I do not understand why the Yelp rating is so low here. I had a flight from San Francisco to London BA284, on an A380-800 airplane, and it was such a lovely experience. Everything went smoothly. The check-in process was so easy and pretty chill. When it was time to board my flight, the cabin crew greeted me warmly and showed me to my seat, pointing out the features, the menu, and in flight entertainment system. Wifi was included with the flight. Pillows, blanket and headphones were already there. They offered pajamas, asking what size you need, plus slippers. And there was an amenity bag with eye mask, socks, toothbrush & toothpaste, lip balm, mirror, lotion, deodorant, ear plugs, and a few other items. The bag is pretty and can easily be reused for other purposes. Plenty of storage overhead, and also additional space in a cabinet that is accessible from the aisle (big enough for me to place my backpack in there for easy access during the flight). I chose champagne for my pre-departure beverage, which was served with some nuts, olives, and crisp crackers. There is meal service and you can dine anytime. Just let them know when you'd like your 1st meal and also your 2nd meal (breakfast, before arrival). They are so meticulous about setting the table and placing the napkin on your lap. Each course is served separately. Some of the dishes were good, and others were misses. I loved how tea was served in a teapot! They were also very good about topping off the wine glass. The lay flat bed made the 11 hour flight more bearable. It was also very easy to stand up and stretch my legs within my "pod" seat and walking in the aisle to the restroom. Just let the cabin crew know when you're ready for bed, and they'll set it all up wit the mattress pad and blankets. I definitely felt less "beat up" by the time we landed, and walked off the plane feeling pretty good despite being on London time. Before arrival, we were given a "Arrivals Fast Track" card for getting through immigration & customs. The IFE was pretty good with a wide selection of movies & shows, many were new. I managed to watch 2 full movies, get a little sleep, and then wake up to start another movie while having breakfast. Do make sure to ask for breakfast early enough so that there is time to eat it before the crew needs to pack up everything to get ready for landing. I felt well rested and less "beat up", from such a long flight, by the time I landed. It was relaxing to lounge in pajamas, not worrying about accidentally spilling food or drink on my regular clothes. . read more

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Initial booking was lovely, no snags. Booked spring break trip to London and back in January of 2024. No issues. Needed to change as we were unable to travel, called and spoke to someone who said our reservation would be held and needed to be rebooked within 1 year of the original booking. Excellent, no problems. Called to re-book the flight and was told "Great job, you did it within the year, and excellent news, the flights are slighly cheaper." Seriously it was like $25 savings overall but I was pleased. I was told I the flight numbers, told the seats/reservation was held, and I would get a call back within 72 hours with the confirmation and ticketing information. No call. I waited a week and called back. Was told "Oh, so sorry, yes I can see this was supposed to be handled, I'll send it right up to the manager's desk to get done, you'll get a call in 48 hours." No call. I waited a week and called again, now getting nervous that we are well past the 1 year mark and that the flights would be lost/invalid and I'd have to cough up the money again. Was told "Oh, yes, I see this should have been resolved, but I can't do anything about it, it's on the manager's desk." I went full-on Karen and asked to be escalated, was told "That manager is not in today, bla bla bla" and finally I got to a supervisor who was on duty but man, the way you have to push these people it's like the don't WANT to resolve your request. Was told once again that I'd get a call. I expressed that I did not believe one word coming out of the representative's mouth. He agreed that I should not. I was right. No call. Finally after 4 calls, with me getting progressively more irate each time and lambasting the poor representative on the other line, I FINALLY got a call back today and was told that, unfortunately, the price I was given 4 weeks ago had changed and I now owed another $110. I bet you know what happened next. I raged that the poor customer service and lack of follow-up and follow-through cost me $110 and BA should have covered that as it was THEIR incompetence and lack of customer service that illicited the fee. Was told "well if you have a complaint you can call customer service" and I blew up even further. In the end I paid the $110 so I could secure the tickets and will be lodging complaints online once I have the tickets but be advised. Customer service is NOT actually customer service. It's a dead phone queue where you will speak with someone in India (not the issue) that does not do their job OR does the job incorrectly (I was told both things happened) which IS the issue. BA, do better with your training and hire people who actually do their job instead of not doing their job, passing the blame to someone else, and not being accountable for their crappy work ethic and lack of service. I would have fired every single one of those people because the job was simply NOT DONE. read more

Don't fly with this a..hole airline. They canceled the flight on us, then lied through their teeth about everything for a whole month. We now have to fly back on worse seats and worse time that we have paid for. Last year British Airways lied to us about that we don't have to pay for the 2nd luggage. When we got to the airport to fly to Bucharest, we found out that we had to pay for our 2nd luggage. Never fly this airline ever again. read more

Really underwhelmed with their customer service in flight. We paid extra for their version of premium economy and it was definitely not worth the extra cost. But more than that, I can't remember a flight I've ever taken that had more uninterested and absent flight attendants. On an 11 hour international daytime flight, they came by only twice (beginning and end of flight) to give us our meals (which were terrible). And then one other time with a tray of waters. That's it! No drink carts. No snacks. No picking up trash. And when we did have an issue (in-seat chargers not working), we had to go find them in the back and our particular flight attendant couldn't be bothered. Luckily another flight attendant did get up to help us. The difference between the service on United heading over to Europe (excellent) and British Airways, coming back, was like night and day. I've travelled alot over the years and I can't remember ever getting such sub-standard service on a flight. Will never fly British Airways again. read more

