British Airways Reviews | Opinions of British Airways shared by travelers

My wife and I are living in Belgium now, but over the Christmas holidays we travelled back to the U.S. to visit our families and friends. Then on January 1st we took American Airlines flight 3207 out of Lubbock, Texas. This flight was delayed almost 2 hours, meaning we were going to miss our connection in Dallas. Our final destination was Paris, France, where we had already purchased train tickets from the airport back to our home in Gent, Belgium. We gave ourselves 6 hours from flight arrival time to train departure, but still we would have missed our train, which meant we would have to purchase new train tickets (at about 120 euros each). After finally being transferred to an AA supervisor, we were rerouted from Dallas to London (AA 78) and then to Brussels (BA 402). Upon arrival in Brussels, our 3 checked bags were nowhere to be seen. Immediately, we filed a report with the baggage services in the Brussels airport, who assured us our bags would arrive soon and be delivered to our house.

That was 17 days ago. Since then we have called both British Airways and American Airlines and the Brussels airport baggage service many times. Each time no one has had any information to give us about where these bags could be. They don’t know where they were lost, how they were lost, or when they might suddenly reappear. We have now filed a claim for lost luggage, but again we haven’t heard anything about this either.

My wife lost basically her entire wardrobe because she had been on a cruise with her family in Hawaii as well as spent a week in Colorado, so her summer and winter wardrobes are now both gone. We had to go to a wedding so our formal attire was included as well, along with several Christmas presents received from our families. Now back in Belgium, my wife has no winter clothes or coat, and because we work for a non-profit ministry here we don’t have the money to go out and buy her a whole new wardrobe. I know the holidays are an extremely busy time for airlines and I could understand having some mishaps, but it’s frustrating that after 15 days we know exactly as much as when we started this process. How could all 3 of our bags simply disappear?

Not only that, but the customer service we’ve received when calling the numbers provided by the airlines has been pitiful. First of all, the main number we were given is for a call center in Thailand and none of the numerous employees we’ve talked to speak adequate English. I can barely understand them, and apparently they can’t understand me either because after describing the external features of our bags I checked our file online only to find they had written the description wrong. Supposedly, I should be able to go online at www.infopir.net and edit the description and contents myself, but when I click on the bag I want to edit, all I get is a blank page. I feel like British Airways is intentionally making this difficult for customers so they don’t have to take responsibility for losing people’s property.

I either want our bags back or I want the BA to take responsibility and fully compensate us for what they lost. Has anyone else had this problem with British Airways or American Airlines? How did the airlines respond to you? We have flown with these airlines many times in the past, but after this experience I doubt we’ll ever fly with them again.

Flight from New York to Vienna though London Heathrow on New Years Eve. Very boring celebration, one line from the captain around midnight, no sparkling wine, no nice food.
Very poor customer care when you need to handle anything about the luggage. Their hotline is never available, they never reply to emails.
I will never again book a flight with British Airways.

After a disappointing experience with the British Airways mobile 'app' (which didn't work on my outbound flight or for the return flight to London), I had to collect my boarding pass from the self check-in machine at the airport. My flight, BA8093, was again to be operated by bmi Regional for British Airways.

Collecting my boarding pass, I joined the short queue for bag drop, and there were three staffed counters, yet only one was accepting passengers. The others appeared too busy with their personal conversations.

Once called forward, I was told that I could not check in for my 5.15pm flight until 3.20pm (1 hour 55 minutes before departure). I had arrived around 2 hours 30 minutes departure and was surprised to hear this. British Airways' domestic check-in policy certainly does not state that check-in is not possible until a rather random 1 hour 55 minutes before departure. I suspect this was some ridiculous made-up policy of the Servisair handling staff.

Returning at the time I was told to, I again found myself in a short queue, and again waiting longer than was necessary because of yapping staff, who insisted on chatting amongst themselves and not seeing to their passengers. The difference in quality between the British Airways staff of Heathrow and the Servisair staff of Aberdeen was remarkable, almost unbelievable!

Finally rid of my suitcase, I continued through to departures, which took a fair amount of time. Traffic at Aberdeen is mostly smaller propeller-driven aircraft, but with a handful of larger jets in, the queuing time was inevitably longer. It took about 20 minutes to clear security.

The departure lounge was a lot smaller than expected and with few seats available, I went to gate 10, which was deserted, and sat myself down. My gate (number 7) was directly opposite, so it seemed like the best place to be.

At about 4.45pm, an announcement was made to say that the flight would actually depart from gate 3, so a short walk back to the main gate area was necessary. Boarding began shortly afterwards, and I heard a member of staff report that the load was 47 passengers (out of 49 seats available).

The lone crew member looking after the flight today lacked the professionalism of the crew member on the outbound flight; she took less pride in her appearance and she was a lot more casual with her service. It took some time for her or her flight deck colleagues to welcome us aboard.

It wasn't until after the door had been closed that we were welcomed aboard by the captain and told about our route, weather en-route and flying time, which was again to be 1 hour 20 minutes. Right on time, the aircraft (an Embraer ERJ-145) pushed back and taxied the short distance to the runway, getting airborne without delay.

The flight itself was uneventful, and the service, whilst basic, was sufficient. Complimentary drinks were served (including alcohol) and the snack was a packet of Mediterranean cheese and tomato crisps - not quite up to the standard as the outbound flight.

With the service items cleared away, the aircraft descended into a cloudy London Heathrow and landed after a little while of holding, right on time. Exiting the runway, it was a short taxi to domestic arrivals at terminal 1. Getting from the aircraft (via the steps) and into the terminal was very quick and hassle-free, but the baggage delivery was painfully slow. The small group of passengers who had checked bags in gathered around the information screen, only to be told to 'Wait' for around 30 minutes before the belt number was announced.

All in all, it was a really great set of flights. bmi Regional did a great job of operating the flights for British Airways. And although there is thankfully a future for bmi Regional, it's a shame that we won't be seeing them at Heathrow for very much longer! The former bmi slots will be taken over by British Airways.

In a word: shabby. The service was slack, the food meagre and half-frozen, threadbare carpets, and to top it all the tray table broke off in my hands!