Britishairways Avis 

Useless, useless, useless customer service!

I traveled to Barcelona from London Heathrow, for a short 6 day break, back in August 2024. My bags were delayed by 4 days due to complete incompetence of their baggage staff. I had no option but to buy a whole load of essentials (toiletries, clothes, shoes etc). Not only did I spend 2 days chasing my bags, but I got conflicting information on how much I could spend on essentials. My bags finally arrived 4 days into my 6 day holiday. I even had to find the number of the courier they used to direct them to where I was staying - BA only gave them a flat number in a whole city, and that is after locating my bags the following day, then flying them to Madrid, then to Valencia and then to drive almost half way back to Barcelona to where I was staying.

I submitted a claim on my return for the cost of essentials, and heard nothing. I have been chasing them every few weeks right to this very day (12th December) with still no new information, other than my case is in a queue! Shockingly bad customer service. I spent 650 euros on essentials on my credit card in August, accruing interest at 29.9% APR, have spent well over 20 hours of my valuable time on the phone to them (getting pinged from one person to another) but have only received apology after apology ("so sorry to hear of this sir" etc) but zero action. They seem to think that an apology is sufficient - its worthless, especially when they do NOTHING about it. Today, the customer services agent in India told me that my case would be prioritized and that I would hear back from them in 2 - 3 weeks, which is exactly how long they say a new claim will take, so no priority at all.

Try and find a number to call the head office in Harmandsworth in London and you will NEVER find any way to talk to the idiots that run this "shit show". I am half tempted to drive all the way to their offices and confront them with their incompetence. Not only have they not replied to me about my case or refunded the amount claimed, but effectively (with all the other claimants) I have been cash flowing their organisation. I have claimed my wasted time too, and interest on all the above - let's see what happens. Past experience tells me that nothing will.

I will never travel with such a "shit show" of an airline again, and URGE ANYONE reading this that needs to travel and wants to have a reliable service that they should choose any other airline than British Airways.

Trust Pilot - please introduce a Zero star rating. It is more fitting for my experience. 1 star out of 5 implies a 20% satisfaction. I have had 0% satisfaction.

I try to use B.A. for flights because their pilots are well trained. I've never had a particular issue with them. The negative I would mention is NEVER book a transfer with them. I flew to Salzburg in early December and checked out the cost of a transfer on the B.A. website. It was ludicrous, over €100 cheapest and rapidly escalating in price with different carriers. I used Uber. Cost? €22.22 I find that appalling, an absolute rip off.

Awful experience with BA support. Several hours wasted on the phone, emailing and even contacted them by post. Unable to get a claim for a delayed flight paid - this should be illegal, blatant avoidance.

Absolutely disgusting airline with zero customer service which has gotten a lot worse since the latest CEO joined. Absolute disgrace.

Again, constant disappointment from BA, and when you think they cannot go any lower, they did!
They have cancelled my flight and asked me to phone a number for the new booking options (this is by law, so there weren't doing me any favor). Phoned the suggested number, no person to talk to, just the usual robot that cannot understand (and discriminate) foreign accents and that is there just to waste your time. After managing to clearly say "I need to speak to an operator", the automatic answer simply was "we are sorry but we are busy, call back later" and the system closed the conversation. Useless to say, I have phoned three times and I always got the same automatic answer. Thanks BA! this is like to tell your customers needing help to politely sod off, congratulations, you really reflect British values. CEO and leadership should be fired.

I flew back from Riga to LHR. I had special assistance on the LHR to Riga route which was five star. I then had special assistance through Riga Airport and the lady (Astra) assisted me to the gate even though security was empty and Riga airport was quiet, and drove me in a vehicle to passport control even though I am fine to walk. She was fantastic and reappeared to help me onto flight. I cannot praise BA enough for special assistance. Our flight had delays due to UK weather but the cabin crew were also caring and reassuring. I am so grateful to BA for customer service despite the terrible weather in LHR.

Let me start by saying I am a lifetime gold member and have been Gold Guest List member for 5 years. My experience with BA has been consistently average to terrible, especially when it comes to timeliness of their flights. I cannot think of a single flight I have taken in the last 20 years with BA when it was on time. The Gold member customer service is also poor, and they go out of their way to be unhelpful so you never want to call them again.

I hope that I never ever have to call this number 03444930787 ever again if it's picked up by the same call centre in India. Not all issues are black and white and they don't need to treat concerned family members trying to resolve problems for elderly parents as criminals trying to access someone else's account.