British airways is THE WORST experience I've ever had with travel. My husband was supposed to meet me in Copenhagen. He flew from SFO to Heathrow for a short layover and then was supposed to get the last flight out of Heathrow to Copenhagen and then FIRST flight out of Copenhagen again the day after (side note, I was moving to the US and he was going to be there to help me with my luggage and say goodbye to my family) His flight from SFO was delayed, so he never made it in time for his connecting flight from London and there was no way he could meet me in Copenhagen. So we had to meet in London. Now; this is where it gets INSANE. All our flights were booked straight through the website and not a third party. When I get the Copenhagen airport, I try to explain my situation to the lady at the desk as to why I have 2 large suitcases, 2 hand carries and a guitar case (which I had already paid for online the evening before and was planning on getting disputed later). She then said the payment hadn't gone through, even though it was taken out of my account, and I had to pay again. I asked how they can ask me to pay again when the money has already been taken out of my account and she said 'for security measures'. She kept saying I could dispute it later. (Foreshadow; BA never gave me or my partner back a single cent even though it's their fault he missed two flights and I paid for my luggage 3 times in total). I was very upset by the situation, and another kind member of staff asked me if I was okay and I straight up said 'no I'm having a very difficult time' and the same INCREDIBLE rude and older lady and CPH airport said something along the lines 'if you don't move on from this and move out of line I will deny you access to the plane' even her colleague was shocked. I left my family and said goodbye alone with over £2500 burning in my pocket from EXTRA luggage charges. Once arriving to my final destination, I try to dispute everything as prompted. Not a SINGLE cent. Not even for missed flights, NOTHING. They did however try to offer me £50 off my next flight with BA. Granted. This was a few years ago now, but since I have NEVER flown BA and quite frankly, I have also discouraged friends from doing it who luckily listen to me as I'm quite the traveller. I have never ever ever ever received such poor customer service from any airline in my life and I truly think the company should be ashamed. The flights from San Francisco from Copenhagen quickly ended up costing me well over £4000 in economy. By which, about, £2500 of those were paying for luggage 3 times and two of the flights were missed cause do BA delays. Which I never for refunded for. Honestly; the travel industry would be better if this company didn't exist. read more

After recently being a passenger on 4 British Airways flights (SFO - LHR, LHR - JNB, JNB-LHR, and LHR-SFO), I don't fully understand all the negative reviews. Of course, I might think differently if I'd missed a connection without proper airline support. As for COVID, Gayle and I found that BA staff were on it whether that be at the Lounge or at our seats. We might also be a little biased as we were upgraded to First Class on the SFO-LHR leg and flew Business Class the rest of the way. The only real negatives were that the entertainment system didn't work from SFO-LHR, that the boarding sequence at Heathrow for the flight to Johannesburg was somewhat disorganized, and the pre-check in Johannesburg for the new COVID testing attestation form was often chaotic. And all this was well before Omicron raised its gnarly mutated head and f**ked up the South African economy. Past that, the seats were comfortable, food and drink were very good, and cabin service was attentive and professional throughout. On the ground, we enjoyed both the Lounge and its offerings. The folks at the check-in desk were also knew their stuff and led us in the right direction. read more

Booked SFO to Barcelona with British Airways. Worst flights ever. BA used Iberia which used some obscure budget airline called LEVEL that they don't tell you about until you're at the airport. Outgoing flight was delayed 6 1/2 hrs. which entitles me and my husband to $650 each. We've been trying for 4 months to get this compensation. NADA. We paid for Premium Economy and on our return flight they put us sitting separately in Economy. They make you pay for crappy food and were blasting loud music when we boarded at 2:00am!! On a 12 hr. flight! We've been trying to recoup the difference in money between the Premium seats we paid for and the Economy seats they put us in. HA!! When they replied to me about this they basically told me "Tough s**t". Never, never again. I'll fly into France and make my way by train or car in future. read more

First time flying British Airways from SFO-London- Italy. We left last Thursday night came back yesterday. I must say the crew that we encountered gave us the best service. The flight crew were just helpful. You ask for anything and they give it to you with a smile. Doesn't matter if you are in economy or in business class, the flight crew will treat you with respect! We left for Venice and was looking at stuff before we board, two of the check in crew came to us (they remember our faces) and reminded us that they are boarding soon- can you imagine that? What a service!!! Thank you British Airways, even though traveling is a little tiring because of the time difference but your crew made it extra special with a smile. I wish all airlines offer this kind of service!!! Your people are the best!!!! read more

