Britishairways Avis 

This is specifically a review of British Airways Holidays.

Due to travel at 6am Friday 5th September 2025 for a Golf Holiday, my wife broke her collarbone and we are not able to travel. Spoke to Yvonne at BA Holidays, and rearranged the whole holiday (same room type, same transfers, etc) for late May 2026. We had to pay a little extra, but as we got the original holiday at a very good price, we are just pleased we did not lose everything.

Yvonne deserves much credit for her sympathetic handling of the matter - we are grateful.

I was supposed to fly wit British airways to USA from Jeddah Saudi Arabia for a conference in March 2020. The flight was cancelled due to COVID pandemic. It was booked via Expedia. I was given a voucher of £800 to use for any flights in future. In the year 2021 I moved to the UK for job. I was ten told that I can only use ticket for travelling from Jeddah. Obviously, I already left Saudi Arabia and it is not my home country. I was there only for work so I am not going back to fly from there. So I got a refund from British airways which they said will only be returned to my credit card which I used for booking. My account in Saudi Arabia is closed so obviously I can't receive the money. I was told that the money will bounce back and then I will be contacted to give them my UK bank details to receive the money. It's been four years now and I haven't received anything. I have called British airways multiple time but every time there is a new person and they ask me all the details but say I need to call back again. It is hugely frustrating.

Can I give less than 1 star? Awful website, takes forever to load, and usually eventually fails to load. Every simple task takes for ever. Don't even try to add your advanced passenger information. It simply doesn't work. I have tried so many times

Awful website.
I am flying next week. I received an email requesting I upload personal info 'otherwise may suffer penalties', yet their website won't process my info, keeps crashing! I have tried Firefox and Edge, still not working. Phoned through to customer services, they could only apologise for the website's technical issues. Looked online and see many such complaints. Not fit for purpose. How can an international company in this day and age have such a poor quality website? Why hasn't BA done something about this?

Your service is really disappointing - I would rather fly Jet2 / Ryanair than suffer the bad customer service again.

Recently lost my Cathay silver tier (so One World ruby perks) but have booked BA economy to Munich.

I was group 4 (not the lowest group) and upon boarding they directed me and a few straight to the desk. Was unusual because if it was full flight they would usually start taking hand luggage from groups 6-7 onwards for checking in at gate.

No - group 4 customers directed straight to desk. Told them I booked hand baggage only as I have tight transport links upon landing. They didn’t listen. A few people from group 4 had same issue and made to stand by gate like me.

Yet I then see they let group 5 and beyond with WHEELY BAGS onto the plane and because “I made a fuss” me and the rest of group 4 who faced the same transport issue were made to wait by the gate while they let certain others with bags through! Their wheely case was bigger than mine!

At the end they let a large group through with wheely case then they said to us who remained at the gate that “as we stopped you at the start we now need to tag your bag”.

They tagged me despite I told them I needed to hurry. I feel that they did this to penalize me for saying that I was in a hurry and was in a higher priority group than those they let through with less priority. How is this even fair.

Nobody was present at the boarding point to take my bag. So I took it on board.

When aboard there was a LOT OF LUGGAGE SPACE over head. Flight due to leave stand at 2020 and by 2009 all boarded with plenty of luggage space to spare.

BA - when someone pay hand luggage fare at Ryanair or Jet2 they get honoured. The crew at the gate treated lower priority customers better than us at group 4. Very shameful service for a national airline. The worst thing was that they did this to penalize me for “making a scene”. I did not think I was treated fairly and the passengers in the same situation felt the same.

If you are a frequent flyer on one world and get treated like this - they don’t return. I am minded to never fly with you again, when budget airlines offer better certainty and attitude when handling customers with needs.

