video/teleconferencing

None of the above even come close to Trans Air Congo, TAAG (Angola) and First Naition Airways (Nigeria), Until you have experienced these or any other west African airline I have had the displeasure of stop complaining!

Neither the worst (by a long shot) nor the best (by a smaller margin).

Losing their premium brand IMO due to dirty cabins and boring food. Still refreshing to get on a BA plane in a distant land. Makes ou feel that you are almost home as soon as you get on board.

Generation thing: Branson's flying porn palaces vs BAs starch and formality!!

The bucket and spade (holiday) airlines are often the worst and you usually don't get much choice on who you can fly with with package holidays.

We go to Boston at least once a year and generally prefer the Virgin planes and crew. Unfortunately they fly out of T3 which is a bun fight dump so the sheer convenience of T5 often gives BA the edge. Never had a prob with BA but they can be a bit more snooty.

Best planes / airline we've flown has been Emirates, with Garuda the worst; - never a good sign seeing the stewies cross themselves on final.

The bucket and spade (holiday) airlines are often the worst

Iraqi Air out of Baghdad. They missed the runway at Dubai airport. I've never been as worried on a flight before, and that includes the C130 I was in that got a mag of AK fire through the wing on my connecting flight in Tikrit.

Despite all of that, for general shityness Turkish take some beating, along with Royal Jordanian.

When I travelled long haul for a living

It wasn't, a paper mill is a shit hole wherever in the world it is.

I think you might want to re-check your calculations there.

to get on a BA plane in a distant land [m]akes you feel that you are almost home as soon as you get on board.