We flew direct SFO to London in business class (my first time flying business). I was impressed by the individual "pods" that reclined all the way and gave you room to stretch out and lay flat to sleep. Good "counter" space with two outlets to charge your phone with wire. One of the two worked for me. Blanket and pillow are already on your chair. The pod has a little door. You're brought a small bag of complimentary toiletries in a cute black bag - lotion, lip balm, a scented roller, socks, eyemask, and ear plugs. You have TVs with a lot of options for things to watch. WiFi can be purchased for about $20/flight duration; I would've hoped it would be free in business. It was $1000 upgrade to pick seating; we wanted to sit together as a family. In retrospect that's kind of pointless in business as it's hard to reach over and talk to each other here. The service in business was okay. I was offered water but no one else in my family (3 others) were. 3/4 of us were given a complimentary drink. None of us were given the Chardonnay that we picked out for our preset dinner menu. I appreciated that they had a vegetarian option, and I'll say it was pretty tasty and filling for airplane food. They tell you to close the windows and dim the lights to have you sleep and adjust to the British time difference which I appreciated. I wish a breakfast announcement was made because I woke up to silverware clanking, wasn't offered breakfast (preset menu) after when there was still 1.5 hr left of the flight. None of us were given coffee/tea options at breakfast. The food service was disorganized and inconsistent, which for the price paid, I wasn't entirely content with. read more

Too bad we can't give a 1/2 star We flew to Rome on British Airways (BA) arranged by Costco Travel. We arrived an hour late and worried there could be trouble with the arranged car. We got our luggage (20 minutes) and met the car transport and actually had left the airport when we realized we had left a carry-on on the plane. We returned and I spent over 20 minutes going back through security back to customs where they said baggage left on the plane would be at lost and found. I found lost and found but no one was there for BA, after 20 minutes with the car waiting I left and we went to the hotel. We immeadiately called British Airways for the phone number of their lost and found and THEY DIDN'T HAVE IT! They didn't try to help us - they said "it's the Rome Airport running lost and found." We found multiple numbers on the internet for the lost and found, no one answered, but some we left messages. We found an e-mail where we sent a detailed description of the carry-on but no one ever contacted us. Our hotel in Rome is about 45 minutes from the airport $40-$80 by train or bus so we called British Airways again as we were willing to go back to the airport lost and found if the carry-on was there but once again BA declined to help in any way. Stuart is semi-retired, Diane retired the first year of covid. The kids are grown, covid is no longer a pandemic, and we have the time and finances to travel. We will travel but not using British Airways read more

Read this asap. Think more than twice before booking with BA. Their prices are more affordable but it comes at a very steep price, even in first class. When you think of traveling at this level, with any airline, you expect a great experience, good food, all within in a peaceful and restful cabin environment. I recently flew in first class from SFO to LHR on BA's A380 and it was the absolute worst experience of my 40+ years of traveling by air. It was a complete nightmare from gate to gate; yes nonstop. There were 2 passengers in the middle section that met each other on board and seemed to really get on well. One thin 'married' 30-ish blond woman traveling to be with family with a 'severe airborne nut allergy' (which she didn't seem to care about once she started drinking), and a late 20's early 30's man on business. From the moment we left the gate, they were laughing, talking loudly, and getting to know one another. That would have been fine but the problem was that it never stopped...the entire flight. It was exacerbated with the non stop liquor service by the crew that did not cut them off or shut off their lights. The whole cabin got to hear all of their history, likes, dislikes, jokes, 'allergies,' tattoo stories, and personal matters; fully lit! It was so disruptive that the crew had to ask them to be quiet 6 different times; 3 passengers (including myself) also chimed in to get them to stop being so loud but they continued to drink and carry on all flight. By the time we started to descend for landing, that's when the two really got wet smacking those lips; now with each other. It was actually the only time they shut up! I don't mind people romantically kissing in public but when it's drunk, messy idiots, everyone minds. Her poor husband; no wonder he didn't join her on this trip. We deplaned, got thru border patrol and was thrilled to be rid of them. I thought the worst was over but no. I got violently ill about an hour after getting off the plane. My brow started sweating, I was nauseous, I turned completely white; something was wrong. I pulled off to the side of the road and lost my cookies. There it was, whatever was left of the breakfast that was served on the plane. Over the next hour, I vomited a total of six times! We arrived at our destination and all I wanted to do was shower and crawl into bed. Finally, after some rest and rehydration, I was on the mend. I decided to write a complaint to BA about the experience. It was less detailed than this but just as descriptive. After almost a week, I received the most boiler plate and insulting response I've ever seen. Yes there were things like apologies and pride in level of service, blah blah blah. The real kicker was their offer of a one time £150 credit to use for any future travel. £150!!! After close to a 5 digit round trip fare, that was all they offered??It was so insulting, I responded to let them know exactly that and also alert them I would be posting about the experience. They didn't seem to care. The 2nd response was basically justifying what a great offer it was. I was happy to cancel my return and rebook on a different airline. Did they honestly think I would actually take the return back to SF after that slap in the face? To sum it all up, if you are looking to book a real first class flight experience, I would avoid BA completely. Happy spring travel!! read more

