OPENSKIES Review

The worst really expensive flight, didn't leave London for 6 hours. We missed our connecting flight and our business meeting got delayed. We were pretty screwed.

British Airways....I was always under the impression that British Airways stands for quality and high standards, but in actual, you don't really keep up to the standards you claim. My parents (senior citizens) were booked on BA256 from Delhi to London Heathrow and BA239 from London Heathrow to Boston on 4th August 2016. I had pre-booked wheel chair assistance for both of them as my mother is knee arthiritis patient and my father, who is a heart patient had a surgery just a month back, and they were not provided requested assistance.

When they requested wheel chair at British Airways check-in counter at Delhi airport, they were told that they will get it after security clearance. When asked for the same at security clearance, they were told that it is provided at check-in counter only. They somehow managed to reach the gate (which is almost 1 km). After reaching the gate, they requested it again. Since they were having difficult breathing because of such long walk., they were provided it only from boarding gate to the plane. All along they had to wheel their cabin baggage with them.

After reaching London airport, upon wheel-chair request again, they were taken to a dedicated area reserved for people with disability in the electric trolley, and were asked to wait there for some time. After some time, they were told that they have only 1 wheel chair available if my parents need it, or else, it can be assigned to someone else. My parents agreed to take whatever they were being provided. They were dropped at the security gate, and were refused assistance after that. They again had to do quite a long walk of around half km from security to boarding gate, with the cabin baggage in their hands.

During the flight from London to Boston, my father requested 2 cookies as he had to eat something before taking his medicine, and he was refused second cookie. After reaching Boston, upon request, they were again offered only one wheel chair, that my mother took due to knee arthiritis, and my dad had to again do a long walk. When I received them at Boston airport arrivals, my dad was having difficulty breathing. On top of it, wheel chair assistance guy demanded tip before leaving my mom and luggage. I ended up paying him tip for worst services they provided to get rid of the situation.

On top of it, when I called your customer relationship to file a complaint regarding overall incident, I was told that it is airport responsibility, and not airlines responsibility to provide wheel-chair, and it is subject to availability. The representative told me that all he can do is file a case, and ask Airport to try and accomodate the request on return ticket. When asked to provide me case number in email, he told me that since he is on inbound calls shift, he can only provide me case number on phone, and also cannot redirect my call to other department for further assistance.
Overall, British Airways experience is the worst I had in my life, and needless to say, I will never recommend anyone to fly British Airways again, specially in case of senior citizens requiring wheelchair assistance. For now, I want to be sure that my parents don't receive similar treatment on their return flight on same route.

Low cost airline selling tickets as if they were a premium air carrier. Service on the plane and on the ground is the bare minimum. You have to literally pay everything on top of the basic ticket (including luggage on long haul flights) and regardless of that, you still pay astonishing ticket prices.

Most annoying thing is that you can never get through to the call centre. Ever. If you need to do something that cant be done online (usually because their website isnt responding) then you re stuck as they will never pick up in under half an hour. Service, and quality have consistently declined over the past 5 years.

I am very disappointed with the service British airways provides. Its been 4 days after my flight and my luggage has still not arrived. I have had to buy new clothes in my destination country. My fathers health has been put at risk because my luggage contained his diabetes medication. The worst part of it all is the indifference on the part of the British Airways reps at the airport in trying to locate my bag. Definitely not flying with British Airways again!

Join the previous speakers. Worst Customer Experience Ever

One of the best airports on earth small easy quick and kind staff members

I can't speak for the cityjet representative that told me I had to be 2 hours early for a flight, but when the rep at the BA counter heard me say that I had been there an hour and my current flight hasn't left yet, she rushed me and my girlfriend to the front of every line and actually got us on the flight. Phoebe, you rock! Thank you so much. In case you were wondering, we (American couple that was exhausted) made our flight! Thank you thank you thank you!

