British Airways Reviews

The other Airline counter staff (Iceland Air) felt sorry for us and tried to help us. They asked us to leave the arrival area and go to the departure area to find one of the British Airways counter Staff to help us. We reached the departure area British Airways Counter and asked for help from Ms. **, we were surprised by the attitude of her, who told us that it was not her responsibility and failed to accept the fact that there was no British Airways staff at their arrival area counter. At last she took the complaint after repeated requests. I failed to understand why the British Airlines Counter did not have any staff to help customers while every other airlines had some one to help their valued customers.

When I called British Airways, customer care (so they say), the unhelpful agent said if I didn't buy my seat, then they can place us anywhere they have available. So I said I have no problem being placed anywhere as long as together, he said if you don't buy the seat that is not possible. Am shocked. Is it a normal practice now, that on top of paying for the flight ticket on British Airways, that to fly in dignity I have to pay extra for the seat too? What else?

BA have managed to lose a key piece of luggage too. Now expecting further 24-48hr delay to catch next flight as planes are apparently fully booked. British Airways employees had/have no idea what's happening at LHR or RSA airports and my 2 children are very tired and stressed as a result. Shambolic customer service at LHR and RSA airports. We will never use BA again! I don't think BA have done anything right so far.

I got a new boarding ticket with a seat number. The BA employee, looked at his watch, and told me to walk quickly to the terminal B42 for boarding. Which I did, but the distance was long and when I made it there, a lady refused to let me in, and said it is too late to board, and asked me to check that with the customer service. I went to the customer service again, and found there a very rude employee who didn't want to help or even to listen to me, and asked me to buy a one way ticket for tomorrow, which would have cost more than 1000 pounds, and when I refused because it exceed the price of my total original ticket, he told me this is all what he can do for me, and that I am responsible of myself in the airport.

A security guard tried to help me and intervened, but he got a same reply from this rude employee. I decided to return to the customer service where I got the seat number, and there at least I met a wonderful lady who tried to help me, but asked me to pay 270$ to change the date of my booking for tomorrow 5th July with American Airlines. I checked out my luggage and waited a long time to get it from the luggage service in London Heathrow. Beside that I had to pass the night in London, and had to pay the hotel, taxis, to and from the airport, and restaurants there. Apart from a lady working with British Airways in the Customer service, I got no help from this company at all.

I didn't do any mistake, I was on time in Geneva Airport, and walked quickly to reach my flight in Heathrow Airport, but the fact that I had to wait a long time to get a seat number in London and the long security checks and the change of terminals, were the cause of my last horrible journey. Now, I request BA to refund me all my expenses resulting from my horrible journey, because they didn't assign me a seat number in Geneva, and caused my delay, as I had to wait for a long time before getting my seat number, and then lost time and was unable to catch my flight to New York. For a people transiting with BA, through Heathrow airport, think twice... My flight reference is: **.

Is it surprising that I am HUGELY unimpressed by 3 things 1. the additional charge by BA when all the work is by me and on-line and BA can re-sell my Friday flight; 2. the time I spent going around in circles, online, to end up with nothing and having to phone Customer Services; and 3. the time it takes to get through to Customer Services who, clearly, are insufficiently staffed, over-worked and with limited capacity to really help. BA - you are in serious need of a makeover and self-examination to have customers, such as I, consider using you again and not tell everyone to avoid you and write reviews such as this.

Flight departure board noted "delayed" therefore I decided to go into the lounge and wait. BA Lounge Agents actually denied access to paying Club passengers to one of the lounges; the other was accessible as the staff were too busy to check status of customers entering the lounge. About 1630-1700 BA made the announcement all flights are cancelled, passengers were to leave the lounge/airport and left to their own devices. This created another disaster as all passengers were required to clear immigration reentering/entering the United Kingdom. Thousands of people were locked into the transit area of T5 for another 2 hours before immigration officers allowed us to exit! Nobody could leave as the immigrations service did not have the manpower to repatriate the stranded passengers.

Finding hotel accommodation when all hotels were overbooked at this point along with car services. Not to mention no baggage and no first needs items offered to premier class passengers. Long story short, I incurred roughly USD $1,500.00 in hotel/car/first needs items. BA did absolutely nothing and still has not addressed two complaint files nor reimbursed my out of pocket expenses/EU cancellation fees etc. Had I not managed to reserve a flight on Swiss for the following day I would more than likely still be sitting at Heathrow without my baggage. Baggage arrived damaged and not repairable three days later. Disgraceful what happens when services are outsourced and staff treated like a number.

Ok, now what? There was no guidance from the ground staff. No plan of action, just a cancellation. I had already exited Germany as far as my password was concerned. I had to get the immigration officer to undo the exit stamp by signing and giving a reason why I did not leave Germany. Then I went to the BA check-in counter outside and they were closed. Went to ground services travel desk and all they could do was try to find a new flight and issue a new ticket and the only flight available was 2 days later at Euro 2,300. Not really an option for me. I called BA (International call for me, very expensive!) and they denied that the flight was cancelled and insisted that I was a no-show. After insisting that I was right and I have proof since I live in the real world and they are just looking at some computer screen, about 1 hour later they agreed that the flight was cancelled. Unbelievable!

The next course of action was to book me on the next possible flights. Which was next day 11:20 am. Everything was handled smoothly to generate a new itinerary and I was satisfied (for now). They said a new ticket # will be generated and everything will be emailed to me shortly. When I asked about the hotel for the night, since the flight was cancelled they made me hold for about 20 mins and agreed. Then transferred me to another department that would book the hotel. The lady on the next call said they can only make new hotel reservations that would cost me, rather than helping me in lieu of cancelled flight. Hmmm... they deceived me!! She insisted that they would not be able to provide a hotel for the night and apologized that the ground staff and the others I spoke to were wrong. Ah, did I fail to mention that she too did not believe me that the flight was cancelled.

I arranged a room using Hotels.com nearby for about $105, at a fairly nice and comfortable hotel. It was one station over on the S-Bahn which is conveniently at the airport. I lost my non-refundable one night hotel in Dublin $80. So, the total cost to me was about $185. I was really happy that everything was now working out and I had some rest. But my intuition told me to keep checking my email for the confirmed flight itinerary with the new ticket number. I had received nothing. I called them in the middle of the night, around 3 am now. Lot of holding time, but finally got somebody. They said the new ticket will not be issued because the flight was not cancelled, and since I was a no-show they could not help me. Oh no!

I have had it with these British people. I mean seriously, not just the company, but the people. It seems they are really stupid. I had to go through the whole process of describing my troubles and having proof of living in the real world, etc. Finally, about 5 am, they agreed. But still no email till about 8 am with the new ticket number. More phone calls (again International), they refused to admit the flight was cancelled. I could not bear it anymore. I checked out of the hotel and went to the airport.

People were already checking in for the 11:20 am flight. When my turn came, I had a nice German girl who saw my issue. I was in the system, but she could not generate a boarding pass since a new ticket number was not assigned. She made several calls to BA staff in UK and I could not tell exactly the conversations but it was clear she was getting upset at how rude they were to her. She tried her best on a her station but could not succeed. The checking line was long, but she did not let that bother her. She stuck with me to solve my problem. She said it happens a lot that there is a flight cancelled and British Airways denies their passengers, I guess hoping they are in a panic or urgency that they will just buy a new ticket.

She called the German ground staff who was expert with the computer software and he was able to get through lots of options and then enter me as a new ticket number. I think it took him a good 20-25 mins, but he was able to print out boarding passes for me and have me on my way. I could not even say thank you properly since I was emotional inside. You ever have the feeling of crying out of happiness. The feeling that there must be a God. This was proof. Everything from that point went smoothly. I don't know what I would have done if wasn't for these two Germans who helped me.

I think Germans know that British are liars and scheming to make more money. And that BA runs this way. I think in their industry it is common-place. None of this needed to happen to me. If BA wanted to take care of me, they would have instantly, right when they knew the flight was cancelled at the gate itself. But they don't care. Oh, did I mention that all the BA flights are old, not in good shape, entertainment screens are fuzzy and seats are old and beat up. But that was not as important as just making it back home to California.

The first call was at 12:35 pm, we spoke to Mason and were told the system was down, he took our number and said that he would call us back in 10 minutes. The call never came so we called back at 4:30 pm and spoke to Annabelle, explained the situation and told her that at this point we needed a refund on the Chicago to St. Louis portion of the trip because we have made alternate arrangements. After a long hold, she came back to the line and said that she could not do partial refunds, we would have to contact the airline directly. We got the number from her and called British Airways.

We spoke to Patrick at British Airways (5:30 pm), explained the situation to him and offered up a flight leaving Chicago at 10:19 am that would get my daughter home at 11:27 am (she was originally scheduled to be in St. Louis at 8 am). My daughter said she put Patrick on hold to call me to see if this would work, I told her no it would not. We had plans already made and could not change them. She told Patrick this would not work and that she just needed that leg of the flight canceled. He said in order to do this she would need to call back to the travel agency that we booked through. Here is where the run around begins.

She explained that she had talked to Explore Trip and they said they could not do the cancellation, she would have to go through British Airways. Now British Airways is telling her to call Explore Trip back. Patrick told her that they would need to call their travel support line if they needed help with the cancellation. I called Explore Trip back and spoke to George (6:16 pm), he wanted to tell me the same thing, I had to call British Airways. I told him I was not hanging up until we had a resolution and asked him to call British Airways with me on the line. Joyce from British Airways talked to us.

Long story short, George had already canceled the flight (hum) and claimed he could not give me our refund amount. I would have to get that from British Airways. Joyce stated that that was not true. He would get the refund amount from the travel trade line. At this point, I am beyond angry. We disconnected with Joyce and George told me I would have to call back in 3-4 business days for the refund amount.

I called today and there was more run around! We still don't have the amount of our refund. I have posted messages on Facebook and Twitter. None of this is happening from anything WE DID! This is on British Airways and Explore Trip, you all made the changes that cause us an inconvenience. We are only asking for what is fair and what is due to us. A refund for the leg of the flight that my daughter could not take due to YOUR LAST MINUTE CHANGES! For you to say you cannot help because we went through a travel agency is just a cop out! In the end, it is your airline that made the change and you profited in some manner from our purchase. You can definitely do something!

Surely such a big organization dealing with the public should have contingencies in place. Anyway to make matters worse she was made to carry her luggage and drag herself to the terminal in great pain without any assistance from British Airways representatives at all. As we speak my mom is bedridden and her situation has been worsened due to this mistreatment. #NOT_A _HAPPY_CUSTOMER.

The representative told me that I can fly BA from PHL to London and BA from London to Beirut (different plane but same airlines all the way) but the price is almost $237 higher ($2,195). I decided to go with this option. BA all the way. Then I learned after I booked the flight that my waiting time will be 8 hours in the airport. I am traveling with an infant so I decided to select back the first option (AA) as the waiting is closer to 4 hours. I was told by the representative that AA option is NOW (10 minutes later) priced at the same option as BA option ($2,170).

This is happening during the same phone call. He said the prices went up since 10 minutes ago and he can no longer reserve the flight at $1,958. I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor told me that prices change and they can no longer book the flight at that price. Funny thing is as was waiting on hold for the supervisor, BA was boasting that the price you see is the price you pay as an advertisement. Which is not true! Even the price is quoted by a BA representative is not the price you pay. So I kept my reservation with BA $2,195.

After I hanged up, I called American Airlines (AA) and gave them my Booking reference with BA. AA stated the flight is available at $1,958. So I called back BA to cancel. BA canceled the flight. We are not done yet. I reviewed my credit card statement and I found out that I charged $70 fee because I made the reservation/cancellation over the phone. I was not told about this fee. I called BA and spent 25 minutes on the phone to get my fee waived. I am not surprised that they have one star rating. Where's the zero option? AVOID THIS COMPANY.

This they offered to do for GBP 4760 ie I had to fully buy another ticket to do the journey, never heard of anything so stupid in all my life, I then spent a long time debating this with them only to have to succumb to buying a premium economy flight GBP 1200 one way. Having been a loyal BA customer who frequently travels from HK to the UK and a gold card holder I can honestly say I will never travel with British Airways again.

When we arrived to collect the dogs they were being held in a noisy and extremely hot freight warehouse, not the air conditioned kennels that we expected and were led to believe. The dogs were very distressed and extremely hot. What concerned us more was that at some stage during their transit someone had removed their water. They were desperately dehydrated and at one stage my larger 100 lb Bernese collapsed. It was the most distressing thing I have ever witnessed. To cut a long story short we spoke with the BA representative who honestly couldn't care less. No one was at all interested that my dogs had been in transit for over 9 hours without water. We weren't offered any explanation and they didn't want to know. We paid a lot of money to fly our pets and expected BA to have some sort of duty of care.

I would never recommend using them for shipping your pets. If we hadn't turned up to collect our pets when we did it could have ended with the death of one or both of our beloved dogs. I would never recommend using them to fly pets, they really don't care! The company we used to arrange the transit of our pets have since discontinued using BA for future clients' pets. They are now using Virgin Atlantic.

Is this a multi-million dollar established company or a joke? I have never encountered such dishonesty/ disorganized responses in over 35 years of business. By phone, online, at Boston, at Heathrow -- no accurate info and plenty of conflicting info/dishonest info/incomplete info. Shocking. Oh, and virtually impossible to write or speak with anyone beyond powerless telephone operators, website has no contact info for that, just more forms to fill in.

We were finally rerouted through Vienna and arrived in Salzburg WITHOUT our bags. I received my bag within 2 day however my daughter's bag was missing the ENTIRE 10 day trip. We are back home in the States now and still no bag. We were lied to, insulted, and literally told that until the bag is missing for 21 days there is nothing we can do. I will never fly this airlines again. They are partners with one of my favorite airlines in the States, Alaska Air so I am sorry to learn that one the best airlines in the US is a partner with the absolute worst I have ever encountered. DO NOT TRUST THIS AIRLINE WITH YOUR BAGS!

I don't sleep well on flights so we were very disappointed to not be able to watch any films on such a long and very expensive flight, we were told that another 48 systems in economy were down and that there was nothing he could do, I had finished my book the day before so didn't even have anything to read before I attempted sleep, when the lights were out and everyone was sleeping I put my seat into bed mode and tried to sleep, as soon as I moved and put any pressure on the bottom of the bed, the leg part of the seat collapsed to the floor.

I returned my seat back up and had to lift the bottom leg part all the way back up then bring it back down to get it back in the position for sleeping, I returned my seat back down and tried again, but again any small amount of pressure from my legs made it collapse, that part of the seat is attached to the seat in front so every time it fell it jolted the poor woman's seat and kept her awake, she wasn't happy and told me about this when we were all awake, as it was late and the lights were out.

I finally got the stewardesses attention and she got the guy who had tried to fix the tv problem and all he could do was apologize again saying this has happened before and again there was nothing he could do, I didn't get any sleep and it was the worst flight I have ever taken. I also had to go straight to work from this flight, to make things worse, my partner's glasses fell on the floor during the night and someone stepped on them and broke them in half. He cannot function without them, the female stewardess was quite sarcastic and unsympathetic saying falling asleep with your glasses on wasn't very wise, he didn't fall asleep with them on and he didn't appreciate her comments.

The steward gave us forms to fill out and said that we would be compensated for such a bad flight, after not hearing from BA, I contacted BA via the BA website link and made my complaints explaining everything and received a reply from a very unhelpful, unsympathetic customer relations person (Sophie **) apologizing about our bad experience and offered me 8000 avios points as a good will gesture, I was not happy with this. My flight alone cost £2,000 and I also had to pay £95 to reserve my seat so that I could be sure I would be sitting next to my partner.

8000 doesn't even cover the price for reserving the seat, I sent more emails to her saying how unhappy I was by her decision, and she replied saying she would not be changing her mind on the matter and there will be no compensation. I asked her for names of people above her that I could contact about this and she just gave me two web addresses that are nothing to do with BA, Nearly £2,100 is a huge amount of money for me to pay for one flight.

I few economy going out to Cape Town and cost just under £500 and was a great flight. I wish I booked economy for my return, the experience made a very miserable end to my great holiday. I cannot believe BA treat people like this, my partners flight was an open flight so his cost so much more than mine and he still hasn't heard from BA even after I filled both our complaints forms out on the plane and handed them back to the steward as we left the plane, he wants me to deal with his complaint but I have added his email address for him to be contacted. Please let me know how to get this resolved, I have been advised to go to the newspapers with this but I would rather BA did what was right without me going down that road. Sending to as many contacts that I think my help as possible and on social media.

We waited for our turn to obtain boarding passes, to be welcomed by a nice counter officer Mr. **, he explained to us nicely about the delay and the consequential effect of our missing the onward flight. He put forth before us 3 options and asked us to choose the best one, either to travel the next day or travel to Dallas on a bit longer route or alternatively (the best option he advised us) to stay in London that night. That sounded good and we heeded to the best advice given by Mr. **, He further said that the airlines would take care of our stay and food arrangements.

We traveled to London and true to his words the counter staff at Heathrow have made all the arrangements within minutes and made us comfortable. Next day we traveled to our destination without any hassle. This is a unique experience. The counter staff were exemplary in their service, their proactive-ness has made us determine that every time we travel to USA, we will travel by BRITISH AIRWAYS only.

I looked up on BA website on September 19 stating that my bag was found and getting ready for delivery. I called BA at ~3:00 PM and was told the same. I called ~7:00 PM, and was told that my bag was missing and new number ** was assigned. I was now really puzzled, and contacted several BA representatives, and eventually was told that there was a bag at London airport without baggage tag. They had opened that bag and asked me to identify some of the items, which I did and it was my bag. I was told that it would be delivered next day. I got text on September 20 evening that my bag would be delivered and was told that they would call me before delivery. I specifically told the person not to call after 10:30 PM.