Took the flight from SFO to Heathrow on the Boeing 747 - didn't know airlines still carry this model. The inside was pretty old and the seats seemed pretty wobbly. The seats also didn't seem clean and was not very comfortable for 12 hours. However, Brutish airlines carries one of the best meal experiences. I opted for the chicken curry for dinner and honestly it wasn't half bad. There was a very distinct tomato flavor, but the chicken was pretty dry. But yay for cheese and crackers and the dessert, toffee pudding, was delicious! Only wish there was fruit. For breakfast I opted for the turkey and bacon breakfast burrito which also wasn't too bad other than the fake tasting scrambled eggs. But that being said, one of the worst entertainment choices for an airline. I didn't recognitive most of the movies and they seem to be very outdated. Not very fun especially if you're on a 12+ hour flight. Check-in and landing very smoothly. Luggage came out very quickly and everything seemed to move along as planned. Would recommend other than the fact that the seats are very uncomfortable. read more

British Airways - Best airline dessert ever! - Airlines Near Me - San Francisco, California

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12/02-03/2018: I paid $548.00 R/T from SFO TO LONDON HEATHROW plus, I paid a few dollars more for the extra legroom and space, i.e., the exit row via next to the bulkhead seats; however, there was this Scottish man sitting directly behind me accosting my back, spine, and kidneys with his knees knocking the back of my seat from the time he first sat down to the entire duration flying ALL 9.5 hours to LONDON UK! As I began drifting to sleep, that irritating man, egregiously knocked the back of my seat so hard, I woke up startled swatting the back of my seat while he began snarling, barking at me, "Don't hit me!" I tersely informed him to cease knocking the back of my seat and stop barking orders!" "WELL~I'VE GOT LONG LEGS!!!!," he miserably failed apologizing: This man is definitely NOT a well-heeled, well-mannered or graciously elegant gentleman-he'a a sniveling, miserly buffoon who didn't want spending a few more dollars for accommodating his "LONG LEGS!" In the middle of the flight, under oath, I attest-THAT MAN BEGAN FURIOUSLY WANKING OFF hitting the back of my seat in a rhythmic beat! I unbuckled my seatbelt glaring at that morally bankrupt reptilian who saw I was glaring at him, he stopped doing his "business," and proceeded heading to the bathroom-ewwwwww~GROSS BASTARD! Aside, the dinner served was alright for "airplane cuisine" while the white wine I requested married well with the curried chicken, salad, and rice; breakfast was a mushroom quesadilla which wasn't palatable. Overall, the airline host and hostesses were polite but, withheld very little conversational exchanges nor did any British Airways Employee attempt stopping that man from doing his "business" furiously, egregiously knocking my seat for 9.5 hours accosting my kidneys! read more

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The worst ever!!! No customer service no care for it's customers If I could give -0 stars even that would be too good for the useless and uninterested BA to look after its customers! If you have an issue no one will care to resolve it for you! Where to start?! 1. Blocked account with over 150,000.00 miles on it 2. Not allowing me or helping me to get my phone that BA staff member held in their hands asked me for my phone password to take 1 ( only single one) phone number out of my phone to give to me and then they left my phone behind in another country. I never got it back or all and all numbers on it have been lost to me including precious family numbers and business contacts that I have never managed to recover! 3. No one ever calls me back or replies no matter the question 4. They never gave me any perk or anything for 30 years flying with them and always a business class ( spending money with the BA) 5. They drop you down to whatever executive club though if one flies business any executive club status will be useless unless gold, as one gets other perks with one's business class ticket anyway! So what's the point of any other club??! 6. If you ask or need anything you are just ignored! 7. No bottled water in any of BA lounge! One can have any alcohol though not essential to survive, but NO WATTER that one's life depends on it! All under pretence of " environment " when in fact they will give you any other soft drink and plastic packaging ! If concerned get glass bottles!! But give water! Currently BA has blocked my account ( where I have more then 150,000.00 miles on the account and haven't used a single mile this whole year) for over 2 months without ever giving me the exact reason or helping me to unblock the account! When I call them it's always we can't do anything "another team" will look in to this and months are passing by, not days, but months! Just appalling and the worst ! Sorry to say as years back BA was something and stood for something long time ago!! read more

Horrible customer service. They canceled my flight. So I go to change it to a later flight, and it gives me a screen where I can ONLY accept the new change they offer which was for a morning flight. When I would click to contact them, I'd get notified I couldn't change with them, I'd have to go through Expedia, who I booked with. And it says I can't do anything else until I accept the changes. So I do. I call BA. They tell me I need to tell Expedia to call them for an exception on not paying a fee now because I accepted the changes...WHICH THEIR WEBSITE SAID I HAD TO DO TO MOVE FORWARD!!! Call Expedia. BA tells them I have to pay for it all. I even had PICTURE PROOF of their website saying all the above. It made no difference. Never again. read more

Just booked flights for my family, including a 10 year old kid, SFO to London to Rome. I used 40K American frequent flier miles each, instead of 22.5M, to get premium economy -- partially for the better seat/legroom but also so I could choose seats because, like I said, we're traveling with a 10-year old kid. Couldn't book seats on AA's website, so I went over to BA's website with my record locator and it says I can choose seats for free but ONLY 24 hours before the flight? WTH? What if there aren't 3 seats together? We're traveling as a family, on a long flight, and I used more miles to choose seats NOW. This is ridiculous. Even worse, when I clicked the link on BA's website to see how much it would cost to choose seats now -- not that I should have to pay ANYTHING more -- it was only offering me standard seats, not even the seats with extra legroom which, again, I used a LOT more miles to get! read more