Heading to Heathrow we already felt weird with their service. First, their plane seemed very untidy and not cleaned properly. The crew somehow very loud and noisy. Food very disappointing And the most important thing was they don t frequently served beverages especially if you have Long flight. Heading back to Singapore, one crew I really love I think she s more senior and she s really hands-on when serving the passengers as she will ask the passenger in front of me to adjust her seat coz I don t have space for her to serve my food. And she s very thorough when checking what food and drinks the passengers would like. Sad thing though they still don t serve beverages as frequent how it should be....

My wife and I flew an 11-hour flight from London. It wasn t a great start to our BA experience as this flight was delayed 3 hours from the scheduled department time.

The experience got worse as the staff were rude and abrupt to fellow passengers; it is certainly an aspect I noticed at multiple points throughout the flight by numerous staff to us and many other passengers.

The staff extended this poor & rude behaviour by denying some people basic amenities ice and certain soft drinks by staff stating items weren t available. This was evident as my wife asked for ice; she was told there was none available. I then asked on the other side of the aisle within moments of this and was shown a full casket. This continued later with the same scenario for a soft drink, as we overheard another passenger being denied. We were provided the same drink that our fellow passenger had asked. The mentality from the BA staff in this scenario still has me perplexed.

Suffice to say, the service was beyond poor. The plane itself is dated and lacking adequate elements for a long-haul flight. The lack of cleanliness can be seen via the attached images and the entertainment screen provided is no bigger than an average wallet (again, please note the attached image). This was also reset multiple times due to service issues.

Further, with two meals provided on this flight, there was no communication regarding the availability of snacks when asked, this was very basic in the form of chocolates and crisps.

This abysmal experience got worse as the pilot stated he would take shortcuts to make up time . We landed 2 hours and 45 minutes after; this denies all passengers compensation under the EU regulation for 3-hour or more delays. This rubbed salt in the wound for an already poor experience in terms of service and quality.

My wife and I had to reschedule our connecting flight at a cost to our own when we landed; I have made a claim to BA directly over 2 weeks ago; however, I have heard nothing compounding the severely poor experience with this provider.

We dreaded the return flight. The flight staff were better in this instance, however the elements concerning the plane, food & journey quality were still apparent.

Went for New Year 2020 we take British Airways from Bologna, everything seems easy from check-in, boarding passes ok, then you arrive at the Gate and from there you discover that the company fills the seats assigned to groups, creating only confusion in the rows especially with those who he is a foreigner and does not understand english well, but let's go on ...
Once up to the first leg, everything went smoothly, a super-rigid police officer checked the documents at Heathrow airport and had to arm himself with a lot of patience because of the queue.
Return flight poor judgment, perhaps newly hired pilot, we encountered some turbulence but they were badly managed especially when suddenly you go down to 200 meters high, your ears whistle and then you really make a bad landing with people forced to keep to seats, I recommend it only for the convenience of being a direct flight, alas for food and drinks you can only pay with the Pos thus forcing you to have a commission on the product purchased

Very bad airline
They treat their customers badly

What kind of rubbish is this? Cancelled the flight only 8 hours before and unavailable automatically refund cause passenger already checked in? Of course the passenger is checked in cause after one night sleep we have to be at the airport you morons!! Worst ever!!!!!

the only thing positive I can say about the BA outage and the way they handled it is I am looking forward to suing them. Absolute disgrace. ZERO customer service, ZERO assistance to stranded travelers and were kicked out of the airport with NO explanation. See you in the courts BA!

More than insufficient service in the air and on the ground!
In a row of three, a man who was so overweight was sitting to my left, which is why I couldn't sleep for the entire 7-hour flight. Although I told a flight attendant that the man was using half of my own seat, she was supposedly unable to give me an alternative seat due to the high occupancy of the aircraft. Following my complaint, I was informed over the phone that British Airways was not suitable for overweight people and that I would have to buy a more expensive seat next time so that I would not have such inconvenience again.
This can only be topped with the fact that the employee could not explain herself, which is why I was not given an alternative place, because there would still have been 3 free places !!!! And still not a trace of courtesy or compensation! Incomprehensible! What a bad service in the air and on the ground !!!!