In the morning on September 21, while going to office, I found bag at front entrance of my house. I was surprised, and picked it up but it was much lighter, and weighed 13 KG, in other words 10 KG items were missing. Missing items were one of my Good Woolen Suit with a Tie, 6 packages of Special Tea, special packages of Indian snacks, several packages of Special Lentils and Cardamom, etc., etc. I called BA representative at Washington Dulles airport on September 21 three times and left messages. Eventually, BA representative called me in the evening and confirmed that no items were taken from my bag at Washington Dulles airport. It was therefore confirmed that BA staff who opened my bag at London airport took items from my bag. BA representative also told me that courier should had called before delivering my bag and she was to look into this matter.

Here are the issues: Bag was not tagged by BA representative, and sent on the belt. Conflicting information provided to me. Amount of time I spent without much help from BA representatives. WHY were items Stolen from my bag? I am a frequent flyer on BA and have Emerald status. BA compensated only 50% for the value of my woolen suit and tie, but did not provide any compensation for the items STOLEN from my bag. MISSING BAG APPEARS TO BE COMMON, AND NOW STEALING ITEMS FROM THE PASSENGER'S BAG... BEWARE BA TRAVELERS!

This is strange. Why is BA team not able to assign a paid seat to a passenger and not able to solve a technical issue for last 2 weeks? In my last 13 years, I have taken more than 1,000 flights and have ever faced issues like this with any airlines. Either BA is completely insane and arrogant, not willing to support passengers or their technology dept. is outdated, not able to clear the issues. However, never want to flight with BA going forward. The worst guys ever seen.

As soon as the announcement was made, the section before the Economy section was closed off, 4 flight attendants with "Roach Bomb" like aerosol can was opened and this spray they held over their heads walking up and down the aisles smiling. Quickly my husband used his baseball cap to cover his nose and mouth. EVERYTHING WAS MOVING SO QUICKLY! I suffer from asthma and eczema. My husband suffers from Sarcoidosis and Heart Failure. I don't know if there were any pregnant women on board. I don't know if there were other people with any health concerns nor did British Airways.

Later our throats and chest started burning. I did not have my inhaler onboard. Thank GOD I didn't have an attack. Thank GOD my husband didn't have a more serious reaction with his heart. The following day I called our physician to document what occurred and they both said that they have never heard of such a thing. That it was weird and scary. As I write this I am still feeling some of the negative effects. NEVER AGAIN BRITISH AIRWAYS!!!

On board the seat was ok but nothing special. I'd say the seats are like what you get in business class with some other airlines. No Wifi offered. Toilet (only one for the first class cabin) was no different from what you get in a low cost airline. Cabin crew while ok were very very slow, off the mark and could not anticipate passengers' needs. Entertainment choice was very poor with very little selection. When I arrived in Kuala Lumpur I asked the chief stewardess about Fast track but she could not be bothered to help. She just said "we don't do Fast track". In fact I could go through the priority lane and I figured this out myself.

On the return flight the first class lounge in Kuala Lumpur was excellent, staff very attentive and food was very good but this is a Malaysia Airlines lounge and not BA! Return flight was also very average. Poor service. I slept for a few hours and when I got up I rang the bell. Nobody came. I watched a documentary and had to call again after more than one hour. When the stewardess came I asked if I could order breakfast. Her reply was "of course but we start serving from the other side". Am I supposed to know that when the whole concept of flying first class is dining on demand???

To summarise the best experience of this trip was in the lounge in Kuala Lumpur which is not even BA as it is a Malaysia Airlines lounge!!! BA should know that people pay for first class for the whole service and experience and not just to have a flat bed in a cabin with nice cutlery. BA's much publicised First Class in their 787-9 is a major disappointment and is light years behind the La Première service and experience with Air France. It is definitely not worth the money.

I live in Boston, due to my business and family connection in India, I frequently travel to India. Past six years, except for couple of times, I have been using British Airways to fly to India. Honestly not because of service, but for the connectivity and time convenience. But after my return trip on August 8, 2016 on BA flight BA-256 from Delhi to London, I no more desire to travel by British Airways. Again, I do not want to talk about my experience on this flight as I have no intention of complaining. But want to make you aware of certain organizational culture and behavioral improvement needed by your staffs in London to India sector.

Every time I fly from Delhi to London, I find those grumpy faces, rude behavior which can be duly classified as racial discrimination from BA flight attendants. Few times I thought that might be because of the long travel and inadequate rests for the flight attendants. But that cannot be true every time. There is an Indian proverb which translated to English would be 'One can eat bitter food, but cannot swallow bitter words'. Both you and I are in service industry, you're in Aviation and I am in Healthcare, though I am a small startup and you're a billion dollar company, we both serve people. Every penny we earn because of people's willingness to spend that money on us, not because they do not have any other choice. Irrespective of their color, race, religion and food habit, they put their faith on us and give their business to us and it is important for us to respect that.

Please note that India is growing faster than any other country, and India now have more millionaire than Great Britain. India now have more entrepreneurs and C level executives than Great Britain. India is a huge market and I am sure British Airways would not want to lose on that.

The new millennials from India wants respect and they know how utilize the powerful tool like social media to take their voices to public. So unless British Airways want to lose out to competition, this arrogance needs to change before it is too late. I could have sent this email to online customer suggestions in BA website, but that would not have changed anything. If anything needs to change, it needs to be a top down approach. Last summer, when I visited India with another family friend, he insisted that I travel in Emirates for once and I did. I could definitely see the difference in service and crew behavior on flight from Dubai to Delhi and Delhi to Dubai. So for me, after this flight experience on British Airways, I know my choice will be for my future flights to India.

Lastly, you being a busy executive, I am not expecting any response to this email. Moreover I do not know whether this email will reach you or your secretary will gracefully delete it. But if you read this, hope you'll try to bring some changes. Otherwise more Indian will stand up and unlike me, they will take the path of social media which will be damaging for British Airways.

Twitter replies only set us to the online tracker and aforementioned customer service. Got back lost bag again! Reply from BA? "Sorry, but you agreed to our terms and conditions when you booked." I thought I was dealing with a reputable company, how wrong was I. Doesn't say in the terms and conditions that they reserve the right to lose your luggage for 5 days and give you no means of tracking it. If they lose your luggage, you are on your own, find it yourself!

"Dear Mr **, Thanks for letting us know what happened when you and your family were travelling from Calgary on 11 July. I apologise for the delay in response. I completely understand how frustrated you must have been when your flight was delayed, especially as you missed your connecting flight. I’m so sorry for the problems we caused you. Our Operations team investigate the reason for every flight delay and this tells us where we’re going wrong. From what you’ve told me about your delayed flight, I absolutely agree we’ve let you down.

"We always want to maintain a stable operation and we’ll only delay an aircraft if we really have to, particularly as it affects our customers and their plans. If you speak to a staff member at the airport, or call our contact centres, we’ll do our best to rearrange your travel plans to suit you. I'd like to inform you that we're not liable for any consequential loss a customer or third party may have as a result of a delay, so I'm afraid I can't reimburse your re-book expenses. We generally direct customers to their travel insurance company who may be able to help."

I was prepared to lose money on the outward journey, but did not expect to be stung with a new, extortionate, ticket price on return journey from the funeral. My credit card company in the U.S. will refund the original flight price, but they need proof that I didn't use that ticket. BA and Expedia are being totally unhelpful and are passing me back and forth – telling me it's the responsibility of the other to provide this proof. This BA policy should be banned. It's just an excuse for them to take money from people.

For this reason we missed the connecting flight in London and we had to buy a new ticket to fly on the same day for 200 euros per person with another company. A shame the alarming lack of professionalism of the crew and the impossibility of finding a solution to buy the connecting flight with another company. The helplessness of the client in these cases leaves only one way: don't recommend ever to travel with this company. You can be sure that me, my family and all of my friends will never fly with British Airways.

I have sent 4 messages using their website and I do not get a single answer after more than 2 months. I have also tried using the direct telephone lines, and nobody answers. It is obvious that this airline is too big to care about their customers. I DO NOT RECOMMEND FLYING with THEM. If there is a slight possibility of having to make date changes and you have to get in contact with Customer Service, forget it. Do not become their customer. They do not have the slightest courtesy, inclination or intention to serve you using Customer Service. DO NOT FLY with THEM.

They changed the ticket there and then. However, by this time check-in was closed!!! Couldn't believe their incompetence! So we stayed in the airport hotel for the same flight 24 hrs later AND had an email this time by BA with our tickets. 24 hrs later we turn up at check-in again and present the email tickets. Guess what... "Sorry sir your tickets have been cancelled by BA." Really??? Another hour goes by and thanks to Emirates staff we are on the plane. However, the family were split up and there were no kid's meals that we had paid for. I have complained to BA through their proper channels and chased them up. But here we are 18 days later and still no reply. Appalling Service.

When we came to San Diego airport at 7.30 am on 31 May, we were informed that our booking by BA 7912 American Airlines from San Diego to Chicago to leave at 10.30 AM had been cancelled due to the time between flights being short. We were not notified of cancellation by BA. Instead BA rebooked to Dallas in economy class of AA at 12 noon flight/ BA192 Club class May 31st, 18.10 to Heathrow London/Heathrow London Chennai club BA0035.

AA flight though left on time from San Diego on 31 May, landed at 10.30 PM (6 hours delayed) with the result we missed the connecting flight to London. BA could rebook our onward journey on 2nd June BA0192 club class to London/BA0035 club world Heathrow to Chennai. We were forced to stay three days in Dallas. We made 3 trips to airport to retrieve our luggage (60 miles per trip). We were forced to stay for two days in Chennai.

Our A/C train ticket booked for ultimate destination Madurai resulted in no show and paid extra charges for rebooking train ticket. I took up the matter for compensation with BA Customer cell BA accepted their mistake and intimated compensation of €600 per person €1200 for two of us. And requested me to submit bank details for credit of compensation. With regard to forced stay in Dallas etc I was informed that they had referred to AA and also asked me to take up the issue with AA. When taken up with AA, they expressed regret for any compensation without assigning any reason.

As desired by BA I submitted bank details for credit of €1200 besides insisting for adequate compensation for forced stay in Dallas etc. BA and AA played ping pong with me. When insisted for credit of €1200, I was informed by BA customer wing that their commitment of €1200 was 'incorrect' on the pretext that delay took place by operating airlines namely.

We spent countless hours on international calls trying to trace our bags as they apparently were being shipped to us and our different locations even though day 4 into the trip we consistently called, reported, told every BA employee we just wanted them shipped back to our permanent address in the US. I would call twice daily and be told something different each time. There was NO accountability on BA's part. Every day our bag would be in Amsterdam, then back to London then to Spain then to Washington DC then back to Madrid and till this day we have NO BAGS! We live in a modern society - everything is scanned. UPS/Fed EX can tell you within seconds of where your items are at any given point.

Why is it so difficulty to track down where our property is that you have in your possession? You have computers, so you are telling us it is your employees that are completely incompetent, unapologetic, rude! I have never written a bad review but this has consumed me trying to get our property. Note: 1. Avoid flying BA. 2. travel with carry-on only! British Air shame on you!!! You should be embarrassed of your reputation and accountability!

I am writing to you to tell you that his experienced ended on a very sour note that should never ever should have happened. A true misunderstanding by a novice traveler and Robert missed his scheduled flight. He thought he was coming home on Wednesday, not realizing that he was to leave on Tuesday. In airline terms, he was a No Show. There were seats available on the same flight the following day but we were required to buy a very expensive one-way ticket. This actually cost more than his original flight. He was volunteering his time for a not-for-profit, where every single dollar matters. I will never understand why British Airways couldn't have been more understanding and put him on the next flight without charging us. This is just WRONG.

When Robbie and representatives from Flying Kites were at the airport in Nairobi trying to get him home on the next available flight, my son was texting me telling me he was having a panic attack. He felt like he was having a heart attack. He is 16 years old. I was helpless. We wanted to explore less expensive options for him to get home but that was really not an option when one is having an anxiety attack.

I have sent letters to British Airways requesting they do the right thing. I am asking for the airline to make a charitable contribution in travel vouchers to Flying Kites. Upon his return, Robbie was planning on using all the money in his piggy bank to sponsor a young boy he grew to love. He is still very, very upset that his mistake cost so much money and he no longer has ample funds to sponsor his friend. His first night home he was crying in his sleep.

I am familiar with the airline industry and I know that making a charitable donation is not asking for much. The staff at Flying Kites flies back and forth from Boston-Kenya several times throughout the year. How hard would it be for British Airways to make a charitable donation to an organization that would greatly benefit from the contribution? It would also help my 16 year old son sleep at night, understanding mistakes happen and there are lots of good people and organizations in this world. BRITISH AIRWAYS HAS NOT ACKNOWLEDGED ANY OF MY CORRESPONDENCE!!

Right, let me make this clear, whoever reads this is not to fault, and I do not hold you responsible for the absolutely disgraceful service we have received from BA (Bad Airways!), you're just the poor sod who has to try and resolve this case before I take further action! Starting at the beginning - We booked the holiday of a lifetime through our great travel agents, Imagine Africa, a holiday that took us 4 years to save for. Mistake no 1, I specifically asked for the flights, wherever possible, to be with BA as I thought "the world's favourite airline" mmm, NOT! Would make our holiday be a stress free experience!! Honestly, that's what I thought!! (what a pillock I am!).

I checked the flight status, with regular excited vigour, as I wanted to make sure my wife and I sat together. Now I know you can pay extra too, as your website claims (read as lies) "guarantee that your party sits together" mmm, BUT I didn't really want another charge. I could see that the proposed plane, the fantastic and reliable, mmm, A380, has seats in pairs on the upper deck. These are the seats we looked forward to getting on. I promised my wife that if these seats started to disappear, I would pay the extra and book them, begrudgingly, I admit!

So fast forward to about the 9th july 16, and I checked the seat progress. FANTASTIC!!! There were exit aisle seats available!! Whoopee, oh gosh, I couldn't believe my luck! Imagine a little tear of joy running down a poor old man's face, and you'll have some idea of the odious joy I felt! (though you're probably guessing there's a but coming!) So with a shaking hand of joy and a debit card in hand, I booked these seats and for the next week, even the latest news of doom and gloom from our government couldn't wipe the smile of my face :-).

An 11 hour flight is not an enjoyable experience for anyone really, and in cattle class, it's an experience akin to being in solitary confinement at camp 22, North Korea (to save you googling it, that's considered the world's worst prison) But the joy of being able to stretch your legs and not have the person in front reclining their seat into your lap, was a joy to behold! On to the day before, what could possibly be an enjoyable flight!

At approx 19.10 hours on 16/07/16 I went to check in online, as your website says that this will save time at the airport! err, WHO FOR?? More on this later! (sorry is this lie no 2?) mmm. I logged in and I saw that we had been given seats 33E and 34E WTF??? I thought! so I checked seatguru and these seats didn't even exist on the A380!! Must be some mistake I thought? Anyway, these seats aren't even next to each other, and let's face it, what idiot with the brain the size of a broken cornflake would put a husband and wife in different rows?? No, must be a mistake!!! I know! I said, "I'll ring your help line, that'll sort things out!" (I refer to calling myself a pillock again!)

I spent a very enjoyable 17 minutes on hold!!! A quick side question here, does your company earn from the cost of the call? I'm serious, I want to know this! Then I finally got through to a supervisor called Manoj **, he said he was the highest member of the team in the building at that time, and if you expect me to believe the boss answers the phone then perhaps I have got a chance of winning Miss World? Anyway, he informs me that the plane has been changed and that there is nothing he can do, even though I pleaded with him to just put us together!

Now I know things go wrong, particularly with the "world's favourite airline". Actually, I don't think you use that slogan anymore do you? I WONDER WHY?? And if there is a different plane then so be it. BUT!! Your website claims "If we have to change planes, then we will always put your party together in the first instance" I refer to seats 33E and 34E!! I paid for exit row seats, and now my wife and I are in different rows!!! DISGUSTING!! So Mr. ** said NOT to check in online, as I would have to have those seats, and that they would change it at the airport. (lie no3, I think. lots more to come though :-))

Well that night, and with little sleep, it had me worrying about the fact that I would have to sit with a stranger either side of me on a long flight, and the embarrassment I would feel when I had to wake them up to use the facilities! AND THE SAME FOR MY WIFE!!! But all is not lost I thought, (I'm being a pillock again). All night I was worrying that if a plane that held 469 passengers was replaced with a plane that held less than 300, then maybe I should just take the worst seats that some idiot decided should be ours?

So I set the alarm to coincide with the opening of your call centre, at least then I wouldn't be on hold for 17 minutes, IT WASN'T!! HOORAY, it was only 15 minutes!! I still need to know if you earn off of putting people on hold! Don't forget now! And the operator, who was actually quite friendly! As Mr. ** wasn't, he couldn't of give a crap about my problem! Side issue no 2. please listen to all the phone calls I made please and you'll see my point! There were 3 in total, 1 on the 16th, 2 on the 17th. From the 2 calls I made on the 17/07/16, I was assured I could change the seats at the airport (if your fed up of reading this now, wait till we get to the airport part!!) CHECK THE CALLS and the proof will be there!

On to the airport! This is where a disaster becomes a calamity of such proportions, not one comedic scriptwriter could even begin to dream up a new episode of "One foot in the grave". I am a belt and braces kind of guy, well, probably severe OCD, that means I am incredibly well organised and I do not take any chances, so check and double check things, which led us to the airport a full 4.5 hours before boarding. I would always like to be hours earlier than 1 minute late, and I wanted to take my time, get through security and have a nice relaxing meal before the flight from hell! (you're probably ahead of me here, yes, I'm being a pillock again!)

We arrive at Terminal 5, I believe this is your own terminal? So everything will be smoother than a baby bottom? Wouldn't it? Yes, of course it would!! (I am spelling pillock right? Aren't I?) Now we only travel once or twice a year so don't always know the full workings of the airline industry, I'm beginning to think your company doesn't also!! So I ask a nice (lie number whatever!) young lady "sorry, can yo..." "I'll be back to answer your question in a MINUTE!" was the curt reply!! Didn't get her name, but if you have a collection tin for members of your staff who failed charm school, then please inform me! So off she went to move a barrier, answer someone else question, came back, "could you pl..." , said me. "I'LL HELP YOU IN A MINUTE," came the response. So she went off to move the SAME ** barrier AND answered someone else question.