British Airways - Airlines Near Me - San Francisco, California

I've seen a lot of negative reviews for all the airlines due to Covid disruptions and I'd just like to say, what did they expect? I've had all of my trips itineraries changed by the airlines multiple times and one even canceled my whole trip 16 days before my trip. But this is to be expected during a pandemic. We ended up getting tickets on British Airways SFO-LHR, due to another carrier canceling their route to London. We have flown them before and they've been fine. But this time, they were pleasant and the whole journey from start to finish was great. We had premium economy seats going to London 21 J and K (lots of leg room in an emergency exit row) and flew back in business on an upgrade that we paid for and had seats 16 J and K. The flight attendants on both legs were friendly and helpful. The seats were comfortable enough for an eleven hour flight and the food was pretty good, especially on the way back. I'd say my only quibble is that it seems like their VOD is lacking compared to other flights I've had lately. Like they only have one episode of Great British Bake Off from last years season. Why not have the whole season and keep people entertained and in their seats. I will say that I saw the flight attendants keeping the bathrooms cleaner than I've ever seen any flight ever. That was great since people are still unable to keep the bathroom relatively clean on their own. We used the British Airways Lounge in London which had changed and now you have to have people bring most of the food to your table which used to be self serve which I didn't love but I understood because of Covid. I had a great experience enough that I booked flights on them again for next year already. read more

British Airways - Business Class Seat 16K - Airlines Near Me - San Francisco, California

Be sure to read the small print when booking airline tickets. I booked flights to Israel last July 2023 for my bucket list trip to see Israel. (This was before all the fighting.) I booked with British Airways. I was going on a tour but chose to book my own tickets as I wanted to upgrade to Business Class. Fast forward to December 2023 and the tour company cancelled the trip due to the unsafe situation in Israel. I called British Airways to inform them and ask for what I could do. I was informed that the tickets I purchased were non refundable. I was not given any suggestions for possibility to reroute the tickets or wait before cancelling. I was also told that if I cancelled the tickets on line I would at least get the unused taxes. So I did what they suggested and received $300 back on a $4200 airfare. I called back as I couldn't believe this is what happened. I checked with my trip insurance, but they didn't cover this either. I wrote letters. I called. I found out that in March, British Airways cancelled the flights and are not travelling to Israel due to unsafe environment. Had I not cancelled the flight, it would have been fully refunded. I called and wrote again. I received an email that basically said, too bad, we won't do anything. It's a painful and expensive lesson to learn. I won't fly British Air again. I will definitely do a better job of reading the fine print in the future. And by the way, I am a seasoned traveler that has travelled worldwide. I've never had such difficulty actually TALKING to a person in Customer Service. It's next to impossible to actually get a person with British Airways -- an hour hold to have someone disconnect me. No more British Airlines for me. read more

CAUTION booking on British Airways!!!. I lost five thousand dollars and have no recourse! We bought two tickets on British Airways totaling $5218. Somehow an inquiry was initiated (which takes one click of a button that says initiate refund inquiry). There wasn't a warning I just got an email saying my refund was initiated. I called saying I didn't initiate a refund and was hung up on twice. Then the agent told me that they could not refund my $5k, that they would give me $70 of the $5k. I was and am in shock. I spent 5 hours on the phone with different call centers in India. You can't reach a real BA agent. And they all declined a further refund so I am out $5k!!! AND THE TICKETS ! I can't believe an airline can get away with this much less get away with it and leave me no recourse. I got an email back saying they can't help me - to go to an agent. I will never fly BAirways again. read more

The staff on board during a flight is excellent. Kind and helpful. But they lost our luggage on our ten day trip to Italy and they were not returned until we got home. We will never fly through Heathrow Airport again. read more

I don't know why this doesn't have high reviews but I did enjoy our flight to Europe with BritishAirways Club World. They serve so many snacks, courses and drinks. You can even walk into their snack bar and just grab what you want in the middle of the night or day. The service was prompt and fast. Basically everyone in world was at your beckon call. Check out my pics. Worth the $$$$ for long haul flights. They even give you all the pillows you need and hygiene kit for freshening up in the morning. Try them. Trust!!! read more