British Airways need to understand that sometimes family members book tickets for elderly parents who, if flights have to be rescheduled, have no idea how to get through the automated system or even know the answers to all of the security questions.

Flights that were booked online can't be changed online but have to be changed by phone. Even though I am the emergency contact, I understand that if I am not authorised to make any changes then the customer services agents can't tell me anything but the first agent I spoke to assured me that he would note down my name so that if my dad managed to contact them then they would understand why he called. We're currently in different time zones and we never even thought about giving authorisation to family members as we've always been able to make changes online. We didn't even know such a thing existed.

I called back thinking that I should have been authorised to speak by then but I hadn't. However, the customer services agent spoke to me in such a dismissive and cold way that I thought that maybe my previous call hadn't been noted down, as promised, so I tried to ask him about it but he refused to let me explain or even speak.

He spoke over my voice so I spoke over his to simply ask him if the previous agent had written the extra notes like he said he would. While I was speaking he said something that I couldn't make out and then the call went silent for a while. I asked if he was still there, as it felt like he had put the phone down on me, and he said that he was so I continued to explain about my conversation with the first agent. Instead, this time (twice I think) I heard a long and loud beep while I was speaking almost like someone had pressed a button continuously. I first thought that maybe he was calling his manager but now I think that he was just trying to drown out my explanation. I couldn't let it go though because I still needed to make sure that my elderly parents could reschedule their flight and the original flight was only about 2 days away.

When I finally managed to tell him that the first agent said he would write down that I had called, he first said that it's normal for the call to be recorded anyway. I replied that this was not the standard recording but additional notes the agent said that he would make about my call and my dad authorising me to make changes. He then said that he wasn't allowed to talk to me about these additional notes so I replied that how come his colleague was allowed to talk to me about them. He then said that he didn't deny that the notes had been made either and then accused me of shouting at him. I told him that I wasn't trying to shout at him (he was also raising his voice to speak over mine but he didn't consider that as shouting). I told him again that I understood that I'm not authorised to make any changes in this account. I just wanted reassurance that my name was in the system, as promised. He then started saying something which showed me that he had completely dismissed my explanation so I finally put the phone down.

Thankfully, my dad found someone else to help him and, after discussing with him one more security question issue, he managed to get the flight changed without me. I'm so relieved that he did because I couldn't face calling British Airways customer services again and being made to feel like some sort of criminal trying to access someone else's account rather than a concerned family member trying their best to resolve the issue for their elderly parents.

Mrs H

I got to heathrow. Flight cancelled ok.
But they dont have a help desk at heathrow international departures. No one is willing to provide you help. They give you a 0800 nr to call, who knows what that costs. They tell you to go to the website. The support is friendly but they cant find you booked on the flight when you called them. Then suddenly 10 minutes later you are auto booked next day without BA actually caring if you miss your next flight. Which is my case. They just automate lip service. No good. I flown many airlines. But BA not having a service desk at heathrow is unbelievable. Wont fly BA again

Their website and App constantly fail to work. The airline which used to call itself the worlds favourite airline cannot get its software to work, is vastly overpriced and has terrible service. The worlds worst airline!

From Bad to Worse.
British Airways twice changed my flights to Penang which were booked via Kuala Lumper and I finally got dumped with Qatar Airways flights via Doha.
Unfortunately with the changes and nuisance cased the way Malaysian authorities calculate the length of stay my visa meant the new flights would push my visa allowed stay over the 90 day limit by one day.
I contacted BA to resolve the issue and requested I change my outgoing flight by one day only to be told this would cost me well in excess of gbp1000 almost doubling the original fare. This after waiting more than 20 minutes to get through on the phone and the agent taking considerable time to deal with the issue (or should I say Not deal).
I did ask if she thought it fair that they could change my flight details severely without any redress on my part when if the consequence was I ended up with a problem they could use the opportunity to fleece me out of a massive sum of money, just because they could. They were unable to give me an answer as to why they considered this was acceptable practice. As a matter of principle I declined to change my flights and will break my stay in Penang with a nice short break in Bali to get around the 90 day stay requirement at a cost less than the extra cost I would have paid with the small sense of satisfaction that I had at least wasted their time but had not allowed them to get their hands on any more of my money and it gives me the opportunity of posting details of the appalling service I have received in the knowledge that like me some might take the correct decision, as will I to ensure BA are never given the opportunity of being asked to provide their poor service.
I must say the 1 ratings they are awarded are well deserved and would add that like many poorly performing organizations it is of no surprise they never respond to the terrible apt reviews they are given. As the flag bearing British Airline I think it is safe to say they certainly let the country down in a massive way

LHR is a total mess. I bought my tickets via BA who put me on an AA flight to Miami which got in late and so I missed my connecting flight. I paid BA. Now they are telling me to connect AA but they don’t give you a number or any detail how or who to contact. I bought it through them so shouldn’t they sort it out and pay damages? Their customer service has really gone downhill.