British Airways is now a rubbish no frills airline like Ryanair. I booked flights for my partner and I from Athens to London and they separated our seats by nine rows to force us to pay to select seats. They charge for tea and coffee and there's no free food.

On the way out London to Athens, we flew Aegean Airlines and we could pick seats side-by-side at no extra cost. We also had a free warm meal with free wine and water, and the flight attendants are much friendlier as well. There's no reason to fly BA anymore as they charge as much as other countries' national carriers, yet they provide as little as cheaper airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet.

Avoid this airline at all costs. My wife and our friend missed a flight, they didn't put us on the next flight, didn't give us some type of credit , didn't even offer any help. $2000 just gone. When we asked them when the next flight was , they said there wasn't one... The worst part was the really expensive flight didn't even leave London for 6 hours, and there were multiple ways to get to london, but because we missed the connecting flight, we were screwed. When we asked the woman what to do, she offered no help, made no suggestions, and finally pointed us to some desk to rebook a new flight. We waited in line for another 20 minutes just to talk to some people who just check you in. They couldn't even help us Worse than Horrible service Actually gave us misinformation I'd give this place a zero out of 5 but google doesn't have that option. "Fanks"

London Heathrow is one of the best airports in the world.

In British airlines during registration for flight from Chicago to London and from London to Moscow attendants IMRAN SHAIKH was very rude and acting bossy to passengers. They didn't want to take my luggage because in their opinion I am not allowed to go to Russia. All my paperwork was fine and I travel the rest of the trip perfectly. But that moment spoiled pleasant trip.

Super unfriendly check-in staff at KEF. Taking the flight BA0800 to Iceland, the equipment on the plane was so old and unclean, there s no meal and drinks, almost like the low-cost airways, but with the much more expensive price. Even we are taking the connecting flight within oneworld alliance, the staff refuse to check our baggage through, we have to claim our luggage at LHR and recheck-in again.

Totally not recommend British airways.

I have flown with BA many times. All I can say is they have rude and obnoxious cabin crew, unhelpful customer service teams in South Africa and India, and the last plane I took hadn t even been cleaned properly. Also, I have a long term health condition meaning I need an aisle seat for my upcoming flight, which they gave me, to be fair, but they wouldn t let my partner (carer) sit with me, despite their policy to the contrary, then they would, then they wouldn t. Took a month of back and forth emails and phone calls before they would finally let my partner sit with me. Hopelessly inept at best, woefully inadequate at worst. What the hell happened to this once great airline? Avoid like the plague.

I paid for extra luggage and when the flight got cancelled literally 15 min after I paid for the extra luggage, they refused to refund the extra luggage fee.

This company is a disgrace. Fake rates are advertised on the internet and when you try to book, there are different pop-up messages that either tell you that somebody else booked your flight or another 100 quid or so has been added to your total. It is utterly disgusting. Not even tenth-rate low budget companies offer this kind of despicable service. I wasted 2 hours trying to book flights from London to Madrid. AVOID AT ALL COST.

British Airways is the worst airline I've ever flown with.
In times of the C-19 crisis you are simply thrown out of the line after a band announcement.
Of course, all useful information can be found on the website.
The ticket for the connecting flights could not be printed at the first airport, which brought me extremely under pressure at the connecting airport.
The crew extremely rude.
Food was not served due to the C-19 crisis and the associated risk of infection.
For this, all people were squeezed into the economy area although at least 3/4 of all places were free in the business area.
Alcoholic beverages, cola, etc. None.
Water and bad juices were offered once on a transatlantic flight.
At the airport, of course, social distancing was pointed out.
What a contradiction.
Simply ridiculous.
The same procedure for the connecting flight.

Never again.