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This review is specific to British Airways Customer Service (or lack thereof)) not necessarily actual flight service. In recent months we encountered a number of issues dealing with BA's customer service that included attempts to resolve flight changes and baggage issues. While attempting to see what we could do about changing my daughter's return flight from London (she had been studying abroad for the semester) we attempted to see if there was another option to get her onto our return flight to SFO with us at the end of Dec. While the ticket she had back to Denver had restrictions we had hoped to speak to someone that might assist in resolving our request even if it required us to pay to change the ticket. Instead all we got was "so sorry that ticket cannot be changed!" When I asked if we could speak to someone higher up at customer service, the response was "oh we don't do that here!". We ended up having to book her on another flight on a different airline in the end. This was the last straw after many attempts to deal with curt and rude customer service representatives at their call center. The other issue was trying to get a refund for an unused prepurchase excess baggage fee. While we thought we would need two excess bags on a return flight from London, in the end we only used one, so we had requested a refund for the unused excess bag. After over an hour attempt to contact someone at the baggage assistance number provided by the airline I finally was able to speak with someone who after hearing my request for a refund basically said since I chose not to use my second paid excess bag it was on me and that they would not provide a refund. When I asked politely to speak with someone else who may be able to address this, the customer service representative hung up the call. I understand using an offshore call center as an efficient and cost effective way of managing customer concerns and needs, but not allowing any escalation of concerns to managers or others who may be able to address situations beyond the customer service reps is unacceptable. Additionally there is only one single contact channel for BA issues which all route to their call center, so basically their customer service environment is non-existent in my opinion. I would avoid British Airways at all costs if you want to avoid any potential issues that would need resolution by their customer service. read more

Horrible customer service- flight delays, missed connections, ruined vacation. No communication from the airline - basically you'd better be a seasoned traveler to use this airline. You're on your own. read more

Now I understand why BA only has 1 star. Our trip has to be cancelled due to a medical emergency and now trying to deal with customer service is a nightmare. Never fly British Airways. read more

This review if for flight from CAI-LHR on 07/07/2023. I was traveling from CAI to LAX through LHR on a purchased business class ticket. I believe calling the service you get, on this and similar flights from a European city to multiple Middle East destinations, a business class is misleading and amounts to cheating customers. Basically you are paying for an empty seat next to yours, nothing else. You get the same service, food, and unclean toilets everyone else is getting in economy at a much higher price than the basic ticket. This has been the case for long years, so why I decided to write about it: first, the breakfast served "British Breakfast" was so bad, that I decided to complain, I even took a picture of it, usually I don't. Second, on my inbound flight from LAX to CAI I flew Qatar Airways, same price, but real top notch service end-to-end. It's a bit longer duration, but for the same price you are getting a better service inflight and world class lounges in airports. Bottom line, if flying to the Middle East, opt for Qatar, Emirates, Etihad, Saudia or Turkish rather than European carriers. For fairness, the cabin crew was excellent and hardworking and the flight from LHR to LAX on BA was excellent. read more

British Airways - British Breakfast on BA - Airlines Near Me - San Francisco, California

Sham practices. I bought a refundable ticket through American Airlines and was forced to buy seats for the flight from British Airways. Apparently the seat purchase is non-refundable and they won't give a voucher to use on future flights. This is a failure on American Airlines and British Airways for bad practices. Avoid this airline as they won't honor the policies of their umbrella carrier if they are being used. read more

FLY BRITISH AIRWAY IF YOU WANT TO RUIN YOU'RE VACATION. FOR YOU'RE OWN GOOD PLEASE FLY A DIFFERENT AIRLINE. They do not care about they're customers. They gave our seats to other people and wouldn't let us on the plane. Would not refund our tickets after refusing us entry on the flight. The attendants were rude, 0/10 service, delayed my family a solid 8 hours. Will never fly British airways again. read more

I really wanted to like them because their fares were lower than Lufthansa and their customer service phone line played classical music and who doesn't love a British accent?! Well, I called because I was worried about their pilot strike - that was supposed to take place on my return flight back to SFO but the person I was on the line with was SO RUDE. He had this uppity condescending tone to him combined with a snarky British accent and he did not helped me at all. I just wanted to get off the phone asap and didn't want to deal with them anymore. Two days later I call again, this time I got a more pleasant woman. She told me that she doesn't have access to the amount of the partial refund if I wanted to cancel my return flight. I would have to file for a review and then call back in 72 hours to check back on my request?! Um, what the heck, this is weird and a huge inconvenience. I just want to know how much it would cost to cancel the return flight while still keeping the outbound, why do I have to jump through so many loops and call back in 3 days to check up on it? They don't do email updates. Lol. Oh, and get this... The flight was DELAYED by THREE HOURS. We were all sitting on the plane waiting for take off until the captain said that they have to wait to get security clearance from London airport before we take off... Why didn't they do this sooner? Why does it take three frigging hours to hear back from London officials?! They apologized and said it was a baggage descrepancy at Heathrow airport... Um... Ok... Weird and vague reason, but ok. Guess what - I lost three precious daytime hours in London on a beautiful sunny day because of this shenanigans! Babies are now crying hysterically. We are all pissed as I'm writing this review. British Airways say they *think* they will have enough fuel, even though we've been burning loads of carbon dioxide just sitting here with the engines running. Great, how reassuring. We may run out of fuel before getting to our destination, if we ever take off. NO WONDER THEIR PILOTS ARE GOING ON A STRIKE NEXT WEEK. This airline doesn't have their act together at all. I've flown on numerous developing nation's airlines before and never had as bad an experience as dealing with British Airways. I'm so glad I canceled my return flight with them. During flight, the two meals offered were terrible! Low quality and cheap foods. My chicken and rice dinner was dry. My breakfast was a dry and sad tiny burrito with a loaf of bread and canned Del Monte sugary fruits. The bathroom lines were ridiculously long because there's a shortage of bathrooms on board. The female flight attendants were very nice though, that's one thing positive I do want to mention. They did a great job of trying to make up for their company's shortcomings. I won't be flying BA again if I can help it. My fares was not by any means cheap--- it was ~$1,500 for a round trip and I just don't think the value is there. read more