AT THIS POINT, I SMELT MY ARMPITS!! Nope, they're fine! Back she came, and I managed, I did, honest! to ask the full question! HOORAY! "Is this the line for the BA 055 flight?" "YES" she said, and then went off to move the barrier another inch to the left, safe in the fact that she'd REALLY had a good day helping people!! I have been in some slow lines before, but this was ridiculous!! Apparently this was because the automated check in machine WEREN'T working!! (more on this later :-)) Maybe I'm stupid, well for asking for my flights to be with BA, certainly, but if the machines are out of order, wouldn't you put signs up saying so? You would, wouldn't you? Well you DIDN'T! And I took photos and a short video to prove this!!

So hundreds of people were trying to use a machine that DIDN'T WORK! Who's in charge of T5? Mr. Bean? Actually people were tweeting hashtagt5chaos! not that I do twitter! Now as the queue was taking as long as my entire education, I saw another part of check in had a lot shorter queue, so I went over to ask if I could join it for flight BA055? I was told "no, this is for a disrupted flight". So I went back to join my wife in the queue, via another quick question to the same happy harriette as earlier, just to check we were in the right queue. She answered me straight away this time! and said YES! The woman from BA said yes!! Good! (any news on that spelling of pillock yet?)

Just over an hour and a half later we got to see a smiley face at check in, who then proceeded to tell us we were in the WRONG QUEUE!!! To say I wanted to find the chairman of BA and insert a large garden gnome up his backside was becoming overwhelming, and a quick search on Amazon found me the ideal implement!! Luckily this nice lady, yes she was nice, you should have her stuffed as proof, took pity on us, maybe the tear that rolled down my wife face helped? Seriously though, you can annoy me, but look out when you push my wife to tears!!! And she kindly took us to where we should be, funnily enough, it was the shorter queue that I asked if I could join!!! (order placed with amazon!)

The nice young man at check in, yep, that's 2 nice members of staff!! A record? Understood our dilemma of having to spend an 11 hour flight IN DIFFERENT ROWS! And couldn't understand how that could have happened? NOR COULD ANYONE WITH A BRAIN!!! And I asked him if he could do anything, as I had been assured by your call centre on more than 1 occasion that it could. He went, kindly, and asked a manager. Now I couldn't hear what that manager was saying, but by the way he waved this nice young man away. I guess he just thought we were lucky to get on the flight at all! He said the best thing was to take the seats we had been given IN DIFFERENT ROWS, and ask the stewardesses to ask someone to move for us.

Now after being on this flight, it was obvious that there were many single flyers on it, probably business people, so again I reiterate that I need to know how we were put in DIFFERENT ROWS??? He did say that there was a later flight that we could even have exit row seats, that we'd payed for on it, but that would get us in at the same time of our connection to Hoedspruit would leave, and best to take bad seats, at least we'd get our connection then!! (guess what? Yep, ANOTHER LIE!!)

So by time we'd been in more queues than a Russian food shopper. We just about had enough time to go to the nearest food outlet available, something like the pilots lounge? And proceeded to ask them to rush through our order of 2 breakfasts, which came to, with 2 small lemonades, to just under £40!!! I then saw there was a weather spoons, so thanks for getting me ripped off!! So with a breakfast expensive enough to please Iain Duncan Smith's expenses sheet, we went to the gate. And there she was, a plane that would finally take us on our hard earned holiday, a sheer piece of engineering excellence, all shiny and with a proud British flag on her tail wing :-) (spoiler, there's a but coming!).

So we wait for boarding, and we wait, and wait, then finally!! Yes, please! Boarding call? NO!! Message to say they regret there will be slight delay in boarding as the plane is too hot to board,. Yeah, and I'm slightly regretting the day I asked for flights with BA!!! Apparently you have just implemented a new automated system at check in? Hence the machines didn't work, but the old system worked? A quick tip - IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!! So I went and had a word with a nice young man at check in (that's 3 nice people, well done) about the chances of: A- getting on the flight; B- getting our connection, which he said BA would be liable for if we missed it; C- could we get on the later flight, as that might be a safer option. He goes through his screen and it appears that this plane has the same fault as the A380 had, and that's what's caused all of our heartache!!!

You're probably thinking I might be screaming at the guys there by now, who could blame me? But it's not their fault. I just got back on to amazon to order another gnome!!! Well, we finally boarded the plane, over an hour late, but we boarded and we can ask the stewardesses to ask someone to move, which we did, of course they didn't bother!!! So with the prospect of my wife not having my whittling repartee to keep her company for the next 11 hours, she asked the kind man next to her if he would kindly move? Luckily he took pity on us, and I will always be in his debt.

Actually I made a blog of this part of the episode on my IPAD, a minute by minute, kind of, blow by blow account of the whole sorry episode which I will gladly send as an attachment. But WARNING: the language is choice as your company had finally broken me!!

So, the take off finally arrives, with the prospect of our connection definitely missed! Actually we would have been better off going on the later flight, as I believe that landed before ours!!! But BA to the rescue!! da dada dada da dada da da! We have an announcement that there would be a team of people there in jobber to help with our missed connections! Well SHE was there, yep 1 ** person for a flight full of people all desperate for her attention! And information! So I pushed my way to the front and was told our name was NOT on her list, so go to the desk!! I go to the desk, and the very UNhelpful person there said we weren't on her list, so go and see SA express, who's connection we were with.

Now the first leg of our holiday was at A near £500 a night safari, and I miss a night, then look out BA, YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE!!! Well there was NO room on the only other connection to Hoespruit that day. Cue my wife's tears, AND NOW MINE!!! 4 years of scrimping and saving to be treated like crap!!! Luckily I contacted our travel agent and he sorted out a later flight to another airport, and a 3 hour transfer to our lodge. We finally arrived 9 hours later than we should have, but missed our first game drive, which makes up the huge cost of a safari, which I hold your company responsible for!!

I also hold you responsible for the near £20 phone call it cost me for the call to our travel agent, £1.40 a minute!!! robbing b......s. And that's before we even START to talk about the stress and hardship we were put through through the inadequacies of your company!! I hope you take this seriously, and I can assure you that I will use all my power and energy to make sure that BA is held accountable for this disgraceful service, and will use my consumer rights and social media to let people know about how BA treats their customers if this is not resolved to our satisfaction! Yours, hoping you even read this and not send an automated reply!

We ended up leaving Jordanne and Matthew and walking to bag check and just checking the bags through - and the very nice gentleman who checked our bags said that there is a note in the system that he "shouldn't check our bags"! He said he didn't see a problem and worst case if they didn't make it - they would come on a different flight to O'Hare. We ended up making our connection and although the bags were late - AMERICAN AIRLINES was extremely helpful in retrieving our bags. I WILL NEVER FLY BRITISH AIRWAYS AGAIN - NOR WILL ANYONE I KNOW.

I was, however, unable to do so because of system glitches that (a) prevented me from accessing my flight information and then (b) prevented me from checking in because, despite the fact that my U.S. passport information had been entered into the system for my outbound flight, I apparently needed a visa to come back home. I spent in excess of two hours unsuccessfully trying to check in, including having a BA representative trying to help me over the phone. Hopefully BA has rectified the system so that U.S. citizens can check in online without the absurdity of BA requiring visa information for them to come back home to the USA.

Second, despite the fact that I had paid $120 to reserve a two seat combination by the window, my wife and I were placed in the middle of a four seat configuration. Though the staff could have helped us into other seats we would have been satisfied with, they refused to do so, moving instead a passenger who had not prepaid for a seat into one of the seats we would have happily occupied.

Understandably the airlines cover themselves to ensure that they are not liable if they fail to provide reserved seats. They should, however, set up a system that expeditiously provides passengers with at a minimum a refund of the money paid. What we encountered were promises and what appeared to be an effort to wear us down so that we might not pursue the refund. Since the BA representative on the flight who listened to our complaint and took down the relevant details said she would file the complaint for us, we believed the matter would be taken care of. However, the result was that after 13 days we received a form letter telling us we need to file a form to obtain reimbursement. What was intriguing about that letter was that the person writing it had looked up our record and seen that we were booked on another flight on BA a few months later and stated that he hoped we would enjoy that flight.

Despite taking the time to do that he did nothing to expedite our claim for reimbursement. I followed up with call to the BA customer service department (312-843-5794) and after four unsuccessful attempts to get through, and a half hour wait to speak to someone, I was told that she would take care of filing for reimbursement for me. Hopefully that will occur and I shall receive my refund.

One final word of advice to passengers on BA who pay for reserved seats. When you reserve your seats make sure you print the receipts that show the numbers of the seats you actually reserved. When it comes to checking in for the actual flight those seat numbers may have been changed and you will not have proof that the seats you are getting are not actually the ones you reserved.

When we reached the counter (enclosure) we were roughly and rudely turned away by the lady at the enclosure saying we were late and that they did not have any agent to push the wheelchair. Then she asked us to walk to gate B34 from the entrance which was quite a long walk. We then had to proceed for security and had to negotiate the escalators which my wife could not since she was nearly 70 years old. At one stage she nearly missed her step and would have fallen. All along she had to wheel her cabin baggage with her.

We had to get on a train to change our terminal and we barely made it to the gate. My wife was panting and had to be seated for nearly 10 minutes. She could not get her breath back, I was afraid that she would swoon and fall down. I feel you should streamline this activity at LHR where the attention is defective, faulty, and treatment not very polite. You should see the callousness with which customers are being treated at this disability counter.

The BA customer service were completely unhelpful. All they want from me is another 100.00 to change the dates from the incorrect 29th September back to what I had originally selected. How can they possibly justify charging me twice for their dodgy website. I am completely horrified by the treatment I have had to endure. They are absolutely despicable and do not give a crap about their customers or satisfaction at all. All they want is your money and they do not mind what underhand techniques they use to get it. Stay away from the website if you want to change your bookings for any flight. In fact just don't fly through them. Awful customer service!

For a simple check in it took more than 1 hour and 30 minutes, and by the time we were done all my kids were in tear for fearing that they will miss their flight again, through no fault of their own. From a top rated airport and airliner I would have expected 1st class service. But I have had a lot better service from 3rd world airports and their airliners. It would have been a lot easier and cheaper to install machines at the airport rather than employing humans that act like machines. Not recommended at all, will not use even as a last option.

Now I will have to file a complain to get a refund for the cash I paid for a good seat on the long haul flight. It's difficult to comprehend what has happened to this once great airline. Extremely poor service, food is average, planes are not very clean inside, many complaints online. Financial difficulties? Unions? Brexit? Competition? New management? Not my problem. I used to be a very loyal BA customer, and often flying Club World and taking my family as well. I will never recommend this airline again, and I will absolutely never fly with them ever again, unless is the only option and as a last resort. Very dissatisfied to say the least.

When my turn came to get served, Sharon called me as she did not have passenger she was helping but I looked at her and told her loudly that I do not wish to be served by her and will be complaining to the person in charge. The person in charge came and apologized to me but that did not take away the racist attitude of Sharon and the way she treated me. I felt first time in my life what it means to be a ** in terms of receiving service from the elite British counter staff attendant. Needless to say, I will never fly British Airways again.

Furthermore, upon attempting to gain guest access to the business lounge I was informed that my grandmother could enter, but she could not bring a guest. Imagine my surprise when I returned to collect her, and watched the very same staff member inform another passenger that they were not able to bring a guest, but the rules may be bent on this occasion. So assisting my partially blind grandmother was not an appropriate reason to allow entry to the lounge, however, a British couple demonstrated sufficient reason. Her ticket was marked as mobility assisted, but no assistance was given, and my assistance was prevented. Indeed, a review of the admission policies online reveals that a single guest is allowed to all lounges except the arrival lounge **.

BA is a hopeless airline, and this was a woeful experience. Customer service was lacking, to the point of being discriminatory or at least inconsistent in the application of lounge entry rules. Furthermore, may I mention that the in-flight entertainment was extremely dated, with movies from 2015 rather than 2016. There was no way to view a complete list of films, rather, the customer is expected to sift through genres, several of which contain the same movies. The TV had no content within any genre, and this is not up to par with their competitors.

The booking system is designed to milk money from travelers, and I can only echo others' sentiments that after paying thousands for a business class ticket, being gouged for another $500 for a seat choice is insulting. However, we were not even offered that choice. I will not fly BA again, and I suggest alternatives such as Cathay and Singapore, where customer service is still central to their business philosophy.

Three issues here that are much more than a confidence trick of a seat booking fee. How can BA claim to be a full service airline when they use budget carrier tactics like charging for seat bookings. How can they extort money for a false seat booking system? How can they claim to be the World's Favourite Airline when the data shows the opposite?

One of the flight attendants was so overweight, unable to fit properly while walking through the plane. A safety concern if there is an emergency in the flight; how is she going to provide assistance, if she was unable to move through the aisles? The plane was dirty, my blanket unfolded from a previous flight, the seats extremely uncomfortable. Nothing was done by my seat. While I booked the seat with plenty of time, I was assigned a different seat. I will never flight British again. Bad service, safety procedures unacceptable.

I then reached out to British Airways customer relations department via e-mail and told them what had happened. They responded and said that they failed me this time and they agree they had let me down but unfortunately there is nothing they can do. All I asked for was to be reimbursed for the items that they broke. Unfortunately they would not do that and I therefore want to warn other customers from potentially having the same thing happen to them. Stay away from British Airways. There are many other airlines that would love to have your business and that will treat your items responsibly and work to remedy any issues that may be caused. I hope this saves several others from going through the same experience I went through.

We called their customer service in UK and waited for 30 minutes where we were put on hold 10 times because the employee wasn't trained enough to do her job. We asked for a documentation that we were refused boarding so that we could provide it to the hotels and car rental to get refunds, but apparently that was too much to ask for!!! It was simply not possible!!!

Then we raised a claim and we required full refunds of our tickets and an explanation to why we were allowed in the first place to check in online one day before if our names were on a "no fly list" to USA. If we knew earlier, we could've at least cancelled our reservations smoothly! Unfortunately, we never got an explanation for why we could check in online and they rejected to refund our tickets even though they admitted that we had all the necessary documents!!! Very poor, slow, cold customer service with no empathy for their customers and where they use standardized templates to reply for your emails instead of a personalized response!!! I will never use British Airways again! I don't trust them and I will warn all my friends and relatives to avoid them!!!

When my wife and I boarded the craft, lo and behold, the seats were NOT front-section seats at all! I was able to pull up the confirmation of purchase on my Android Phone and the cabin services director did his job very nicely, apologizing to us, offering us to file an incident report and reassuring us that all would be taken care of post-flight. However, subsequent to the flight, BA has been positively NASTY in their response, claiming that we were given the seats for which our boarding passes were issued (true enough) and completely ignoring the point that they had FRAUDULENTLY misrepresented those seats as front-section when they were not!

The fact that I received ZERO goods or services for my $118 beyond what I was already entitled to by my payment of the base fare means nothing to them. They have managed to bilk me out of $118 and having gotten their hands on my money, they intend to keep it. (We'll see what my credit card company has to say about this, but it would be a lot smoother if we could simply settle this amicably, rather than forcing me to dispute the charge with my credit card company.) Suffice it to say that my wife and I will not be flying BA again. Ever.

Others on the flight got different stories. At about 4:30pm, we were told the flight was cancelled, no one could tell us why. We all had to go back through customs, pick up our luggage, rebook for the next day and get a hotel which they paid for. I finally got to my room at about 8:30pm. On checking my phone, I found that I had received an email at 11:40 am telling me the flight was cancelled! Yet I was checked in without any issues and the flight board was registering delayed. In addition to the aggravation of not getting home on time, I had to pay a $100 parking ticket because I was a day late in picking up my car from the long term parking, had to pay an extra day boarding for my dog, inconvenienced my employer and missed a very important meeting.

I contacted BA for compensation under the EU Legislation. In addition to pathetic platitudes and condescension, British Airways denied my claim because "BA 2233 on 27 April was cancelled because of aircraft damage which wasn't caused by us and prevented the aircraft operating as scheduled. Under EU legislation, I'm afraid we're not liable for a compensation payment in this situation."

I am aware of the Article of the EU Regulations that they are referring to. EC 261 states that air passengers must be financially compensated if their flight is canceled or overbooked (unless the cancellation is due to extraordinary circumstances beyond the airline's control). I requested that they prove to me that this flight was cancelled due extraordinary circumstances beyond the airline's control or, as they stated, to damage not caused by British Airways. I asked for proof and have continued to ask for proof of this for this every day for over a week and have received no response.

I am also aware that most claims are rejected through the "extraordinary circumstances" provision and that Extraordinary circumstances are caused by events that the airline can't control and for which they are not at fault. Examples include extreme weather conditions, political unrest, and employee strikes, none of these reasons apply here. It is a documented fact that less than 1% of eligible air passengers receive the compensation that is rightfully theirs because Airlines openly contest the recent EU legislation and have even refused to pay compensation after being ordered to do so by the EUCJ. They get away with this because they assume that individual air passengers are likely to avoid the hassle of challenging a rejection in court. Well I am not.

I will not be bullied by British Airways. I have been a BA customer for over 30 years and I deserve better than this. Wanting to see proof of what extraordinary circumstances beyond the airline's control/damage not caused by British Airways or giving BA the right to deny my claim. Just another example of a multibillion dollar airline treating their customers like cattle and trying to get away with it.

As if this breach of security was not enough, within 30 minutes after take off, the staff could be heard talking about British airways, how bad their company was, and mocking its passengers. The staff were unaware that everything they said could be heard by the passengers. That is unaware or they did not care. There is not a company trading today that would allow such behaviour from their staff. It seems that working for this organization it is a case of who you know and not what you know.

Many of the passengers were remarking about the comments made by the staff - Sheila and Lucy were particularly aggressive ranting and raving pointing fingers in faces. A number of passengers even went to have a word with the stewardesses to tell them that passengers could hear what the crew were saying. The staff did not appreciate the comments from the passengers and proceeded to tell them in a very aggressive manner, that they should just return to their seats.