Baggage was delayed and even though they knew where it was it took 4 days to get to me. The customer service has been appalling. I tried to let them know that they had delivered someone else’s bag as well as mine (they left them on porch in middle of night) but they didn’t care. They hung up on me twice and weren’t interested in what I was saying. The website is appalling and doesn’t work half the time. Couldn’t upload information needed before flight and now when I’ve tried to submit a claim for essential items after over 2 hours of it saying it was submitting it crashed. I tried to contact them to find out what was happening and again after hanging on for ages they said they couldn’t help and then hung up. I will NEVER fly BA again - the flights were ok but the customer service is an embarrassment to what used to be a British institution. They should be ashamed of yourselves for your dreadful handling of things. I was travelling for a funeral and they just made a bad situation a whole lot worse.

For the last three months I have been trying to link my Avios / BA account with my Loganair Loyalty in order to transfer my points. I have followed the steps to the letter, going through Two Factor authentication etc etc. I have tried different devices and browsers. All I get is a 'something has gone wrong' message. I have phoned BA's customer service (Avios doesn't have any way of contacting - no email, no online form, no phone number, not even an AI chatbot) on multiple occasions and each time I have been told something different from: 'Loganair isn't a partner with Avios' (!) to 'It's an IT problem, try again after 3pm' to 'This has been escalated and someone will phone you back (told that three times, no-one ever phoned back) to 'This is a back office issue'. I have submitted a complaint via their online form. I have even written and posted a hard copy letter to BA customer services postal address. The response? Two completely unsatisfactory emails from someone called Emma Bradley, one saying my accounts are linked already and outlining the steps to move points (demonstrating a total failure to read my query) and one saying that Loganair are best placed to answer my query! Not sure how another airline can solve the issues of BA's online system, but I did actually phone Loganair - unlike BA you can speak to a real person who actually tries to understand the issue, but it being a BA Avios issue, of course they can't do anything. To add insult to injury I got a further email from BA saying they were very busy dealing with a high volume of complaints (no wonder) and directing me to phone their customer service! I'm at the end of my tether now and telling everyone I know how rubbish BA's customer service is. BA if you're reading this, my 'case reference' number is 07063325. I have complained to Barclaycard, as that's how I'm accruing Avios points - essentially this benefit is totally worthless to me as I can't access it.

Booked and paid extra for three seats together for a 12 hour flight. They moved a 7 year old into a different seat at the other side of the plane. Went to the support desk but they refused to help us. Now I have to spend hours chasing up refunds form them

We wanted to book a flight and selected the option "Flight price guarantee for 3 days for 5 euros per person." When we tried to book on the third day, the link didn't work. We tried to book for five hours. There is no service in Germany on weekends. Service chats are pointless, as they are not allowed to make any changes. Telephone service in the UK is only manned. We were charged 10 euros. We made a claim, but it was immediately rejected. British Airways made us pay 10 euros for their mistake. Never ever BA. Worst service ever.

Baggage left behind at Heathrow no effort made to forward it to destination even though they knew where tye case was. Staff are disinterested and useless.

Very bad. Just an embarrassinly bad
Never can log in, in the app, always difficult to log in on line, always errors 403... Customers service just doesn't exist. Everything is just bad. Don't deserve a single star.

Yesterday I got on a plane to Nice. BA 348.
I never got there.
I was in the plane on the tarmac for 4 hours!
Only nuts/2 biscuits and a bottle of water was offered in business class. No meal or other drink was offered to me which I had paid for on my business class ticket.
We were told that there would be help for us when we got off the plane.
At the airport, no help was available. I waited at different luggage carousels for my case. Thought it was lost! I waited for over 1 hour. It eventually arrived on a different carousel.
I tried queuing at a business class kiosk to tell them about my experience. The queue never moved.
I then waited for 30mins in a taxi queue at the airport to take me home.
I was by then clearly exhausted.
I sincerely thank the woman who sat next to me on the plane who was such a comfort.
I was then automatically given a flight, not of my choosing, for 2 days time.
I am trying to claim compensation but the website is so specific that I doubt I will get any.
If you want to talk to anyone at BA there is not one person available to talk to or answer any of your concerns and no one knows what to do apart from 'going on line' which is absolutely useless.
What a terrible way to treat customers.
I am ashamed that this airline flies the British flag. This is no way to treat people. There is no proper complaint procedure ie no one to talk to about the concerns that have been encountered.
It was a deeply distressing experience yesterday and one from which I am just now starting to recover.