Waited an hour to receive cargo at their SFO cargo building. Four other customers waiting to retrieve their shipments as the cargo staff walked passed up completely ignoring us. The staff inside the warehouse helped only their fellow ethnic peers. The only nice way I know how to say being Latino has its privileges when the cargo agent is also an hombre. They then continued to stand around in our eye sight and laugh it up and chat. I had to leave as I was late for another job so the cargo is still there for the night. They seriously need better coordination with customer service. read more

Very Poor customer service. My daughters flight to Venice, IT was cancelled. She was given a flight to Milan instead. British Airways refused to reimburse a significant portion of our costs to pick her up. Here is their last email response: "...As we've previously discussed, we're not liable for any consequential loss a customer or third party may have as a result of a delay or cancellation.  So, I'm afraid we are unable to reimburse the cost of her autostrada toll fees..." We pointed out that our costs were cheaper than a taxi, to no avail. If you haven't driven in Italy, toll road fees can be significant, much more than say crossing the golden gate bridge. read more

Horrible customer service. The airline does not answer phone calls or emails. We filed a claim for damaged luggage three months ago without any response. Shame on them. read more

The flight I booked and paid for was on a new aircraft. I had never flown British Airways and was very excited to be able to be sitting in the upper section of this plane as I had never done that. This was also the first time I'd paid to have a "Premium Experience" in the World Traveler Plus section. I picked this based on your website and I made sure to book a newer aircraft. I made sure that my flight had a new aircraft since the cost was high. Due to the 2-hour delay in Rome due to "mechanical issues", I (along with around 30% of the flight) missed my connection in London. We were told that we had been rebooked and that we could pick up our new flight info as we left the plane. However, we were then told to go downstairs to Flight Accommodations to get hour new flight and that there would be someone downstairs to direct us. When we got downstairs, there was no one. We did not know we had to go to a different part of Terminal 5. Since there were no other flights available, we were put up in a Holiday Inn Express (some were sent to Sheraton), given a food voucher (for the Holiday Inn Express Buffet that consisted of two choices of food), and booked on a flight the next afternoon. Unfortunately, the plane we were re-booked on was a 747 that had seen better days. The seats were not wider as your web site advertises, there was no power option from the 21st century, and the personal flat screen was smaller than my Kindle Fire and did not work. Since the seats were small, my tray would not lay flat over my lap and I had to hold my tray and try and eat at the same time. The flight home that was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience after a wonderful 10-day vacation became a nightmare that I never want to repeat. Quite frankly, the mundane American air flight that took me to Rome was better than the flight home on your "world class" airline. read more

British Airways - My personal flat screen for World Traveler Plus...on the right is my Kindle Fire for comparison. - Airlines Near Me - San Francisco, California

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The only thing that would have made my experience with British Airways worse was if the plane had crashed. I paid almost 300 pounds to fly from London to Frankfurt. The flight took off and then was re-routed back to London because of weather and German air space closing. The communication to passengers was horrible and it took two hours waiting in line to get a hotel room, only to learn they still hadn't rebooked my flight. While waiting in line, I tried multiple times to call their customer service number, and was on hold for twenty minutes at a time before hanging up due to international cell phone costs. The rebooked flight landed 22 hours after my original flight was supposed to land, and even that flight was delayed because of broken air conditioning. Which was identified after we already boarded and were sitting on the tarmac during a rare London heatwave. I landed almost a day later than planned, but my bag didn't make it from London for another four days. British Airways provided no guidance for which baggage and delay related expenses they'd reimburse, yet then denied portions of my claim. The delays, lost baggage and frustrating experience dealing with them really ruined the first part of my holiday. I complained to their customer service team and after a lot of back and forth, they offered a 20 pound travel voucher. Such a horrible experience with this airline, will never fly them again! read more

If you're flying business class AVOID THIS AIRLINE!!! You have to share an armrest with someone like in economy and 50% chance you sit facing backward... and they cram so many people in if you're in the center like I was then you can't even get to the isle when other people are reclined!!!!!! SO BADDDDDDDDDDD read more

British Airways will do anything in its power to keep you from earning Avios (frequent flyer miles) I made several purchases through their online store in order to add Avios to my account. They never were credited to me. British claimed that I never made the "final click" for the purchases which is absurd since I could not have gotten the goods unless I did. I had endless emails with them about this and they went out of their way to cheat me out of a few Avios. I could not believe how petty and cheap and hostile they were. Be warned, do not buy anything through their online store and expect to get credited with any Avios. They have an employee whose sole job it appears to be is come up with contorted explanations of how you didn't earn Avios even though you did exactly what the instructions say. read more