The staff were rude, the captain was rude and they did not care. When you see this kind of behaviour you wonder how the company can stay in business, maybe this is another company that will bleed its shareholders dry before finally going into liquidation. On the performance that we witnessed the company is probably already losing business. Any company is only as good as its staff. On that note, good luck. Not a very good start to our holiday, and reporting this is the last thing we want to be doing when we should be out enjoying the sunshine.

No one took the responsibility of this situation. Everyone blamed it on the customer. I was so disappointed with the services. British Airways were so rude with the customer service, and they were so disrespectful. Everyone got their share of money but no one wants to take the responsibility of letting the customers know. I was disappointed with American Airlines. At least, they should have asked me for the documentation, and at least I would have stayed in Buffalo at my home. I had to pay for the hotel, and transport to hotel in the middle of the night at an unknown place. This was terrifying for me. Now, I decided I would never travel with British Airways, ever in my life. THEY ARE A BUNCH OF RACIST PEOPLE WITH LACK OF RESPECT FOR THE CUSTOMERS.

Here's the exact details of the charge: 1) May 26th of Iberia/British Airways $620.40. 2) Orbitz $6.99. The case has been in dispute, but both companies are claiming the other is responsible. The flight was cancelled by them over a MONTH in advance, I never took the flight, and I had to book another return flight on another airline. Avoid them at all costs. This whole mess has been an absolute nightmare. British Airways has been horrific in dealing with, and they won't even respond with options to refund my money.

We paid a huge premium for normal economy seats, and a total of £ 6,678.25 (or nearly ZAR 145,000) was paid for economy air flights. Rates, fees, charges etc cost us more than GBP 326.65 per person. We were advised when we cancelled our return flights, that the min refund we would get is the rates, taxes and fees returned. This has not happened. On 08 April 2016... yes more than 2 WHOLE MONTHS LATER, AND WITH NUMEROUS CALLS TO BA CALL centres which resulted in no action at all, we were refunded with a single payment of +- $ 70.00 only… What theft and robbery is this??? This level of service is horrific, terrible and downright a better story that the leaked Panama Papers. Does this lack of service mean BA is not able to afford proper administrative staff, able to pay their obligations, and not able to refund clients their monies they are due back???

Where, pray tell, did we incur the rates and taxes on our return flight, and why has BA not repaid what they said was due… I am terribly shocked by this, and will never fly BA again as a matter of principle if this matter is not resolved fairly. I have set up a new company in the UK, and with a family of 5 with frequent travelling envisaged between UK and SA, and then other parts of the world for business and pleasure, we will not fly BA again, which extrapolates to 5x regular flights = lots of fair income lost. I am appalled to say the least… BA is quick to take money on bookings, but don’t want to pay fair fees back to passengers? How does that work???

Please take a look into the above, and fairly assess the customer experience we had received from BA on this matter. I am sure you would not be proud of the way in which BA handled this matter, or is this the norm we can expect from what used to be one of the best airlines around? So from flights that cost us £ 6,678.25, we received only +- $ 70.00 back. Impressive! I look forward to a personal response, failing which we would love to take to social media to give our first-hand experience about BA’s wonderful customer service.

Before crossing the English Channel the Captain already knew we could not land in Bologna (due to the runway). I know you are paid based on actual flight and hours, but this is an example of what not to do if you are a Captain and if you care about your passengers, crew and plane. Big Gamble! Unfortunately the gamble worked and we did not get any compensation and free room.

When I ordered my meal when booking my flight, I told them I was gluten and dairy intolerant and when my meal came, there was dairy in it, so I couldn't eat it. Also I had booked a one-way ticket and it was so much more expensive, so I had to change it to a round trip in order to get a cheaper flight. I feel that it's not fair & the airline industry is taking advantage of people who are flying one way.

When I checked my American Express account, not only have they not cancelled the two flights, they have added another two - the same passengers, the same flight and the same amount £181.55. I now have a bill for over £700. As the account is in my name I have had to get up at 6 am every morning to call them (if you leave it till later you will be waiting forever). It is the same experience as your other consumers on here have said. You speak to someone who doesn't understand English very well and they say there will be a refund but there never is. I have sent an email to gsrreplies@contact.britishairways.com 4 days ago but have had no response.

Reading the reviews on here it seems to be a common practice of British Airways to keep your money and make it difficult for you to contact them. The second 2 flights are in my view illegally taken as my daughter did not book them and why would she want two exact flights for herself and her friend? Do they think they are going to split themselves in half and occupy two seats each? After reading the experiences of your members I despair of getting the refunds and I am appalled at their sharp practice and would not use them ever again. They are criminals!

When we reached altitude, I got up and washed, and made the crew aware of what happened. They were apologetic, and filled out a report. They URGED me to also report the incident to customer service, which I did via email. Some time later, I received an email, first apologizing for the delayed response, and further apologizing for a used "washabag". Evidently a "washabag" is a toiletry bag. A bag full of sputum and vomit is a health risk and just plain gross and not acceptable in any class of service, let alone First Class. The mistake could happen, how BA handled it is horrendous.

When we landed, he was given a boarding pass to Prague and we went on our merry way. The day we were to leave Prague, he could not check in. They had no record of his return flight in their system. There was no one on the ground in Prague to help us. A phone call to British Airways yielded nothing. The agent had no idea what was going on. The only way to get him home was to buy ANOTHER ticket. We bought a one-way ticket from Prague to Los Angeles. The original ticket was 2300.00 and the additional ticket was 1643.00. We were no longer on the same flight and he had to wait 6 hours in the Prague airport. When I landed in Heathrow, BA customer service tried to sort it out. They apologized all over themselves and opened a case for me (I purchased the second ticket) but told me they could not refund my money.

The bottom line: Someone mistakenly made my boyfriend a no show on the original connecting flight (even though we were on a BA flight traveling to London at the time) and this forced the cancellation of the rest of his ticket. Somehow, though, he was given a boarding pass to Prague. I have spent 8 weeks trying to get BA to refund me the price of the second ticket. I call every week and get different very polite people with lovely British accents who say how sorry they are and that they are working on it. Last week I got an email saying they were denying responsibility. I have sued them in court. Don't let them drag you along. I can't believe how badly I've been treated. Boggles the mind.

The result was they only refunded the Canadian taxes of $2,141, charged me a $58 cancellation fee and kept the balance of $3,620 with no explanation. After at least 8 phone calls, (some to numbers provided on the BA website that are no longer in service) ending up at an Indian call center, where I spoke to some very polite folks who do not have any authority to deal with problems, I am no farther ahead in getting an explanation. Nor can I reach anyone from BA in the US or Canada to discuss the problem. British Airways in my view has engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices by failing to provide full disclosure about their refund policies and made a concerted effort to ensure their customers are not able to contact any senior staff to address customer service issues. I would recommend spending your money with airlines more reputable than BA.

The flight that I had booked from Phoenix (10 months earlier) was now full and I was informed that my only option was a refund or I could be booked on the next flight 24hrs later on January 3rd. This was really inconvenient, however I was left with no option but to accept this offer as booking other flights through other routes would have been extremely costly.

I emailed BA Customer service and received an email explaining that flight time need to change from time to time. The point about me not being notified was either missed or ignored. As I am going on holiday in April (unfortunately booked to fly with BA), I thought I should keep an eye on my flights. On checking Manage My Booking yesterday I found that two of my return flights were missing.

I contacted BA Customer services and was told it was due to the a change over time between flights. Eventually I was booked on new flights that have similar departure times. I pointed out that the times between flights weren't ever an issue and was then told that the flight number had changed. When I told the customer services operator that I hadn't received notification and that this was the second time. He said that there have been too many changes like this recently to notify everyone.

The really worrying thing is that I hadn't been notified of either cancellation. I find it unbelievable that BA can cancel your travel arrangements, without notification, and with one day before you travel they give you an option of having a refund or waiting 24 hrs or more before they can reallocate you an alternative flight.

I called back Air New Zealand and was told that BA could have given me a BA REF no. from my Eticket number, and advised me to call back BA as ANZ could not do that for me. Called back BA and insisted that they find me a REF NO. so that I could select a seat. At first they said they could not. Finally she did look it up via my Eticket number. She gave me a BA REF no. and then I asked if I could select a seat. She said yes, for $16 dollars unless I want to select it with no charge the day before the flight! Right, as if I'm going to wait for the day before the flight and end up with a middle seat. So I gritted my teeth and paid over the phone to book two aisle seats for the round trip flights. She took my Amexco no. and email address and said she would email me confirmation and receipt. This never happened.

Using the new BA REF No. I was given, I got into BA online and saw that my seat had been issued; however under CONTACTS they had my email wrong, so the woman on the phone had written it down wrong, which is why I never got a receipt by email. I changed the info online. All of these calls and time on the computer, just to select a seat on a BA flight that already had been confirmed, took 2 hours yesterday and from 9 am to 1 pm today. This is the worst customer service I have ever had with an airline or in fact with any company except Time Warner which at least these days has improved. From reading other comments I see that the public is not happy with BA customer service or staff in flight. HOW ABOUT TRYING TO IMPROVE IT, BA? Unhappy customer in Santa Monica who will not fly BA again.

I was told that my return home had been cancelled and there was nothing that BA were going to do about it. I travel internationally monthly and have been a loyal Gold Executive customer with BA since 2000 with over 6000 tier points during that period. I will never fly BA again and I am taking this case to the small claims court. Be very careful when buying your ticket that BA listen to you.

After 10 minutes, while many of the other lines were moving along, I asked the same BA employee to move us to a different line. He said fine, but he had to move the 2 groups ahead of us before he moved us which was fair. He did so, but despite many other lines being available, he did not move us. He had the audacity to tell me to "calm down" and that "I was not in the US yet." We had to wait another 10 minutes before the customs agent logged into another computer. This BA employee was clearly on a power trip and he should not be in a customer business.

But the experience on the plane was the worst experience of all. We, of course, were seated in the two middle seats in a row of 4. Behind the baby row (you know the row where all the crying babies sit in front of coach). I get up a LOT on flights to walk around because of my back and I never ever sleep on flights, so an aisle seat is the most courteous option for me, so I don't keep waking the people next to me to get out. We explained this to the bitchy middle aged flight attendant with nasty teeth and she smiled and asked "so you think someone with an aisle seat is going to trade with YOU? That's never going to happen." We said "hey, just asking, maybe someone wants to change to be together and we don't care if we are separated." She laughed in our faces... And then proceeded to spend the next ten mins trying to find someone to trade with the guy next to us who wanted a window seat...

And THEN moved a mother and her giant two-year-old who was supposed to fly on her lap to an aisle seat with an empty seat next to it (so she gave the woman a free seat when she SHOULD have paid for it in the first place)! This entire time she was avoiding eye contact with us even though we saw there were other empty seats after the doors closed. She even snapped at us to stay where we were because she was moving people... Of course, that meant OTHER people, not us.

Later, when the guy next to me got up and left his blankets all over the aisle, she walked by, picked them up and literally threw them at me. Unbelievable. This was a newer plane with no individual fans over the seats, so we had to deal with freezing air blowing directly in our faces for 11 hours. The whole row had blankets on their heads and faces because the overhead air directed right on row 21. I fly a lot and haven't used BA in some years, but I will never, ever fly with this ** airline ever again.

After the plane landed we was met by (1) paramedic from the airport. After finding out what had happened, she was appalled that I was given a burn cooling gel to put in my eye. At this time I was thinking how could 1 of the world's busiest airports only have 1 paramedic attending 3 injured people at once. After being checked I was told that I could not get my connecting flight to JFK as BA would not fly me without going to the hospital. To add insult BA told me I had to make my own way to the hospital and pay for my own taxi there and back. I asked could I see a DR at the airport to which I was told that Heathrow airport does not have a doctor on site. This was so upsetting for my family that it was the start of a holiday from hell. Off I went to the local hospital, leaving my family behind at the airport.

3 hours later I was back at the airport with a right to fly letter from the doctor. I was diagnosed Cornea abrasion, very painful. We was put on the next flight out to JFK to which we was upgraded to business class. This was satisfying as I could have done with the rest. New York is hard enough with 2 eyes never mind 1. Stop start for the whole 4 days. Couldn't wait to get home and get my eye sorted as I could not use my holiday insurance, as the accident happened in the UK and the eye hospital in New York was quoting thousands of $$$$. BA did ring me quite a few times to check on how I was but the damage was already done. BA customer service varies like most customer services do. 1 min you get someone very helpful then the next you're treated like dirt.

When you need to speak to customer service you get put through to a call centre in India with someone who you can't understand and they can't understand you, but if you want to book a flight you don't get put through to MR or MISS India, no no no, straight through to the English call centre. Very frustrating. Anyway I have started legal action against BA and would really appreciate if at some point they could give me back my holiday to enjoy like we planned. Keep you updated.

She said the main pursuer would come up and have a chat. He eventually came up to the upper deck 3 hours into the flight as he said "I was sleeping". He introduced himself and said "sorry" and made a flippant joke saying "it's not something wants when they are eating a salad." He then said if I was OK. I said "yes", almost in disbelief of his reaction. Does this thing occur all the time in Club World where one pays money to get a little better service? The crew should take some training on how to handle situations like this. I am traveling back on January but dread what service I will encounter. I am happy to post this on social media as well just to enlighten people the service to expect on BA.

I received another survey few weeks back and had the same response what I gave in the previous survey. BA acknowledged the survey and asked me to email the problem I had and they opened a case. I explained everything what happened during my flight. After couple of weeks, BA responded back apologizing and they feel sorry for what happened and they would keep in mind my feedback. I called in few mins ago and they gave the same response apologizing and the CS rep did not even allowed me to talk to her supervisor saying he/she would give the same response.

At this point, I would like to tell BA is that I am not really giving feedback but complaining about what happened: Inconvenience, Rude behaviour from air hostess, not acknowledging my previous complaint and survey. All the above after spending $7000 for a business fare for convenience. I've decided not to fly with BA anymore.

I asked the staff to change my husband's seat because he also had heart bypass last year, but they were so unbelievably rude and didn't care a bit. On the way back with upgraded one seat to economy plus for yet another $330.00 (tickets were $1,320 pounds for one ticket and 1,200 for the other), a total waste because the space is barely an improvement to the economy class. The woman in front of me reclined the seat all in one move and hit me in the head which caused quite a headache. I wrote to the CEO and his boss at the following emails: **, **. That proved a complete waste of time. I had to follow up with yet another email just to get a standard email from their customer "service" group with hope you'll fly with us again. This company is out of control.

Our booking was made on 1/29/2015 for Premium Economy cabin at a total cost of $3,145.84. On 2/12/2015 we were charged $677.68 (see credit card statement attached) and were deducted 53,500 Avios for and cabin upgrade from premium economy to business on the route MIA-LHR-IST. On 2/1/2015 advance seat selection was made. On 2/1/2015 wheelchair service was requested for the entire trip. On 9/29/2015 Itinerary for booking ** was printed indicating, as was expected, Club World Status (Business) on the route MIA-LHR-IST.

On 10/5/2015 I attempted to check-in online but was unable to. Being unable to check in online and after many anguishing unsuccessful phone calls to inquire why, we decided on an early arrival to BAs counter the next day. We arrived promptly and 17:30 at the BA counter. The agent was confused and unable to understand our booking upon which I requested a supervisor. I was told I didn't need a supervisor, upon which I insisted that I wished to speak to one. The agent obstinately denied my request and said that she was going to get a ticketing agent. Again I insisted for a supervisor to no avail. So then I said "Ok then, where is the ticketing agent." Oh surprise! "She's in a meeting and will be out in 10 minutes, please take a seat", which I did. The 10 minutes elapsed and extended into 2 anguishing hours, several times in the interim inquiring why this was taking so long.

Finally at 19:30 the ticketing agent appeared, namely Joan **- duty manager with Susan ** in tow. They appeared totally stupefied as to our booking, unable to understand anything. By then it was 20:00 and I was worried we were going to miss our flight (20:40) and so explained that there were prepaid hotel reservations and private tour guides involved if we missed our flight. I showed them all our documentation to prove payments, upgrades and printed itinerary from BA, but they kept stalling. Susan ** came out saying that there was no way we could fly in business as the cabin had been sold out entirely. Upon which I asked how that could be when we had paid for reserved seats 18A & 18B and showed her the Itinerary print out indicating this.

At this point I really thought we were not going to fly and was told that we either downgrade to fly premium economy or pay an additional $900.00 to fly Business. Of course I would not accept such an insidious assault after we had made our booking 8 months in advance, if there was an issue with our booking why weren't we advised before and not at the last minute prior to boarding? Why an itinerary was issued indicating the upgrade and why wasn't it being honored? And why was our cash held for 8 months with no intention of honoring our purchase? We ended traveling premium economy and my respect for British Airways dropped to the floor. I could not believe or understand how such an important airline could have staff that had mistreated customers in such manner.

During the flight I visited my sister who was traveling with us in Business (she had purchased her ticket from a travel agency in Miami). It turns out that Seats 18A & B were in fact empty and concluded to add insult to injury that Susan ** had lied to us at the counter. You should be able to verify from your files on this flight to confirm empty seats statement. I know I can't prove to you Susan ** lied, just the same, believe it or not, I've never had any previous qualms with her and so have no reason to disparage her, I do know how she argued and misrepresented the truth whilst at the counter. I never thought I would encounter this type of persons representing BA. I never thought we would encounter the humiliation from BA of being ignored for two hours at the counter because the deciding person was in a meeting.

For the record and for what it's worth, as a citizen holding dual US and British Nationality, I always took pride of my British side and it's been my preference to fly BA. The last time was sometime between 2003 & 2004 as can be verified by the printed copy of the last Executive Club card I kept from my last trip. Unfortunately now, it goes without saying, after this harrowing experience, I have to say in no uncertain terms, it has given me pause to rethink my future travel preferences. Accordingly, I hereby demand immediate reimbursement PLUS INTEREST for the cash amount paid of US $667.68+$372 = $1,039.68 plus the return of the 53,500 Avios use for the not honored upgrade.