British Airways customer relations dept are a total joke, not only do they not have an external number, they don't have an internal one. When you call customer services they have to message them.
Being trying for over a month to get the compensation I'm entitled to for a cancelled flight, they have closed off tickets and made wrong assumptions and ignore replies to their emails. I guess British Airways don't want to pay the compensation - should make it automatic the same as the States.

Entitled to change flight on day of travel because of fare paid. Tried to change within 24 hours but customer service informed me I needed to make the change online after midnight local (inconvenient for a 6AM flight). Woke up, tried to make the change. BA’s system only offered me paid changes so I had to take one since customer service was not online at this time. It costed £428. Called customer service, who admitted I should have only been presented free of charge changes, but since I had paid there was nothing I could do. Have filed a claim but haven’t heard anything back. 1 star is far too generous

**Worst Package Holiday Ever!!!**

For months, we had been looking forward to our British Airways package holiday, which included flights from Heathrow via Madrid to Marrakesh.

Unfortunately, from start to finish, it was an absolute disaster thanks to British Airways. At check-in in Heathrow, we were issued only one boarding card for the second leg of our journey and were told to pick up the others in Madrid. Upon our arrival in Madrid, we were informed that this should never have happened, and three out of our four family members were placed on standby for the flight to Marrakesh. The anxiety and stress we experienced were unlike anything we had ever encountered.

The chaos and poor communication continued with the BA staff at Heathrow. We were instructed to check in our cabin bags due to a lack of overhead locker space, and we complied. However, once we boarded the plane, we found that there was plenty of overhead luggage space available. When we finally arrived in Marrakesh, our bags did not make it; we had no clothing with us at all. Arriving in a country with temperatures in the high 20c without a single piece of clothing was incredibly frustrating, especially after being told to check in all our bags. We had nothing no wash bag, clothing etc. Bags eventually arrived after 24 hours. Had to go back to the airport ourselves to pick it up. Complained to British Airways holidays and have heard nothing.

O dear dear what's going on with this airline,has BA lost the plot honestly??we took a flight from Heathrow to Cairo last week the staff were lovely but my word the standards have completely dropped.on a 6hour flight there was no telly we were charged for WiFi the food was embarrassing.we weren't the only ones not happy with BA to be honest.
This is my third time flying with BA this year with the hope the flights would get better but it got worse.there will be no flying BA in my future plans.

Do not book with British airways
We booked flights to the States for our honeymoon and after 21 call attempts got through to someone (as they don't put you on hold if the lines are busy just disconnect you) we got through to someone who admitted it was BAs mistake and we should put a complaint in so we did as we're £650 out of pocket. The complaint team didn't address any complaint points and offered us £50. We've now written to BA, who have received our letter and surprise surprise we haven't heard anything back.
They've ruined our honeymoon!

1 star is too generous!!

I have only ever had terrible experiences with BA customer services- the airline's customer services team is the most bureaucratic and ineffective. They are an expensive airline and the budget airlines are far better. I have been trying to get a refund or a credit voucher for an incorrect charge for months now and they never resolve it but instead put you through to a clueless person at a call centre which only prolongs the pain. It sems they are hell bent on taking your money but delivering poor value in return

This is a continuation of my experience with booking a holiday to the Caribbean with BA.
My husband has been in email contact with the hotel we were due to stay in in Antigua.
They have I formed us that BA promised that all customers due to go the The Great House Antigua but had their holidays cancelled would be looked after and that BA would make sure every one was able to book a holiday of the same standard. Well BA you have broken that promise as the man I spoke to when trying to do this told me that BA would not do this as it would cost them too much to do so. So I was manipulated and bullied into cancelling my holiday. I have left this second review because BA have not had the good grace to contact me properly yet.

Poor lounge, not a good drinks offering no toilet bag no desert offed and when complained not even a call just a £100 offer then taken away and a £30 offer as I was just a number being delt with by an machine 😡