I will not be using them again. I traveled abroad with them when i was in college and its like they are completely two different companies then and now. They lost my luggage and they told me I wouldn't be able to get my luggage for a cruise unless I came to pick it up but wouldn't reimburse me for the taxi. Extremely hard to get through their automated system to speak with anyone and when I do its a call center in a country where they are polite but robotic and its "policy" "policy" "policy".

Once upon a time it was a pleasure to fly BA. No more. Incompetence, arrogance and a lack of any focus on customer care have destroyed a once great company. Arrived in London - at an international terminal (should have been a domestic one) so delayed an hour getting luggage. On return they failed to transfer the luggage - despite a one hour delay to a 3 hour connection - so we arrived back with no luggage. Customer service was useless is being able quickly reunite it with me despite me knowing exactly where is was with an AirTag. No useful update on luggage delivery time (well an accurate one) and all the time watching it do a nice tour around the North West. Never BA again if I can help it.

I have bought my ticket on 29th December from London to Doha and Doha to Dhaka. British airways has the collaboration with Qatar airways.
Though my ticket was issue through BA but I had to fly with Qatar. It was a very emergency trip as I lost my mum and committed to attend her funeral.
Flight was delayed from the Heathrow Airport therefore I missed my connecting flight from Doha. I had to wait 24 hours for the next flight. By the time I missed my mum’s funeral and unable to saw her face forever. I can’t express myself what was my mental situation.
After few days I claimed my compensation (as I had to wait 24 hours) through BA but BA told me that Qatar is not agreed for the compensation, once I contacted with Qatar and they told me to contact with BA. They were playing each other and I was in the middle. Now, I’m getting ready to raise the issue through FCA.
My request is please be aware from the BA as they don’t care the customer loyalty!!!

Absolutely horrendous. Trying to change a flight. App says I can’t do it online so to contact the airline I booked with, which was BA!! No number to call so had to spend 15mins finding a number, then 30min listening to hold music before giving up. Not sure why I still get surprised at their general disdain for customers. BA have to be the worst airline in the world for CX.

Horrible, just horrible. I had a flight re-routed to Amsterdam on the way from LHR to Oslo last summer. At the airport they said just get a hotel for the night and meals and we'll reimburse you then get you on a flight the next day. It was SO unorganized you'd think it never happened before. So we got a cheap hotel, had dinner and breakfast as well as a cab to the hotel and back, had receipts for everything. It only came out to about $330 but it's been a year of filing a claim then calling every 2 weeks and still no reimbursement! Everyone I talk to on th phone apologizes and says they'll escalate and get right back to me, but they never have. At this point it's not even the money, I keep calling cause I hate them so much.

Crammed in like sardines, no leg room, claustrophobic and very very uncomfortable, don’t fly BA in Europe, an absolute disgrace.

The most uncomfortable flight I’ve ever flown, never again 😡

I was traveling back to the UK in Business Class from Sweden on Sunday 4th May 2025. My flight QMD9ZK seat 7A. A middle aged man from the cabin crew came to serve me and he didn’t come across as friendly. He served my breakfast from a ready made package meal and I asked him for a cup of tea. He told me to ask his colleague. I was very confused as to why he couldn’t do a simple task by serving me a cup of tea. He went and served the man behind me and I heard him saying. What would you like sir, can I get you a cup of tea, or coffee, or cold water? But when I asked him he wouldn’t serve me. Is this normal practice in Business Class? I wasn’t asking for much. Just the basics. Very disappointing service. I paid extra for a lovely experience but he fell short of the standard BA sets.