During 2008 when I flew with them for first time, even my checked in baggage was lost by British Airways. And for my things worth 5000 USD, I was given 50$ by BA which I returned literally throwing it on their face. I will write this detailed review to my company Nokia Siemens and my spouse will write to her company RBS to never book any corporate travel on BA and prefer other airlines. I request other friends and family to never travel by BA, for the safety of their lives and luggage.. Very poor flight experience and very embarrassing and hostile staff by British Airways. This is easily a must avoid airlines. Shame on British Airways.

In accordance with the travel documentation advice and screen blurb 25 hours before flight departure. I was glued to my laptop with a screen full of booking information and a trembling finger awaiting the opening of the Heathrow seat booking system. I believed foolishly as it turned out - that if I was 24 hours and one minute before my flight time that I would have a good chance of getting the seat that I need.... Were my ambitions realised? Not really. What the screen did tell me was that I had been allocated one seat from a total available list of three!! So at least it appeared I was going to get a seat but not one I had chosen. If I wanted to change it, all I had to do was to click the request button and I could have another seat in this case either of two similar seats to the one I had been dumped in!!!

This was the point when the blue haze took over as I realised the sham of the whole seat allocation/ Passenger choice that British Airways had drawn me into. A quick trawl through the website only confirmed my conclusion that I must be outside of an undisclosed internal allocation system of British Airways which allowed them to allocate seats on the flight - outside of the stated - 24 hour window!!

The BA message - and offer to all passengers - is in my view quite clear. The airline wants others and me to select the best available seat. Accepting of course that allocations have to be managed by those with responsibility for safety /Health/ Aircraft performance etc. The wording of the BA offer is meant to be persuasive so British Airways tell us to: Don't wait. Everyone's idea of the perfect seat is different, which is why we let you choose your own. You'll even have a greater seat choice, so go ahead and check in 24 hours before you fly... And... Reserve your seat and get a wider choice before check-in opens. Unfortunately in practice - this is blatantly untrue. The reality of the situation is that BA have evolved a system where the worth- more passengers get access and first choice of seats before the worth-less ones get access.

Be warned checking in with British Airways promises much on seat allocation but delivers to only a few!!! As I have said my conclusion is that as a passenger I unfortunately fall into an undeclared - special category of Sub-passenger. Despite taking this particular trip on a club class ticket - primarily to help avoid some of the effects of sitting / Sleeping for 14 hours in a large projectile called a 747!! Having passed the three score plus sixteen year target it helps everyone if you can select an aircraft seat which has the best prospect of giving other passengers peace and quiet - on a 14 hour flight to Heathrow. The experience of the old guy - in the middle of the seating area - traipsing over their legs and other body parts is one to eliminate whenever possible!

So to the end of this personal download. British Airways have to amend their information on seat allocation to make it plain that it is their policy is to operate a two tier system for - multi-trip & occasional trip passengers. The result of this two- tier classification is the imposition of a strict limitation of seat choices for this worth-less passenger category. At the present time British Airways - the company - is misinforming passengers, by failing to notify the general public of their internal streaming of seating allocations for their flights whilst claiming to offer all potential air travellers a fair and non-discriminatory service for travel on their aircraft. From one disappointed but less frustrated occasional and worthwhile flier!!

On another flight, I tried to upgrade again but when my travel agent booked the flight, BA did not provide the flight reservation code. Therefore I could not request an upgrade online. I then called customer service to upgrade. After waiting on hold for 25 minutes, I was told that it was an American Airlines flight but a BA plane. So I should go to the airport to see if I could upgrade at the counter.

On the way home to Europe after three weeks they used the same stone-age plane with the same crew. On the runway the pilot decided to check engine #3 because he did not like the readings on his instruments. After sitting 2h on the plane (still on the runway) they decided not to leave Denver this night due to some technical issues. We all were asked to collect our luggage and meet at the BA counter to collect hotel vouchers. The queue was endless because there were only 3 members of BA ground staff handling 400+ passengers. The hotel voucher said "hotel **" (no phone, no address). No information about the next flight, the only thing BA staff mentioned was "Flight updates can be found online on BA.com".

When handing the voucher to the taxi driver he informed us there was no such hotel in Denver. In fact there are 7 hotels of this chain but none with this name. So we decided to choose the one closest to the airport. Just after midnight we arrived there and of course the hotel did not accept the voucher. We were lucky to get a room which was billed on our credit card.

The next morning, at 11:00am we had to leave the room, meanwhile we found that BA tried to get another flight with spare parts over from the UK and we would fly out approx. at midnight the following day. As there is no storage for passenger’s luggage at Denver airport we did not know what to do with our suitcases for the next 13 hours. So we decided to rent a car which could hold the luggage and "waste another day" at the Denver Science Museum. Up to this point nobody of the BA team informed us about what they were going to reimburse in the end. This time the BA flight made it to London - quality of the plane, food and staff was as poor as on the flight over to the US.

Once back at home we received a 1 page document stating which amounts were covered by BA and a link to a webpage to file all receipts, invoices, etc. It took > 4 weeks to get some feedback from customer service and of course they compensated only a fraction of the real costs (which were in total still below the amounts mentioned on their form). When asking for details of their calculation the request was simply ignored. After several calls and e-mails to their customer service we finally gave up. Our money is now mentally "written off" but one thing we learned - NEVER BA AGAIN!

I called again. I got this nasty man who then again informed me that it would be another 7 days before I got my refund. I asked to speak to his supervisor. He told me that there wasn't one there and that he was the only person there. I waited until Monday, October 5th, 2015. I talked to a lady. I got her name. She apologized and said that it was a mistake and that I would now get my refund in 3-5 business days!!! I asked to speak to her supervisor. She told me that he would tell me the same thing. I insisted to speak to her Supervisor. She transferred me to him. I told him everything. He put me on hold for a few minutes and came back. He was apologetic and said because of my "special circumstances", that my refund would be on my Visa in 2 days which would be the 7th of October, 2015. The 7th of October has come and gone.

I contacted British Airways again this morning and I spoke to a lady and I had to argue with her to speak with her Supervisor. He then had the nerve to tell me that the refund was in my Visa account. In the meantime I had Visa on my Cell Phone while talking to the Supervisor. The Supervisor gave me a Ticket Number. I read it off to my Visa Agent and she was really disgusted and said that there was no such ticket number and that it had nothing to do with my refund. She checked my Visa balance and my refund was not into my account. I then informed the British Airways Supervisor as I let him know that I had Visa on the other phone and that the payment had not come through. I said that every time I called they all said that.

I have already paid for the second booking and am still waiting for my refund of over $ 844.00. I cannot reach a Customer Service department as their site keeps referring me to somewhere else. And there is no refund Department that I can talk to either. I am now telling people to choose another airline. I need my refund and I have been getting nothing but excuses and lies from their agents!!!

You imagine this so called top of the range airline to have a much better customer service but believe me it's totally disgusting the way he was spoken to and treated bearing in mind he was only going to this fight after being asked as the original person going was unable to do so. Now 365.00 out of pocket. We were considering flying with BA next year for the first time. Never happening. Would prefer to go on a bus.

Our comp for having to reschedule our flight for 2 hours later was a 5 euro food voucher. On the way back, we get to the airport 2 hours before our flight was scheduled. Minutes after arriving, the flight board let us know that the flight was now noon, not 9 AM. After 3 hours of standing in line, we got new flights and a 28 Euro comp. for food. I was VERY disappointed that we had major problems both ways from the U.S to Germany.

Original Review: Sept. 14, 2015

Back in April I bought a returned ticket for my 85 year old mother in law to visit her very first grandbaby via BA.com. I used my bank card to place the booking and I received a booking acknowledgement in the mail. I got online a day prior to her departure to confirm her booking and I wasn't able to do so. I would think someone from British Airways would send me a payment notification error which I never received. I proceeded to call them and two Indians from unknown origin I spoke with exhibited zero customer service skills and I'm sure they could use more training to avert future customer complaints on issue that is as easy as correcting and verifying credit card information with the customer.

Fake supervisor that got on the phone pretty much stated he would have to side with his colleagues and that her booking has been cancelled and if she were to continue with the existing booking, the ticket fare has gone up two times the initial cost of the ticket that was $1295.83 . Surprisingly, British Airways still charged my card after they have advised me the card holder's name does not match the traveler's name and that the booking I placed has been cancelled. My problem with British Airways now is getting them to acknowledge their agent misled us in their attempt to exploit me to pay more money for the booking merely because card holder name does not match traveler's name. I believe if weren't able to get the service we paid for from BA, we are entitled to a full refund not penalizing the traveler for not showing up because she was misled.

I have requested for a refund since August following BA refund request guidelines and I'm yet to see my money in my account. When I called to find out its status, one representative told me they can't give me any information that I must get 85 year old mother in law on the phone who has no knowledge of how ticket was purchased for her. I asked her politely to check the notes in the system that she has authorized me to represent her full interest in the matter since I was the one who paid for the ticket. She insisted she must speak to her so I got her on the phone with her only for her to tell me BA not able to refund my card because credit card name is different from traveler's name.

Does this makes sense to anyone because it was the same card British Airways was used to process the payment? I think BA should clean house by recruiting qualified candidates with common sense to help boost their customer service ratings because I don't see how your company can remain competitive with this type of lousy customer service ratings. Consumer beware!

On return journey I checked in online as usual. Changed our seats to the final row. Got on board to find the row had no window. Flight too full to move elsewhere. Partner a very nervous flyer and had a horrible journey back. Felt he was in a coffin and heart flutter. Returned next day due to stress of the journey. All made worse by 30 min delay on departure and a further 30 min delay before being allowed to land at LHR.

We also noted that cabin staff in economy could barely cope with a full cabin. Instead of a trolley starting at either end, there was only one with two staff. For the "widest short range jet" of 25 rows, 6 across this was not enough.

Costs have been cut. Clearly staff are demoralized and customer service has gone out of the window. Obviously not the window at row 25.

It's anyone's guess whether or not I will receive my refund. I do not understand why BA couldn't handle my reservation from start to finish. All of these unnecessary phone calls to Iberia, speaking to agents with thick accents, being on hold for 30 mins at a time, could have been easily circumvented if BA did their job completely. Not only that but now I'm out $85 for a seat.

Another advantage that I saw in flying BA was arriving at Terminal 5, which used to be more functional than the other terminals. However, on my last three flights, it was a bus transfer to the terminal which took a really long route. On Friday 28th August, we were kept on the plane for over ten minutes because the buses didn't arrive. The same happened to a friend of mine, arriving from Beijing that day. I have now booked my next long-haul flight, to Johannesburg, with Virgin, in my search for an airline that is not so mean!

Well here is when the surprised start, my seat assignment was aisle 39. After I looked I thought it was a mistake, but the steward told me that was my seat next to the window. I was furious. The space for the legs was maybe 20/25 inches and the seat near the window forced me to have my wife and the lady next to her to constantly stand up for me. You can imagine how happy I was. Nobody helped me with a new accommodation and the return, London to Phoenix, was the same!!! Same aisle. I tried to email BA. The response I got was that they would transfer the complaint to customer service. It was July first week.

My question is very simple: THE HANDICAPPED PEOPLE are considered 3rd class people. There is any law that has some consideration for them, me? Driving, we have special assigned spaces to park, flying and paying pretty good money. We are treated like.. well you know what!!! Thank you for reading this and I hope I can hear from you. Good day!

Air Lingus was gracious and got us a hotel room and on to a flt the next day. I am a doctor and told BA employees that I have 2 patients for scheduled for surgery in Boston the next day. They chuckled. I have written to all my colleagues in the various journals and blogs of what happened! Hopefully, I can at least start a healthcare network to block any business to BA. Just a brutal experience. Yes they also lost my luggage. Delta the next day took us to Boston. They were great.

Called the 'customer service' number to be patched through to a call centre. I am sure they are very nice people and I feel for them as they are the ones dealing with upset customers through no doing of their own however you only get repeated phrases which are clearly read from a script even after being put through to a 'manager'. Apparently I can write when I return about my complaint, they didn't care that it would be too late and the damage done.

The fact that BA didn't even have the decency to email/call me to inform me of the change and strangely no mention of a refund for my prepaid seats which was money paid for specific seating. This to me appears to be a very good money making exercise for BA to take your money for seats, which I have been informed they can't guarantee, then change you to other seats for 'operational reasons' of which strangely they are unable to provide details. Would not like to recommend BA to anyone and to be honest I have had much more success and helpfulness from Easyjet customer service.

After we finally made it to Bombay, one of our check-in bag was missing. After an hour of procedure and form filling we were told they will try to trace and deliver the bags. It has been 7 days since the bag was lost. No response when I call the customer service. They just rudely hang up. No response to e-mails, no information on when the bag may be returned to me or how to go about getting a compensation. Worst ever flying experience and certainly my last one with BA. If you find a cheap flight to Asia, be wary, they are cheap for a reason.

When I called to express my concerns, BA couldn't have cared less saying, "That's our policy", that if I didn't want to pay their fee I could get a seat online 24 hours before the flight, but they could give no assurances my wife and I would be able to sit together. BA had my money and I was stuck with no alternative but to surrender to what I think is a deceptively horrible business practice or endure seven months of seat anxiety. I decided to wait.

2. Failed online check in. When I dutifully logged on the day before the flight I got an error message - seat assignment not available. When I finally got through to BA on the phone the rep told me: someone had double booked our flight, denied there was anything they could do to fix it, refused to assign us our seats and said I would have to take care of things at the airport. Of course we ended up with the last two - worst possible - next to the toilet seats.

3. No breakfast. We passed on the 10PM dinner, opting for sleep and looking forward to a nice English breakfast. What we got was a choice of a small 6 dish of fruit or cereal - not both - and a mini croissant. Then the cabin attendant offered a bacon roll, which was a 3 by 1 plain, cheap, white bread with a small, thin, single layer - about one fourth of a rasher of bacon. That was it. Got off the plane hungry and had to buy breakfast in the terminal. Worst breakfast ever, even for all the years we flew economy and absolutely, unacceptable on a business class (BC) flight.

4. Bad cabin layout. Half the BC seats are backwards. BA stuffs the cabin into a 2-4-2 configuration. The only way you can sit side by side is to take the two middle seats in the 4, which are all backwards. We like to ride facing forwards and sit side by side which is impossible on BA. If you don't mind riding backwards that might be OK for a couple but it would be horrible with a stranger because they have only a very small separation and minimal divider. Way too close for comfort. An even worse feature is if you sit together in the middle, the two outside seats in the 4 face forward so you are staring right in the face of strangers. The "nose to nose" separation is 28", which is definitely inside my personal space. There is a semi-transparent barrier that you can raise for privacy but while it is down for takeoffs, meal and drink service and landings it was very uncomfortable.

Instead of looking at the back of a seat you are staring face to face with another person and there is no escape. We raised the barrier and thought we were safe. Until the cabin attendant lowered it to serve. The two middle seats are accessible by going around the back of the four-seat pod and the male attendant would do that. Unfortunately for us the people handling the service carts just reached over the person on the aisle to lower the barrier and served us over him. Food got passed under his nose and across his lap. Come morning while he was trying to sleep the process was repeated waking him up. The seats on the two narrow aisles have no barrier, which makes it hard to sleep with no privacy at all. The two seats on the side face each other. The only seats in BC where you can sleep with privacy and without being disturbed are the ones next to the windows and all of them face backwards.

5. Sub-standard seats. BA claims they offer lay flat seats, which, may be technically true but means something completely different than we have experienced on any other airline. Only half of the seat is automated. There is no leg or foot support that can be adjusted. Switching to flat requires you to get up out of your seat to manually un-latch a fold down one-foot wide, two feet long footrest. I found it cumbersome and uncomfortable. If the aisle seat in the row ahead is down the only way out of the window seats is an awkward step over which inevitably wakes you the person who is trying to sleep. If you want to be able to sit where you can talk to your partner then that always means bothering a stranger. Simply put there are no decent seats. Half to less than that of space compared to any other BC flight.

Another unique feature is the lack of any place to put a drink. The armrest is a 2.5" rounded vinyl. The only option is to lower the large tray table which makes it impossible to get up or cross your legs. My wife had to hold my drink for me while I put the tray table away got up and then re-employed the tray table again so she could put the drink down. Returning to your seat requires the same cumbersome process in reverse.

There were other things peculiar to our flight. It was 1.5 hours late getting away. The entertainment system crashed 30 minutes into flight and was down for an hour. Had to start the movie over. Each reboot or new movie subjects you to the same three commercials. No cans of club soda-semi flat "sparkling" from a large already opened bottle. Crummy small packet of cold nuts. Only get a single small appetizer of two choices offered. We have had better food on economy flights. Bright light strips over windows stay lit for first 3 hours of the flight washing out the movie screen.

The type of seat and the cabin layout may allow for cramming more people into the BC area but we did not like it at all. BA managed 8 seats a row when the other guys at most have 6 or less.The window seats are like a small coffin. The direct flight on BA is nice but we will never take it again. Even with a change of plane the overall BC experience is much better on all the other companies with service to London. Even if all of our concerns with food, cabin layout, service and seats were fixed the charge for an assigned Business Class seat by BA means they will never get any more of our business.

The airline could help this situation if they had no recline or an inch recline. Why should the person behind the reclining seat have no space. I paid for the seat but could not sit in seat 29B. I will NEVER travel on British Air again. I think it is physically DANGEROUS to be squished into such a small spot. I have traveled many miles on many airlines over the many years I have traveled and each time you get on a plane it seems that they give you less and less room but this was by far the worst experience I have ever had!!!