Had to write several letters and to make calls to receive a minimal refund for being downgraded. After one trial I continue with Swiss where the service has been first class over decades.

I am disappointed that after 2 months @British_Airways still won t pick up the phone to arrange my refund. Low cost @Ryanair @vueling airlines have already refunded my tickets. Terrible customer service from BA. I will not recomend it to anybody

Calling yourself British Airways is a disgrace to Britain

Wonderful view coming into this airport on my T-65 X-wing starfighter.
Flew out the next day on BA1 to JFK. Great experience in and out without hassle. While LHR is great, I will try to do this again if the price works.

Sad to see a icon brand devalue itself so much. BA has been in sharp decline for years, with dirty planes, poor food etc, but the Buy on Board is the last straw and there is no difference now between BA and Ryanair, Easyjet and other low cost carrier apart from BA being more expensive.

British Airways is the best airline, they always let me fly with my double bass (musical instrument)

There plains feel so out dated
There plains feel so out dated and the knee space have gone tighter and the food has not improved at all yet there prices are higher then other flights in it range but they do have a great customer service.

Gone from the best to the worst. The airline is the shambles. ...the one star is actually for when i try and get my baby to sleep, i just call BA. They take so long to answer their phones that its actually a really good way to get babies to sleep because all you hear is a guitar strumming in B flat

Terrible customer service: IMPOSSIBLE to reach an agent over the phone, most tickets are not refundable or changeable event in business or first. Horrible food on board. In all classes.

Disastrous experience in club. No lounge at City Airport or Florence, check-in staff late, problems with label printers, slow, surly cabin crew, awful breakfast (seriously, you get better good at a greasy spoon), luggage returned after many non-club bags. Won't be making BA my airline of choice in future!

British-Airways REFUSES to Accept Responsibility!

Was to fly to Melbourne on 21JULY19 from
Manchester VIA Heathrow AND Singapore.

Arriving late to board my Heathrow Flight, the Check-In-Staff was KIND ENOUGH to discuss my dilemma with her supervisor. Only option being to find my way to Heathrow.

TAKING THE BRISTISH AIRWAYS ADVICE, in the heat of summer, somehow managed
to get to Heathrow in good time where ONLY Singapore-Melbourne Boarding-Pass was issued.

IN TOTAL DISBELIF was told by British Airways Ticketing Staff, because Manchester-Heathrow flight was missed, my Heathrow-Singapore was cancelled and subsequently my seat was SOLD to another passenger and that MANCHESTER GROUND STAFF BEING ONLY CONTRACTORS advised me wrongly.

SURELY NOT PASSENGER s FAULT!

Numerous approaches to BA Customer s-Relations as well as the CEO Mr Alex Cruz were in total vain!

Worst service I ve experienced - never use this airline again

Was very pleased the way BA handled the rebooking of our Singapore flight. Very good job, I will sure fly BA again

The A380 SIA-LHR was very comfortable flight

May aswell as be a budget airline, I was shivering due to a cold and they still charged me for hot water

Surely there is a governing body that can ensure BA adhere to international rules and regulations. The manner in which you conduct yourselves is truly disheartening!!! All I can say is if you have the unfortunate experience with booking with British Airways please please ensure you have travel insurance!!!!

The worst experience facing customer service, flight time changes. I will do my best not to flight with ba again and will try to convince everyone I know not to fly with you. What used to be a great brand in the world of aviation became a total joke and maybe meets expectations of third world country airline. Shame...

Worst airline ever. I wish there would be negative star to give them.

British airways is very bad. There s no food on the plane for a long journey flight from Istanbul to London. One cannot buy food on the plane, except you have British debit or credit card. If you do not have either, then you will have to starve till you get to your destination. Very inconsiderate. No movies or form of relaxation. Very tight legroom space. Cruel flight attendants

This company does not offer vegan meals which I find strange. Their vegetarian menu discriminates against vegans. They did not make it clear that egg is in their products. No good if you're a vegan!