I wanted to do two things: - Change my email address on my account. - Book a flight for someone else with my Avios. Guess what, none of that was possible online. So I called them and after waiting more than TWO hours (not exaggerating) and being connected to THREE different persons (based in India or Pakistan I assume regarding their accent), they told me they can't change my email address, I have to submit a special form. Well, THREE hours all together to make a booking which should be doable online in five minutes. And, they were complaining that they have too many phone calls. No way !!! read more

After seeing nothing cheaper than $1800 for flights to Paris flying around mid-June, we found a reasonable fare via Kayak on British Airways on their SFO-LHR flight. We're like that's great. Why not see London too after a couple of weeks in France? However, our fare of around $1350 each quickly ballooned when we had to add the fee we had to pay for "choosing" our seats for each segment. We ended up having to pay $90 for SFO to LHR seat assignments, and $120 for LHR-SFO. Granted, it was still cheaper than buying a plane ticket to Paris, but it would have been nice to have known about this before buying our tickets. Moreover, I have not had the experience of EVER having to pay for seat assignments on international flights. We fly on an international flight every year, and this is the first time I've ever had to pay to choose my seat in Coach/Economy. Luckily, our flights to and from London went smoothly. No delays or problems with lost luggage. Service on board was just okay, more like the kind you receive on American than Asian airlines. It'd be nice to get smiles once in a while. Six months previous, we flew ANA to Asia, and service was very good. Food and drinks are only served at the beginning of the 9-10 hour flight and again at the end. In between flight attendants come by maybe every couple of hours offering water or juices to passengers. I don't think that's often enough, considering how dry it is in the plane. We did fill up my Cal water bottle before departing, but we quickly exhausted that a few hours into the flight. I had to send my husband to the galley to fetch some water and a snack. On Singapore Airlines, they come by with snacks (ice cream, candy bars, crackers, etc.) in between meals!On BA the food's not very good too. On the way to London, I had a mushy Chicken dish with veggies and coming back, I declined the meal since I brought a sandwich and snacks with me on board. But really, they need to provide more water! Just a warning though, if you're at Heathrow, make sure you head to your gate at least 45 minutes before your plane's departure time. You have to take a train to your gate and walk. You don't want to miss your flight! There is a small duty free shop and a Starbucks by the gate, so you can grab gifts and coffee there respectively. Thank God the person who checked in our luggage told us this important detail! read more

British Airways - Airlines Near Me - San Francisco, California

My connecting flight from London to LAX was a nightmare. As my wife and I were in line to board. A BA employee asked my wife if she was traveling alone. She said she was traveling with me (her husband). He proceeded to ask her to walk to the front desk with no explanation other then go to the front desk. She rushed her and tell her to take her carry-on with her. I asked what was the issue. He didn't respond and walked away. Ok, so I hoping they randomly picked someone for a business class upgrade. That was not the case. They randomly pick passengers for a security check. Fine, however that was not explained to me. All of the sudden, she disappeared. I tried to reach her via txt/call but with no avail. When I finally about to board, they asked for my passport with my boarding pass. I explained to them that my wife has the passport and she disappeared after talking to BA employees. It took them 15 minutes to locate my wife and my passport. 30 minutes later, I finally get to board the plane. Needless to say, this is the last time I will be flying with BA. They need to hire competent people. It is frustrating dealing with people who have no customer service skills. read more

BA used to be quite good but has deteriorated significantly. It is now a budget airline that charges extra for the most basic items. For example, I booked a flight on AA which is a partner airline. Since my child was under 16 I booked separately, as required. BA refused to seat us together unless we paid $119 for each segment each way...really? I called as I am Silver on BA and Gold on AA, but no response or acknowledgement that their policy left me no option. I would advise strongly against flying with AA or BA to LHR out of the US. There are many better options and I would advise customers not to be fooled by the low cost prices advertised. You will pay much more. read more

My husband and I were recently separated by British Airways to accommodate a heterosexual family. I learned of the separation only after we were ready to board the plane at Heathrow, and we were looking at our boarding passes. (The airline had moved me to a different business class seat that morning, and did not let me know--when I got to the fast-track kiosk during our tranfer, a new boarding pass was spat out. I thought nothing of it till we got to the gate and were checking to see our boarding group.) I got zero help and major attitude from the gate agents. One blamed me for not having said brought it up earlier, and no one acknowledged that they separated my family for an 11-hour flight to San Diego. Another lied and promised me I'd not be face to face with a stranger, assuring me that all seat face the same direction. (I was face to face with an embarrassed stranger, due to BA's awful Club World seating plan.) The flight supervisor apologized to me on board, but my husband barely got served by his flight attendant. That same supervisor assured me that he'd take up my complaint for me. A few days later I received a form response from BA that they were looking into the situation, but two weeks later I've heard nothing. Especially galling is the fact that, after we had paid a small fortune in dollars and points for our flights, we'd been compelled to pay an extra $119 each to pick our adjacent seats, a fraudulent bargain as it turned out. Full disclosure is that we were on separate reservations, but only because my 348,000 Chase Sapphire points were not enough for both our round trip tickets (in fact, it wasn't even enough for my own fare!) Jason Molnar read more