To my surprise the cabin was 70 empty - I tried before to use Avios points to get back to book the flight - no luck. It was November no high season. To their defense the Flight Attendants are excellent. Now back to trying to use a companion ticket, the rules state it has to be on a BA Airplane - no code sharing. The only option is use BA from LAX-LHR which scandalously has one of the highest landing fees in the world. So I have given up to use Companion Tickets just Avios points. I challenge anyone to find 1 Seat on a BA anytime of the year. Last month I found a return flight from ZRH-LAX but I'm not that good of a swimmer to cross the Atlantic maybe a Cruise ship?? In any case they rather fly with a half empty plane in business/first than to make their customers happy and give them what they promised. I consider this a complete breach of contract. How do they think I amassed 400000 Avois points??

When you call them and say "can I use my Avios point on AA," yes they always show availability. The catch is AA offers Business/First mile savers, but BA will only give you the most expensive seats even when they show availability (180K vs. 60K) with ridiculous routings. LAX JFK on a 737 (kill me now) and then 12 hours later on a decent plane when you actually can lay down. When question BA about their discrepancies they claim to have a much better product and AA miles are more worth than AA Miles. Really??? I challenge anybody to find anything using miles.

All BA said, "YES WE ARE SORRY, WE GOT IT WRONG AND WE SHOULD HAVE TRIED TO CONTACT YOU, BUT WE ARE WITHIN POLICY TO DO SO. SORRY NO COMPENSATION." BA take a leaf out of the Middle East carriers - they would never treat their customers like you do. If I missed the flight it would be my fault and my loss of money. BA cancels mine the day of departure and I end up losing £150 and it is still my fault. How's that fair???? THANKS BA.

Original Review: July 1, 2015

Avoid British airway at all cost!!! Took BA twice in my life and had issue for both time. My flight was cancelled after I've checked in online, and I was only informed last minute. When I arrived at heathrow terminal 5 customer service department, the first thing I was told by customer officer, **, was "we can't do anything about it, there is no aircraft, you can only board on the next 2 flight" which is 8 hours away as next flight was full. Only after 2 hours of discussion and finally they agreeable to let me rest at airport lounge as I've just arrive from 18 hrs flight from Sg with transit. They did not even offer any form of compensation. As I've seen in BA website itself stating that there's compensation for flight delay which is more than 2 hours according to EU law. I'll never fly with this airway in the future! Avoid at all cost please!!

When I stated that I'll need a bag of this type to return to New York, I was offered a choice of a canvas or nylon bag or 63 pounds sterling (less than 90 Euros at today's exchange rate). BA contracts out claims for lost or damage property to a company called K2 whose manner over the phone is dismissive and cold. They informed me that there were limits that could not be exceeded, placed on the compensation offered to clients. I've been ripped off by British Airways and regret that, having a round trip ticket, I'll have to fly them again to return home. If this is a sample of their client relations, I'm not looking forward to that flight!

She made me waste 2 hours of my time to find the 'Tax Free' agent who assured me of what I know which is, No Tax Free claim before the security checkpoint. It was so sad when I came back to her that she claimed that it was my tour guide fault to ask her question about customer. I said that "you refused to check-me in before I go to claim my Jeweler set," but she went on saying that she never said that and it is all my fault. When I asked for her name from the supervisor working at that time, ** told her not to give me her last name. I was about to lose my plane because of her ignorance. I had the worst experience ever with British Airways.

So my first flight got delayed, the information we had was a technical issue, and I lost the connection. There were direct flights to Bilbao from Gatwick but even if you won't believe me, they told me that they could change me the flight but that I had to pay the train to Gatwick. Finally they offer me another possibility and here is where it comes the intended customer mislead. They gave me a flight to Bilbao arriving 22:50 (4:05 h delay) through Madrid with around 40 minutes for the connection, with different terminals, in an airport where they do not have an office, and they even didn't write the gate closes time in the second boarding pass so I could not see the time and they could get rid of me because as I said, in Madrid they not have an office (I have obviously all the tickets and documentation with me).

In this process they downgrade myself to the worst flight conditions (latest boarding group, not a single water or sandwich in the plane), and when I asked for a sandwich, even if you don't believe me, they told me that even though the total delay was more than 4 hours, the next flight (not to my destination) was taking off not late enough to offer me anything. As expected I lost again my connection in Madrid but as they carefully planned, there was now not British Airways office in Madrid and I had to go to Iberia which they explained that this was something that British Airways was doing on a regular basis, that you were knowing full well doing this opportunistic game with customers. Here I lost myself due to fury and impotence because of being so clearly mislead, and I break my luggage against a wall.

Even after all this I did not use the hotel they were offering me as I had a friend living in Madrid. I do not use what I don't need but on the other hand I am relentless when it comes to get what I deserve (in this case a compensation). The next flight to Bilbao was arriving at 12:50 next day which made my journey of 26 hours in an airport where British Airways didn't even offer me anything to eat or drink, and downgrade myself to the lowest level possible of service you can have in the planes (as I paid an expensive flight with drinks and food included). With all of this, I am positive about that the 400 Eur refund stated on the EU air passenger's rights is not enough for this case.

Your shameful customer mislead directly causing a break of luggage due to desperation clearly as a result of the situation, and the fact that I took a day off on my job as the aim of my trip was to be home the 12th of June (as stated previously, that was a really important date in my family with who I don't live for the last 6 years of my life), makes my luggage, my flight downgrade, the lack of food and drinks during this 26 hours and the value of the working day, also refundable. As I am positive that all this delays were not caused by extraordinary circumstances or major force as the 2 flights I lost (in London and in Madrid) were on time, and not extraordinary circumstances was announced in the airport, I expect British Airways to come in the following days with a fair compensation and that no further actions from my side will be needed.

To add insult to injury, I spent several hours on the phone with BA trying to get help from heavily accented representatives at BA's call centers in India who were hard to understand and kept me on hold repeatedly at length. None seemed to have any empathy for my situation. Further, I am very upset that because the second leg of my flight, from London to Rome, was canceled, BA went ahead and rebooked my first flight from Boston to London (which had not been cancelled) without notifying me first. I would have preferred to spend a day in London rather than miss a whole day of my long awaited vacation, but was never offered this option!

I asked if I could fly a day earlier, so that I could still arrive in Rome for my anniversary. I was told there were no available seats. I asked if they could book me on another airline. I was told no. I asked if they would upgrade me to first class on the rebooked flight since I lost my prime upper deck seat that I paid extra for. Again, no. With no apparent recourse but to suck it up and take what they were offering me, I tried selecting a seat on BA's website. But due to technical problems, I am unable to access my booking. After calling numerous times, I was told to try again tomorrow. I tried the next day, but still cannot access my reservation and was not offered any remedy. My husband just canceled our 30th anniversary dinner reservation. I am heartbroken and so sorely disappointed in BA and their lack of caring customer service. My emails and tweets to BA's customer service have gone unanswered. Will never fly this airline again.

1. There are more than 10000 traveler from India to Europe every year and this figure is increasing day by day, If UK embassy have such a rigid requirements why not it is separately communicated via mail from British Airways to all the Indian travelers?? Though they used to send 2-3 commercial mail for seat booking and upgradation why not a simple mail for communicating some essential information so a normal traveler like me can avoid humiliation on Airport.

2. Why British Airways club their booking to all the travel website and portals as UK has got different set of requirements for Visa and Transit? Most of their Airlines go via London. As its altogether very different requirements comparing with all the Airlines, Why they are not communicating separately? They should have pop up a message while booking only so one can get essential information.

3. I have travel via Zurich or via Hong-Kong. Nowhere I have faced this problem. Now as per your rules if such a rigidity why British Airways club their booking to the normal Agents and Travel website?

4. I have made web check for everyone. My wife and kids were denied for boarding but I was going. Why my seat was change from 48A to 22G and then I was informed that it's upgraded to 26K. I will not appreciate my kids and wife were left at Airport unattended and I am enjoying upgradation.

I have suffered a lot of mental trauma while booking through BA airlines leaving my kids and Wife at airport unattended. If this is the essential requirements of UK embassy its total mistake and blunders from BA to permit booking of Indian Traveler to European nations without separately communicating some essential information.

Long story short - I received a text reminding me to book our specific seats. I couldn't after some 8 attempts. BA did not answer their phones when I tried to call them on 2 separate attempts. Taking website advice we went to the airport and then found we couldn't check in. On arriving at the 'service' desk (there's an oxymoron if ever there was one!) we were told that we had not seats and we needed to buy our tickets - again! We paid £400 online the first time (it was a good deal with the air miles) but then we had to pay AGAIN this time for £2400!

Given we had a booking reference and proof of payment for the required air mile AND an absolute assurance TWICE from the BA sales agent on their service that we would have no problems we were livid. All attempts at the BA formal complaint process were a joke. Despite producing solid evidence the sole purpose of the procedure it to deny any and all claims and make the BA customer suffer further by putting any obstacles they can in place for any reasonable solution. We are now requesting copies of the BA call under the UK Freedom of Information Act.

With a booking reference number, confirmation of payment for the tickets and the transcript confirming contract we would like to BA has no leg to stand on here. Justice and customer service at BA do not however appear to exist so we are uncertain of our outcome at this stage. We appealed BA's decision claiming that their grounds for dismissing our claim were completely groundless and asked that they review the decision... In true BA fashion they decided not to even bother to reply to our appeal. How BA continues to survive in the internet age with such appalling customer service is a complete mystery to us!

Finally, on my own, I discovered the bag was at the Bellingham Airport and would not be delivered because British Airways will not pay their bill with the courier. I was able to drive to the airport and pick up my bag. Still, 5 days later, I have not heard from BA regarding the status of my bag. In addition, my BA flight from London to Seattle was pure torture with no leg room and seat in front reclined so I could scarcely move, and the food was terrible. First time to travel with BA but never again!

So, I am now back in England and I've made my enquiry about getting a refund. I got a lousy email (when I had asked for a phone call) saying that I wasn't due a refund because the seats I had paid for wasn't for extra legroom. I then proceeded to phone customer relations to find out more answers and I just got nothing. They said they had no trace of the phone call I made back in October therefore there was no evidence to suggest that I was mis-sold something. All they kept saying was that I paid for normal seat not extra legroom! I would not recommend them one bit. A company of their size and can't see that I was in the right. I'm disgusted.

We appeared in Heathrow and had 2 hours till next flight, but the guys at customs (in 'connecting flights' section) were soooo slow, that we have hardly got to our flight. There were like 10 people in a line, but it took like 5-7 minutes for the slow guys to check each bag. Several people missed their flights because of this and the chiefs whom I asked to give more people just told me to shut up and wait. I just don't understand, I got from one airplane with a bag, didn't leave the security zone, but had the same checkup to get to another plane. In neither of airports I had this. Heathrow - never again.

I bought all three tickets from BA just to have my baggage secured from the beginning of the journey till the end. And you, BA, lost it. Not American Airlines, while I flew from Honolulu to Dallas and then Heathrow, but BA in Heathrow!!! Come on, you had 2 hours to deal with baggage and you couldn't make it??? Lufthansa deals with it in 40 minutes... One week later you still can't find my suitcase... I was going to Spain to take part in IRONMAN 70.3 competition, my sport uniform was in my luggage and so I had to buy everything just because you've lost it.

BA lost my luggage, I arrive at Barcelona and there's nobody to talk to... Iberia has 1 guy working on BA's luggage and his English is so poor that I talked to his almost in gestures... Come on, that's how you treat people? Iberia's phone for BA never answers... Thanks a lot. You've lost my luggage and can't even tell me whom I can ask about it.

BA's site for the lost luggage... Is there anything I can understand from it? Really? Nothing... There are just some words saying that it is lost and you have no idea how to find it... Perfect, you just can't do better, as I understand. This is why I am extremely dissatisfied with BA and I will make sure I try to fly anything else. Believe me, Lufthansa, Emirates, Aeroflot and others do much better... Sorry for my true description of my problems because of BA.

Original Review: May 11, 2015

My mother's wish was to have her 4 children together for her 80th birthday. She lives in UK three of us live in Australia. She paid for my sister and I to travel in June 2015. We booked tickets in December. In April 2015 my sister's son aged 15 was diagnosed with a highly malignant brain tumour which obviously meant my sister could not travel. He is to have radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery. I contacted BA and requested a name change so that I could give my sister the money for the ticket and I would take my own son with me. My sister is a single mum and every penny counts. British Airways refused to allow refund or name change. They were and are completely heartless. Said they could have a date change but that would be bang in the middle of chemo.

We weren't asking for any money just to change the name. We tried contacting them just kept being diverted to a call centre in India. Absolutely would not budge. Yes we should have had insurance and we had every intention of getting it nearer the time but really who could be so heartless? It's no skin off their nose. Just to change the name. So now they'll keep the money for the ticket, give somebody else the seat and make yet more money. You know, complete strangers have donated to my nephews fund raising appeal so my sister can stay at home with him whilst he undergoes this terrible ordeal but a multi billion company like British Airways won't give a cent. Shame on you.

The 2 meals were reasonable in taste and temperature, being a breakfast and a dinner, that's all I would say about them, and strong coffee and stewed tea tasted as one would expect it to at 38,000 feet from a plastic cup, with the added flavour of some turbulence. Drinking water was offered at regular intervals, to help with our survival. I would have reserved a seat (costing £30) but they had all gone by the time that I inquired.

On the return flight I paid £400 for an upgrade to British Airways Economy Plus. What a difference! I was seated near the bulkhead and could have almost laid flat (there being nobody in front of me) I had enough arm room to have a stretch out when ever I wished. I was given a menu to choose my meal. The water was now several choice flavours of fruit juice. Everybody was given a survival pack consisting of ear phones, eye shades, toothbrush and paste, ear plugs, etc. Not to mention blanket and flight socks. What a difference paying £400 extra can make.

I began to wonder what Club Class or Business Class would have offered and at what price. In conclusion I would ask all flight operators, who are charging passengers high prices to sit for many hours in total discomfort, to reduce the number of seat rows so that economy class travelers are given enough space to stretch their legs, and put food and drinks to their lips, not to be ripped off hundreds of £ for these basic necessities.

Lo and behold I check my credit card bill and she billed me! Keep in mind I had not flown yet. So I called up BA and they said not to worry - they will take care of it but call after I fly the first leg - JFK-MIA. OK so in middle of my vacation I call them up and they say, "No we cant help you." So I call back again and they say "Call us when you're back in NY." I called when I got back and I have played phone tag, sent emails, left voice mails and basically driven myself crazy with usually totally clueless representatives. I have been with BA for almost 7 yrs and have accumulated a ton of miles. I thought I would be treated better.. but I was mistaken.

WARNING - don't trust the rep if they say they will waive the fee. At the end of the day on short haul flights BA has superb mileage flights but the hassle of dealing with them comes along with that. As for me personally I expect a little more loyalty than that and will now say goodbye to British Airways and take my business elsewhere. Supposedly Southwest is pretty good. You might say I am crazy because it was only $50, and looking back you're right, but each time I was reassured I just had to make one more phone call or send one more email. Hindsight is 20/20. I only patronize businesses that have loyalty. Hope this helps anyone looking to start using BA.

The current BA policy for the class of ticket I purchased states no refunds. Consequently, I suffered a penalty loss of 4394.00. Notwithstanding the fact that I purchased this restricted ticket I feel that the amount of loss I have suffered is completely unreasonable bearing in mind that BA had plenty of notice to resell my tickets. BA’s explanation for the size of the penalty is the cost of administration. Other organizations who offer advantageous rates for early purchase have an ascending scale of penalties higher for cancellation the nearer to the travel or occupancy date e.g. hotels, this seems to be a very equitable way of operating.

A search of the flight conditions when booking on the net, indicates the restricted refund policy, but is not really emphasized, secondly the traveler is not alerted to this condition on the e-ticket. BA and everyone else must know that members of the public almost automatically tick the I Agree box without reading through reams of text; such onerous conditions should be highlighted more, (good customer care). Even travelers on the railway who purchase off peak tickets are warned on the ticket about the restrictions and bombarded with announcements. Fortunately travelers with Travel Insurance who are forced to cancel their restricted ticket flights can claim compensation if the reason for cancellation is covered. The reason for my journey no longer existed. Unfortunately my reason although very genuine and unexpected was not covered by my travel policy.

Business travelers who cancel their flights for whatever reason, can still treat the cost of the ticket as an expense for tax purposes, alright for BA and business customers but at a cost to tax payers. Furthermore, no matter what class of ticket including restricted First or Business Class if cancelled can still be charged as a business expense at even greater cost to the taxpayer. My circumstance I contend is so rare that BA are probably not confronted with a situation like mine very often, if at all and could be flexible. I am not a business, my insurance does not cover me, I am a pensioner and cannot afford to stand such a loss, BA can sell the tickets again and make a double profit and probably have. I am also longtime customer of BA with a genuine and unusual reason for cancellation and I would hope that BA would treat me reasonably and exhibit some compassion and flexible customer service.

To add insult BA charged me a further 60 because I telephoned to cancel my flight! So far after writing four letters no one has seriously addressed my particular problem, can you help?

"Could you have someone else explain that to me. It doesn't make sense that if I log in more than once I can't use Avios." "Then you have a problem understanding", he said. "I would like to speak with someone else." "No one else can explain it do you, you're just stupid." (that's not exactly what he said but what I heard anyway). At this point after the insult to my intelligence, I said I wanted to speak to someone else, over and over because as far as I was concerned, we were done. He said he would see if his colleague was available. After several minutes on hold, ** came back and said his colleague was not available to speak with me and anyway would tell me the same thing. So I got that person's name and made a complaint that I'm sure I will get no response to. I am female, I must be stupid, period. That's what I came away with. So I have to take this flight, I've already shelled out 1300. But then I'm through with BA.

I am appalled at the fact that BA seating plan on the web was different to the layout on the plane. The BA staff on the plane said that they would email HQ to this effect but the complaints team disregarded this and simply quoted terms and conditions.

British Airways was another story altogether. After not hearing from the travel website for two days and trying unsuccessfully to contact them, I phoned the local British Airways office. They said that although they could correct the spelling of the name, it was their policy not to do so when they were not dealing with 'their own' customers. When I protested that I was indeed their customer since I had purchased a ticket to fly with their airline, they replied that I was the customer of the travel website and not of their airline! To make a long story short, they refused to make the name change, rendering my ticket unusable. I consider this to be open theft, and will tell everyone I know never to travel with this unethical airline.

