Just taken 4 BA flights in 36 hours, all of which were delayed between one and three hours, and having finally arrived back at Manchester at half eleven last night I was told my bags were in Sweden.

Other business travellers on the plane said this was pretty standard for BA.

Do they practice at being so useless?

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 especially 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

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

Is this the publicity shot for the new RyanAir additional charge of £2 to wear your pyjamas on the flight?

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?