British Airways business model is based on aggressive overbooking of flights in order to maximize their load factor, which could be viewed as a reasonable attempt to enhance profitability. Regrettably, this leads to passengers being denied boarding or downgrading. These situations are governed by various rules and regulations, which outline procedures and compensation levels.

BA's business model does not foresee adequate compensation for its bounced passengers, in the knowledge that passengers will not pursue their claims since lawyer fees will exceed any compensation. It seems that the airline, as a matter of policy, does not ask for volunteers to surrender their reservations against compensation and instead of compensating 75% of the ticket cost pays only a standard GBP 75 with no further recourse for additional compensation. If you ever get bounced insist on immediate, full compensation because you will never obtain anything after your flight, regardless of what you are being told by the airline staff.

I informed her of the value of the laptop, she didn't seem to care. When we got to the other end, several of the passengers got up, while the seatbelt light was on. The staff did not attempt to stop them, despite the supposedly strict health and safety. One of the passengers then opened the storage space, at which point the laptop fell out. There is now severe damage to the case of the laptop, the blu-ray writer drive no longer works, the screen occasionally goes pink and green, and all in all I will NEVER EVER fly B ** A again. If the ticket had been $1800 less than Air Canada, I would still be worse off. So thanks to all the brain-dead staff at BA, I always wanted to test my laptops resistance to kinetic damage. Idiots!!!

The wheelchair assistance request was filed longer than 48 hours, which is the minimum requirement for filing such request. Under FAA's rules and regulations Bonka ** was not provided with otherwise promised service. The Air Carrier Access Act clearly prohibits such discrimination. Mrs. ** is deeply dissatisfied with the service of your airline and would like immediate reimbursement. I appreciate your cooperation and anticipate on fast resolving of the issue.

He had to buy a fresh ticket with another airlines which cost him $1500 for an economy ticket one way. When we contacted the British Airways for the refund, they told us to come through the agent. The agent claims nothing can be done as the British Airways is not ready to listen to him. We have submitted all related docs showing proof of my son. We are retired people, used our hard money to gift our son a ticket. Return ticket was purchased with another airlines that cost Rs 90000. He had to separately spend money. The trip to India cost us dearly besides the amount of stress and BP rise, all due to the notorious British Airways. Are they so strapped off money that they can cheat simple and limited resource people to fill their coffers? This is so disgusting. Didn't expect this from BA.

We have gone through the exemptions for a transit visa available on UK Govt's website www.gov.uk (Check if you need a UK Visa): "a Direct Airside Transit Visa is NOT required IF *travelling from Canada, NZ, or USA and it's less than 6 months since you last entered that Country with a valid entry visa & *Have a valid US Permanent residence card issued on or after 21 April 1998 (In our case the endorsement in the Passport evidencing Green Card status)". (This website was recently updated changing the rules again!) While this being so, the British Airways Staff manning the Check-in counters in Atlanta airport were not willing to listen to our pleas with the above citations of the UK Govt on their official website.

Frantic calls to the BA Customer support were of no use & we were denied boarding. Had to make fresh bookings for the next day on different airlines to reach Hyderabad at a very high cost as well as incurred huge additional expenditure on the accommodation & travel in Atlanta due to the denied boarding by BA. After a Complaint was lodged with their Call Center, they proposed to deduct Rs 6300/Ticket & refund the balance for the unutilized sectors. However, their Customer Relations denied the same through their response. Will I EVER Fly BA Again?

I wrote them an email, and still waiting on the response. One can't even select seats before 24 Hours, and they ask money for even seat selection. Horrible Experience. British Airways robbed me of $2000. I will never EVER fly British Airways again, nor I will let the people that I know to do business with British Airways. Anyone who's reading my review, you've been warned!!

Jump forward to my boarding. As I had upgraded to a Business class ticket, upon my arrival at the gate and the presentation of my ticket, I was greeted by a personal agent that guided me to my seat on the plane. As I was putting my work bag away on the plane, I was confronted by a very rude female flight attendant who asked that I accompany her. Having flown BA frequently in the past and a number of their affiliates, my first thought was that they were upgrading me to first class. I was totally incorrect in my assumption, as this flight attendant accused me of being intoxicated, and rudely told me that I needed to exit the plane.

It is important to note that I was not by any means intoxicated. When I asked to speak with a Supervisor regarding her statements, I was told that there was no one to talk with, and that the State Police would be accompanying me out of the airport. And, sure enough they did. And, it's important to note that one of the State Police officers said that I did not appear intoxicated. That night, I ended up in the hospital with severe health complications, and spent a week in the hospital, as a result. Upon my discharge, I called my bank to stop/reverse payment on the original ticket as well as the upgrade. They, in turn, did, but also instructed me to call BA myself. I did, and was hung up on the first four times, and then upon my fifth call, was told that they had no record that I was ever a passenger on their airline (I even supplied my itinerary number which was printed on THEIR ticket, etc). Yet, as of today (late November 2014), they have yet to refund my money. I will never do business with this airline again.

My situation raises the issue why an older person with health challenges is forced to take a large heavy bag as opposed to being able to distribute the weight in two smaller bags. Baggage should be managed by total weight as opposed to number of bags for this very reason. Obviously making money on extra bags is much more important than a traveler's health challenges. Out of principle I refuse to pay BA any more than I already have. I am canceling my BA/Chase credit card I have had since 2011. I now realize unless I fly with BA frequently (I am retired so this is not likely) the benefits from my card despite a high spend is insignificant. There are far better benefits available through other Card programs.

I called BA and was advised they would not pay for any accommodation---but they could cancel our whole trip and return all Avios and monies. We would have been tempted to do this, but we are meeting other people for our vacation. I was, and still am, highly disappointed at BA. Over the next few weeks I swapped emails with three persons in Delhi, all to no avail. I eventually located information re CEO Keith Williams and sent an email. ON HIS BEHALF, secretary by any other name, Janice **, emailed me several times, all very polite and all very management, and all very scripted. Denying any BA responsibility. She eventually came up with 5,000 AVIOS each for my travel companion and me. Totally worthless, there is nothing with which to use that amount. I even tried to use them AND cash to upgrade our return transatlantic flight but was stated "not allowable for this journey".

After I stated this was not acceptable and that I did not want the AVIOS. I, by this time just wanted to feel that BA actually cared, so I suggested, how about allowing my companion and I to book our seats in advance for free (last time flew, we booked together and were seated 9 rows apart---total and disgraceful scam having to pay for seats together when booked together--I'm awaiting the coin slots in the toilets). This was refused. I then suggested how about an upgrade to Economy Plus for that return transatlantic---again refused. I have received no further communication since June 30th. I intend to take this further, though being as I am but a peon flying economy (albeit for over 40 yrs with BA) doubtless nothing will come of it.

Anyhow, have discovered that DELTA airlines do a much fairer reward system---as an aside, my mother had a delayed flight (no overnight stopover) and DELTA sent her a $200 voucher. Totally disgusted with BA. I have often recommended BA to others, stating their crew and service to be top notch, which I believe, so far as crew, it still is. Boils down yet again to administration having an inflated sense of importance and a lack of duty to service. How often does BA do this? It was a far greater company and with better ethics when I first began to fly with BA.

Flight BA 327 from Paris to London on 9th October 14 was delayed by two hours and the website of BA started showing the delay since afternoon. Although I am a Gold Member, I was not contacted on phone or mail to convey this delay when BA knew about this all along. It was through a friend who was travelling on an earlier Flight BA 323 that day, did I come to know of this delay as he called to inform me that BA is displaying that Flight BA 327 is delayed by two hours and would reach London only by 2255 p.m. by which time my connecting flight BA 199 would have gone. When I came to know of this delay, I immediately looked at the website of BA and indeed it was true that there was a delay & I was shocked & taken aback. However, no one from BA contacted me to inform the delay, in spite of my being a Gold Card member.

I contacted the BA Office in Paris but the phone only rang and a message was recorded in the answering machine & I was asked to leave a message which I did but no one called back I then rang up the Executive Club through whom I had done the booking and spoke to Ms. Sargam **. She said that she would check up and revert or someone from the Executive Club will contact me. However, I did not get any call from the Executive Club, in spite of my having booked my ticket through them. I was left with no choice but to call some BA staff in Mumbai who have been courteous and kind to me in the past.

I first rang up and spoke to Mr. Ashwin **, at Mumbai and he said that he would check and ask Ms. Daisy ** to get in touch with me and she would help. Within a few minutes, I was on the phone with Ms. Daisy ** and she told me that I should immediately rush to the airport and try to take the earlier flight or request BA to put me on to an Air France Flight from Paris to London (which has many vacant seats) so that I could get the connection to BA 199 to Mumbai. She also promised to speak to British Airways in Paris, which she did and which I very much appreciate. I immediately rushed to the airport and went to the check in counter. Till such time there was no call from BA informing me the delay in flight.

Generally, whenever I travel from Mumbai to London, the BA Airport staff at Mumbai are so good, that if a flight is delayed, they immediately contact me and inform me that there is a delay in flight and I am likely to miss the onward connection. I appreciate this concern of the BA Airport staff in Mumbai and had in fact, recently written to BA on 28th July 14 about the quick action taken by them where the Mumbai-London flight was delayed and they were kind enough to put me on to a Jet Airways Flight thereby avoiding my missing the onward connection.

When I went to the check in counter and met the Supervisor and conveyed to her that I should be given a ticket on Air France as I had to somehow take the connecting flight BA 199 to Mumbai so as to be in time for an important meeting in Mumbai on Friday, 10th afternoon over lunch. Initially she refused saying that there is no such possibility, but, on my insisting, she told me that she could put me on to an earlier flight, i.e. BA 323 which leaves from Paris at 1805 Hours and which was already delayed and would be leaving at 2000 Hours. My colleague Dr Shailesh ** was also travelling with me and his ticket was paid for with my credit card. Dr. ** is also in my Household Account. I requested the lady to give him also a ticket along with me. Again she initially refused and only after a lot of persuasion she agreed to give him also a seat on the same flight.

It took us about 30 minutes to check in but could successfully check in for the Paris London Flight BA 323. We were given a Paris London boarding pass as well as the Boarding Pass for the London Mumbai Flight BA 199. I was relieved and rang up my people in Mumbai and conveyed that everything was in order and I should be there for my afternoon meeting on Friday, 10th October, 14 as I had a boarding pass for flight BA 199. To my surprise, the Paris London flight which was scheduled for 1805 Hours, was rescheduled to 2000 Hours and was further delayed and we landed in Heathrow London on Terminal 5C at 9.15-9.20 p.m. When we got out of the Flight, we could hear announcements being made for the London-Mumbai Flight BA 199 which was leaving from Terminal 5C. So we were relieved that we would get it, as we had landed in Terminal 5C, our flight BA 199 was to depart from 5C and we thought that security would be done at Terminal 5C only and BA staff would be there to receive us and take us to the gate faster as we were about 10-15 passengers.

We were about 10-15 people from India who were scheduled to take the BA 199 as we were all returning from the CPhI Exhibition in Paris. To our surprise again the gate at 5C connecting to arrivals to security and then departure was locked and there was no one from BA to receive us, guide us and tell us as to what to do and where to go. We were forced, without choice to take the train from Terminal 5C to 5A and go to Security of Terminal 5A. When we tried to check in before security, we were told that Flight BA 199 was about to go and we should go to flight connections & they would guide us. We immediately rushed to flight connections but there was a big queue.

Since I was a Gold member, I went forward and met Mr. Baljit ** who took my boarding pass and spoke to someone for very long. In the meanwhile I was continuously speaking to Ms. Daisy ** in Mumbai and she told me that she was also in touch with flight connections in London. She told me that the flight has not yet left & I was still on flight & if I make it to the gate, I will get the connection. I connected her to Mr. Baljit ** and he spoke to her. However, Mr. ** was not willing to listen and was telling Ms. Daisy ** that she should put me on the next flight from Mumbai. I told him that Ms. Daisy ** is trying to help but she is at the airport in Mumbai and not in charge of booking or flight connections. After a long discussion, he said he could do nothing and I should wait in the queue.

After waiting in the queue for about 35-40 minutes and still more people were coming and joining the queue, Mr. Baljit ** told us that they are going to close down the counter in spite of people being there in the queue. We were asked to go through immigrations and then go out of the airport to the 3rd floor and to the ticket counter where someone would be there to help us. He even told us that there is a bigger counter there with many people manning it and our work would get done faster (Which turned out to be all lies, lies & lies!). We requested that as we were in the queue and have waited for so long, we should be attended to but he refused. This was really disgusting & frustrating as we did not have a ticket for the next flight, we did not have a hotel to stay the night, our bags were checked in thru Mumbai, my colleague, Dr Shailesh ** did not have a visa. He had only a transit visa. There was no one at BA who wanted to help us or guide us or advise us except Mr. Baljit ** who wanted to drive away all the passengers.

We went thru immigrations. I had a visa for entry in UK but my colleague, Dr. ** had only a transit visa. After a lot of convincing, the Immigration Officer gave Dr. ** a days visa and allowed him entry into UK. As we did not have a ticket for the next flight, we went to the 3rd floor to the ticket counter where there was only one BA staff behind the counter and a big queue of persons. I was surprised why Mr. Baljit ** made us go there if there was only one person manning the counter. There was one BA staff giving out booklets of hotels and a circular, telling us that we should fend for ourselves and find our own hotels. We were asked to come the next day and try & see which flight we can catch.

I being a Gold member who travels every month, was given such treatment, it was ridiculous. There was no senior officer present and there was complete pandemonia and chaos. I was literally folding hands and just short of falling to the feet of the only BA staff present, who ultimately agreed to help. He said that he would do one rebooking and I had to again persuade him doing the rebooking of my colleague Dr. Shailesh ** too. He was telling me that he has a family and needs to go home and that he has been delayed beyond his normal working hours (As if we didn't have any family and didn't have to go home). We were booked on the BA 139 for the next day, i.e. 10th October 14 but without any hotel. The booklet of the hotels given to us had the hotel names and numbers and when we rang up those hotels, we were told that they were full.

For two hours we were ringing up everyone thru an international roaming phone (We don't know how much bill will come for these international calls that we made) when somehow we managed to get only one room for ourselves in London Heathrow Marriott Hotel, after getting confirmation from the hotel on phone which was guaranteed by my credit card. I have, never in any of my business trips shared a room with a colleague or for that matter even with my brothers because I do not want to lose my privacy. However, this time, BA has forced me to stay with a colleague, which has inconvenienced me. We had to finally go down to the Departures again and stand in a queue to get a taxi. After waiting for about 30 minutes we managed to get a taxi and go to the hotel. After check in at the hotel we ultimately reached the room at 1.30 a.m. Just imagine, from 9.20 p.m. the time when we landed in London, we reached the hotel at 1.30 a.m. i.e. after four hours of mental tension!

Many of the other Indian passengers took a taxi and went to the hotel saying that they have informed their travel agent and their travel agent will get them a seat on the next flight. But what could I do? I didn't have a travel agent and had booked my ticket thru the BA Executive Club and BA Executive Club was my travel agent Unwilling to help. Sometime they are available and sometime not. When they are available they don't help. They promise to call back but never do. I was still waiting for someone from BA Executive Club to call as promised by Ms. Sargam **.

During this period no one from BA Executive Club, India, contacted me or spoke to me. They were aware of my problem as I had already informed Ms. Sargam **, the Business Manager. On the other hand, I was constantly in touch with Ms. Daisy ** who was at the Mumbai Airport, and counseling me and helping me but Ms. **, Executive Club Manager did not bother to do anything. I wonder how two different sets of staff of BA behave so differently. One was the Executive Club Manager, Ms. Sargam **, whose Department had done my booking and was not willing to help or even contact me herself or any of her staff. The other were the people at Mumbai, who had nothing to do with my booking on a day to day basis but were constantly helping me, ringing me up and speaking to me at the other end of the world.

Next day morning, i.e. 10th October, 14, we went to the airport. My ticket was in Premium Economy World Traveler Plus, to be upgraded to Club against redemption of Avios (The Avios had already been debited). I have written many times for the upgrade but was told that they are not available. There were many Club seats available in the aircraft but BA does not upgrade because BA is only looking for revenue and don't consider Avios as revenue which is shocking and surprising. When it comes to marketing the Avios, BA sells Avios and convinces customers and passengers to buy them. One such mail dated 3rd October 14 is received from Mr. James **. Once people purchase these Avios and try to redeem them, they become not useful and are considered non revenue passengers, the logic which I do not understand and it really baffles me.

I requested the Executive Club for a bulk head isle seat but was not given one. I then contacted Mr. Ashwin ** at Mumbai and he was kind enough to put me on to Mr. **. Mr. ** called me and tried to help me out. I sent an email to Mr. Derek ** and he forwarded my email to Ms. Lynda ** who could find out the details and come back to me by an email, which she did, and which I very much appreciate. I rang up Ms. Sargam ** at the Executive Club but she kept telling me that someone will call but no one called. Ultimately Ms. Shikha ** called but gave only lip service. She said that they are not getting an upgrade as there is only one seat available. I again requested her and she said that she would check up and come back to me in 15 minutes or at least give me a bulk head aisle seat. She didn't call in 15 minutes and finally called when I was already in my seat and the flight was bout to take off. She still kept telling me that she is trying. I told her 'Stop bluffing me! What are you trying when I am already in the aircraft and the flight is going to take off!'

All that the Executive Club did was to give only lip service. In fact I salute the BA Mumbai Airport team: Mr. Ashwin **, Mr. Derek **, Ms. Daisy **, Mr. **, Ms. Lynda **, and Mr. **. They all went out of their way when I was in the other part of the world they made herculean efforts to help, answered called made to them, unlike the Executive Club persons who did not do anything. Even a person like Mr. Hemant **, who is in charge of sales was not responding and was not of any help. How will the sales of BA improve if persons like Mr. Hemant ** who is in charge of Sales is not willing to help or even answer calls made. I did speak to him but it was of no use.

Ms. Aparna **, Corporate Relations Manager, South Asia, never answers calls but sends emails/SMS and that too after the event. An email dated 10th October 14 sent by her indicates that she has done a favour by putting me on to the next day's flight. If due to a delay in flight of BA from Paris to London, my London Mumbai flight connection is missed, it is the duty of BA to put me on to the next flight. Where is the favour in that? She feels that she has done a favour to a Gold card member who travels every month. Let me tell you, my return journey from London to Mumbai was a nightmare! However, on my arrival in Mumbai, I was delighted when my name was announced in the aircraft and a lady deputed by Mr. ** was there to receive me and understand my problems. She noted all my problems.

In this whole exercise what hurt me most was the attitude and behavior of some of the BA staff. It is high time corrections are made by BA in their staff behavior. I was in Paris to attend the CPhI Exhibition where there were many Indians coming for the show. They were all asking why I was flying BA as they were many other options from Paris. They were travelling either Jet Airways or Air France or Air India which fly directly from Paris to London and they were sort of ridiculing me for my loyalty towards BA. I could have flown directly from Paris to Mumbai and reach here and save nearly a day. I sometime wonder why I still fly BA in spite of all the problems. Some of the unresolved problems that I am facing are as under.

I have various bookings for travel in the next few months. Many of these bookings are pending for upgrade. These bookings have been done months in advance and till there are no seats available for redemption. Why is it that we have to write to so many people at BA and continuously plead with the Executive Club to get upgrades when there are so many seats available in Club. This has not happened once or twice but is periodically happening. On one side we are receiving mailers from BA asking us to buy Avios and on the other side we are unable to use them due to systems followed by BA. What use are these Avios when we cannot use them? As on today I have 1,72,907 Avios to be account and my Household Account has 2,01,781 Avios. What do I do with these Avios? Other airlines like Lufthansa, upgrade passengers against miles even at the check in counter. For upgrades BA charges some taxes but Lufthansa does not charge anything for the same.

III. Impressions of BA staff

1. Ms. Sargam ** Business Manager, Executive Club. Although she is in charge of BA Executive Club, she talks nicely and smoothly but does not help at all nor calls back. She promises to call back but doesn't call. She also promises that someone from her team will call back but no one calls. Answers alternate phone calls and not all our calls. Does not reply to SMSs. For a person like me who is loyal to BA since last almost 25 years, having 1,72,907 Avios to his credit & 2,01,781 in his Household Account, and who flies BA every month, does direct bookings with BA Executive Club, the service is very very poor. I book my tickets thru Executive Club with a hope that if there is any problem in my booking they will help.

2. Ms. Aparna ** Corporate Relations Manager South Asia only talks nicely. Rarely comes online when called but most of the time her mobile is not reachable or only rings. No replies to SMSs & emails sent. Does not answer calls. Sends emails which are curt and after the event. Just apologizing does not mean anything. If a flight of BA is delayed / cancelled is it not the duty of BA to put us on the next available flight. Nothing has been done by her. If she had done anything, I would not have had to request the BA staff & literally beg of them for an aisle seat at 10.30 11.00 p.m. in the night at the Heathrow Airport. We have to make international calls & speak to so many people for this.

3. Mr. Rajeev ** High Value Support, Executive Club is the one person whom I missed during this whole episode as he was on leave. Had he been there, I would not have to struggle so much. A very efficient person who is always ready to help. Returns all calls made to him. Even calls late in the evening for any feedback. Very efficient & very helpful.

4. Mr. Hemant ** Sales Manager has come and met me personally and only spoke well but did nothing. Wanted me to help BA India sales as he was responsible for sales. Does not call back when we call. Always says he cannot do anything and Ms. ** is looking after our case. Promised to help but did not do anything nor called back.

5. Mr. Derek ** BA Mumbai Airport. Great service oriented person who goes out of his way and helps. Replies to all calls / emails / smss sent. Ready to help even when not in office and is travelling. A bankable person and due to people like him, I continue to fly BA. BA Executive Club should take training from him on customer service.

6. Ms. Daisy ** BA Mumbai Airport. So many years of dedicated service at the airport and one of the most friendly faces at the Mumbai airport. Always helps and goes out of the way. Returns calls made and replies to SMSs. Makes all efforts and this time when in trouble on the other side of the world, was of great help. It is because of her that I was able to get the Paris London flight as she spoke to BA, Paris. BA Executive Club should take training from her on customer service. Took the trouble of speaking to BA staff in Paris and in London even when doing flights in Mumbai.

7. Mr. Ashwin **, BA Mumbai Airport. Met him on the last few occasions. Very helpful and answers calls promptly & also asked his people to call. Thoroughly impressed with him & satisfied with his approach. When I landed in Mumbai, he had sent someone to receive me and wanted to understand the problems that I had faced. On landing he rang up and spoke to me although he was busy doing an outgoing flight. I salute people like him & people in BA Executive Club should learn customer service from him.

8. Mr. **, BA Mumbai Airport. He is the person who checked me and was very warm and helpful. b) Immediately willing to give even his personal mobile no and saying that I could call him any time.

9. Mr. Baljit ** London Airport. Stone faced and rude, driving away customers from flight connections. Sweet talked everyone to go thru immigrations and out of the airport. Disregarded people standing in queues at flight connections. When I connected him to Ms. Daisy ** from Mumbai, he said to me, 'Yes I know that you are a Gold Card Holder but you are not even a Club Class Passenger. You are a premium economy passenger and still I am listening to you.' (So he is doing a favour!) He merely listened and didn't do anything. He could have put me on the flight for the next day. A strategically impossible person and gives a bad name to BA. He lied to us saying that when we go out to immigrations and then to Level 3, there will be a bigger counter manned by many staff of BA and there would be no queue there.

10. Lessons to be learnt from Mr. Tom **, Commercial Development Manager (MEAPA). I have in the past interacted with Mr. Tom **, Commercial Development Manager (MEAPA) and found him to be a great ambassador for BA. He always replied to emails and returned calls and spoke so well. Most of the times, Mr. Tom **, was able to get all my requests and at times when he was unable to do it, he would convince me that it was not possible. Whenever I thanked him for his help he extended, he would say 'No Ashok, don't thank me. Just keep flying British Airways!' I now understand that he has retired and there is no person with a similar post. Why has BA discontinued that Post with a position of Mr. **? Do you have a person in place of Mr. ** and if so then please let me know who he is.

As conveyed in all my previous mails, I reiterate that it is becoming extremely difficult to cope up with problems at BA. First of all there is a big problem in doing bookings against redemption of Avios. I have time and again conveyed that the procedure for doing booking against redemption of Avios and the procedure for upgrade from one class to the other with redemption of Avios is very cumbersome, difficult and dissuades passengers from opting for the same.

Now I have a reservation for November 2014 (My Booking Reference No: **) I have made this booking on 15th May 2014. This booking was done in World Traveler Plus with a request to upgrade to Club against redemption of Avios. I am regularly checking for availability of seats but am told that there are no seats available. What use is the collection of Avios when we are unable to use them? So much of time is wasted everyday on checking the availability of seats and we are kept on hold for so long. It takes hours to make one single booking. The Executives of the Executive Club are available only at certain hours of the day which makes it even more difficult to contact them.

I travel to Basel & Frankfurt very often for business and the easiest possible way was to fly would be Lufthansa which would take me directly from Mumbai to Frankfurt & back. Also, Lufthansa owns Swissair which can take me directly to Zurich from where I can go to Basel by Train. By doing that I could fly the distance in the shortest time and reach earlier. However, due to my loyalty towards British Airways, I travel British Airways. Thereby spending at least 5-6 hours more and reaching late but hoping to get better service from BA. With this type of service do you still think that I should continue my loyalty towards British Airways? Lufthansa has given me a Senator Member Card bearing membership no. ** and requested me to shift from BA to Lufthansa. Does BA want me to do that?

Bookings can be made in Premium Economy, World Traveler Plus and subsequently upgraded to Club against redemption of Avios, and all BA Flights from and to Mumbai have flat beds for many years. BA has a night flight from Europe which other airlines don't have except a few like Jet Airways and Air India.

Another example of the poor way in which Executive Club works is the credit of Avios. Whenever we travel, most of the times Avios are not credited and we have to follow up. If we write to BA, we get arrogant answers. One such recent email dated 15th September 14 that we received was from Mr. Brian May of the Executive Club, saying that if the membership number is correctly entered in the booking, our Avios are credited. I have checked up the bookings and all my bookings were done by Executive Club and my membership number is there in all my bookings. The number is also printed in all the Boarding Cards. So instead of checking, the Executive Club just sends emails to members asking them to do corrections when in fact it is the Executive Club who needs to do the corrections in their working and credit Avios promptly and work more efficiently. What are the steps you are taking to improve the working of the Executive Club? In my past meetings with Mr. Hemant ** & Ms. Nepali **, I have explained all my difficulties but there is no improvement.

I have been requesting the BA Executive Club from the beginning for an upgrade against redemption of Avios for the BA 199 from London to Mumbai. Every time I was told that seats are not available but my Avios had been debited as I was earlier in Club and scheduled to travel on another date. I was told that we should keep checking everyday and monitor the upgrade. Accordingly we have been following up. I was told that the flight had vacant seats when the flight left London. We really need to understand the method of getting upgrades against redemption of our Avios and due weightage to be given to Avios which otherwise BA wants to sell.

I find many difficulties with regards to BA's On Business Program. Every time I tell the Executive Club to enter the On Business number it is not done and there is no online data available. Earlier somehow two On Business Accounts got created and after a struggle we could manage to get one closed and add all the points in the other account. We do not know whom to write to or whom to speak to for this.

When we fly to Paris by BA, we are forced to take a transit visa as we do not have any work in London. A transit visa costs around Rs. 5000/- which we had to pay for my colleague, Dr Shailesh ** who traveled with me. This amount has to be reduced from the ticket which I do not get in spite of requests made. Now I would like to have answers to the following:

a) Was I wrong in expecting that someone from BA would call me when the Paris London flight was delayed? BA could have called on my mobile or even emailed me when I am a Gold Card Member travelling every month.

b) When I checked in at the airport on 9th October and was requesting to be put on to an Air France flight or earlier flight, why did I have to struggle, insist and literally beg and only then be put on a flight. Had I been put on the Air France Flight requested for, I would not have missed my London Mumbai BA 199 connection.

c) Why did the BA 323 which was scheduled to leave at 1805 and which left at 2000 Hrs not connect to BA 199 when it left at 2255 p.m. & why was the gate 5C not opened for security? Was this expecting too much?

d) Why was no one there to receive us when the flight from Paris landed in London? Some BA staff could have guided us. Was this expecting too much?

e) We were told that it was due to bad weather that the flight was delayed. Although, according to me the weather outside was good, that is something which we cannot assess and we accept that. What prevented BA from putting some staff at the flight connections to guide passengers and put us on the next available flight?

f) Why can't special staff be called and asked to wait late and man flight connections when passengers are suffering? Was this expecting too much?

g) Can't a Gold Card member flying BA every month be attended to gracefully without having to almost beg before BA staff at the counter and fold hands?

h) Is it necessary for BA to exhibit bad behaviour even when BA is at fault?

i) Is it worth buying Avios as BA is trying to promote it but when it comes to redemption of Avios, it is not considered as revenue. People at BA are more worried about revenue and not worried about getting their Avios back. Why the double standards?

j) Is it expecting too much that when I book 6-8 months in advance, I do not get redemption seats. Is it that we are only looking at revenue and are the Avios worth anything?

k) Who is the right person to speak to, to resolve our On Business Account issues?

I was given a number to call 08700000123 which I was told was the BA information at Heathrow. I call the number and receive a BT recording advising that the number is not recognized. I call a couple more times to verify correct dialing - same result. I called the BA call centre back and again after navigating through the menus arrived at the Indian call centre. I explained that I had been given the number but that I was receiving a recorded message informing unrecognized number. After being put on hold for a few minutes I was given another number to call 02088978041 which I called and received a BT recording advising that the number is not recognized. I call a couple more times to verify correct dialing - same result. I tried a bit of internet trawling to establish a BA number at Heathrow and called 08443351801 which turned out to be BAA with a recorded message saying that for flight information matters the airline should be contacted directly.

Back to BA call centre, through the menus, another Indian attendant, this time I explained the entire problem again, (my daughter had missed her connecting flight because of BA delay, which flight would she be on as I need to meet her at the airport) established the booking reference ** re-established that there was a later flight to Glasgow, could I be given confirmation that my daughter would be on that flight? "No, please call 08700000123" - I explained that this number was not valid, "ok try 0208 897 8041" - I explained I had tried that one already and again unrecognized number. OK put on hold, "please call 0844 335 1801" - OH No you don't I thought, and explained that that number was a BAA number and had a recorded message saying that the relevant airline should be contacted.

By this time I was becoming a little exasperated and informed the attendant that I would like to book my daughter on the later Glasgow flight to ensure that at least she had a seat available. After a protracted holding session I am informed that I can't do that either. So after a 45 minute call I am no closer to establishing which alternative flight to Glasgow my daughter is going to be on. Every issue on BA website that you want to call about goes through to the Indian Call Centre routing dependent upon the option you select. There is no UK BASED Number to call. There is no airport information number to call, how on earth you are meant to find anything out using BA customer contact centres is absolutely beyond me. And they have the nerve to brand themselves as British Airways!

So the consequence is that at 8pm on the night of 17th October I have no idea which flight my daughter is going to be on from Heathrow to Glasgow thanks to a British Airways delayed departure from Bangkok and no way of finding out. Furthermore if BA call centre staff are going to give customers numbers to call then at the very least they should be VALID NUMBERS! What an organisation, and you can rest assured I will NOT be using BA again, and will be advising all business contacts, friends and family of this utterly frustrating episode. I should point out that the connecting flight is an internal BA flight!

I am very tall man and suffering from knee pain. So I request both this cabin crew staff to change my seat or upgrade me to Premier Economy class. But they denied to do so. On the other side a passenger name Kangna (Not sure) who was on training of flight attendant with British Airways was returning to India with some lady (maybe her mother) on the same flight. She has completed her training and traveling with her mother as a regular passenger but not as a staff of British Airways.

Since this passenger Kangna is friend of cabin crew staff Miss SHWETA and Namita, so she was allowed to sit in Premier Economy (Seat # 21B or 22B) although she has ticket of normal economy class. I complaint about this to flight cabin crew Miss SHWETA and Namita and asked them that why they haven't allowed me to sit in Premier Economy despite the fact that I have medical problem. Both the flight attendant, especially Miss SHWETA shouted on me and talked very rudely. They started giving false explanation that it's flight Captain's discretion. So I asked them to let me request/talk with Captain but they rudely denied me to request/talk with captain.

This is the case of Racism and partiality towards me maybe because I am Muslim and not a friend of any British Airways staff member. This is very disgusting on the part of British Airways that their cabin crew do such partiality and racism. I will never ever fly with British Airways again and strongly urge all other people like me to boycott British Airways. I want to make escalated complaint against BA and these two flight attendant (Shweta and Namita). BA must take strong action against these flight attendant and must apologize to me.

Our one bag was the kids clothes, so we had to decide whether to buy new clothes or trust that the bags would arrive. We decided to wait for the bags and did a little sightseeing. At 10pm with no word from BA I called and was told the bags would still arrive, but when I tried to explain that I'd been told that several times now and was concerned the agent disconnected the call. I waited up until midnight with no word from them. The next morning they again texted to say the bags were at the airport and I should go there to pick them up; because we were in a "pedestrian area" of the Gothic Quarter they could not deliver them. This despite the fact that taxis and delivery trucks run up and down the streets at all hours. And, I told the baggage clerk that we were in the Gothic Quarter from the beginning when I gave the address.

It has taken until now to be reimbursed for the taxi to and from the airport since it is not their policy to reimburse for expenses other than clothing and sundries when baggage is lost. From front line customer service representative to managers and the CEO Mr. Keith Williams himself they have steadfastly admitted that they failed to provide acceptable service yet offer no compensation for our 3 days of ruined vacation. No voucher, upgrade or any tangible remedy, just a contrite apology and wishes that I fly with them again. Incidentally, on our flight back to San Diego 3 of our 5 bags did not arrive with us. One was delivered the next day, another the day after, and the third finally arrived 5 days after the flight. Amazingly horrible baggage and customer service with management that is quite satisfied with how they are doing business.

This is doublespeak for WE CARRY NO RESPONSIBILITY IF THE CONDITION OF OUR PLANES IS SO BAD THAT WE ARE A DAY LATE GETTING YOU TO YOUR DESTINATION, AND WE CAN CHANGE YOUR FLIGHT SCHEDULE ANYTIME WE CHOOSE AND FOR ANY REASON AND THAT'S YOUR PROBLEM NOT OURS.

Ironically we have Bronze member status with British Air Executive Club and have already booked business class tickets from the US to India with British Air, but even this level of loyalty could not influence BA customer service to refund our $89!!! So in the future we will be shopping other airlines and quit being loyal to BA. We are also recommending to our 100+ friends who travel regularly to India that they shop around!

I finally was able to email a customer service rep, uploaded all of my forms and information and received a reply 3 weeks later, by email stating that I should AGAIN upload all of my forms. Which I did to no avail. I also faxed the forms 2 times. Nearly two months later I was again contacted by email stating that funds would be deposited into my account and our damaged bags would be replaced by Rynn's luggage.

When I was contacted by Rynn's luggage, I was told that BA only told them about 1 bag. As of today, again nearly 2 months later, we still have no reimbursement for our expenses we incurred while waiting 4 days for luggage. We have no replacement for our bags and we have had no response from BA except for very cold, generic email. I have tried many times to speak to a live person, but am always given different numbers which get me nowhere. We are beginning further legal action today.

The rudeness of the BA crew was appalling and horrific especially to do this to a child. This is unacceptable behavior. I will never fly British Airways again and will certainly not recommend this airline to anyone.