British Airways Reviews 

I am extremely disappointed and dissatisfied with the way British Airways has handled my seat booking.

I repeatedly tried to book my seats online, but the British Airways system kept experiencing errors, making it impossible for me to complete the booking. This was completely outside of my control.

I then contacted Customer Service for help, only to be kept on hold for an hour and a half. And they cut you off! By the time the issue was finally dealt with, the seats I would have wanted were no longer available.

I have now been allocated seats right at the back of the aircraft and behind the wing. These are clearly seats that nobody would choose if they had a reasonable opportunity to select their own seats.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that I did try to book my seats, but I was prevented from doing so because of British Airways’ own system errors. I don’t feel it is fair that I should be left with undesirable seats as a consequence of a problem that was not of my making.

For an airline of British Airways’ reputation, I expected a much better level of service and a more helpful solution from Customer Service.

This experience has left me feeling extremely frustrated and disappointed before I have even started my journey. British Airways should take responsibility when its booking system fails and customers are subsequently disadvantaged because of it.

Extremely disappointing experience travelling with young children

I am extremely disappointed with the way British Airways treated me and my young children after our flight was cancelled.

We arrived at the airport expecting to travel home, only to discover that our flight had been cancelled. What was most shocking was the complete lack of assistance provided by British Airways. There was no clear information, no proper guidance, and no suitable alternative arrangement offered.

I spent approximately two hours waiting on the phone just to speak to a British Airways agent. When I finally got through, no practical solution was offered. I was even asked how I had originally travelled to Montpellier and was told that I could consider taking the same route back.

I was travelling alone with my young children, who needed to get home because they were due to return to school. I found it extremely concerning that British Airways appeared to expect me to organise a complicated journey home myself, without providing meaningful assistance or support.

The staff from Air France at the airport were actually the ones who kindly tried to help and provide advice, even though my situation was not their responsibility. I was grateful for their kindness, but it was incredibly disappointing that another airline showed more care and willingness to help than British Airways.

With no suitable alternative provided, I eventually had no choice but to organise the journey home myself. What should have been a straightforward journey became an exhausting journey of approximately 28 hours involving buses and trains, while receiving little to no meaningful assistance or communication from British Airways.

The cancellation itself was frustrating, but what made this experience particularly distressing was how British Airways handled the situation afterwards.

When travelling with young children, you expect an airline to provide basic care, clear communication and reasonable assistance when something goes wrong. Instead, we were left feeling completely abandoned.

This experience caused my children and me significant stress, exhaustion and inconvenience. I have already submitted a formal claim to British Airways, but I also feel it is important to share my experience publicly so other passengers understand what happened.

I expected much better from British Airways.

Second time in as many months I’ve had a flight cancelled at last minute. While I accept things happen it (in my experience) happens to frequently. How can you make complex and expensive travel plans when you don’t know if you are going to be able to travel. It wouldn’t be so bad but BAs approach to solving problems and reimbursement is vague and unhelpful. I don’t mind paying more for extra security and professionalism but it’s just not worth it anymore .

From the start to the end it is horrible air company to deal with. I paid for the extended leg room seats and during check in they assigned me to regular seats...? My luggage is missing , they sent me email I can buy essential items but submit it HUGE problem. Please I encourage everyone if it is possible avoid to fly with BA

If I could give no stars I would. Badly let down by BA. Still waiting for my luggage after yet another Terminal 5 failure. I know they blame LHR, but this is not good enough. The follow up system is appalling. My first time flying with them log haul in a decade. Last time was another baggage handling failure in terminal 5. I foolishly put my trust in them. Never again.

Excellent customer service and able to solve my issue quickly.

I know lots of people complain about BA but in my experience this is unfounded and I have always had exeptional responses from BA and in comparision to other airlines - this is second to none - I will always travel with BA if I can - I know it is not perfect but I think everyone who works for them really tries their best - a special shout oout Adit MG who quickly resolved a issue for me today

BA 78197403

Horrible experience, luggage literally was left in rain as when i opened it i had water inside eat made alot of stuff wet, including electronics and when i tried to make a report for damage the website keep sending you in a consistent loop, so you can never really get to actual report form. This is worthy of a law suit , i contact an agent and they said they can’t do anything about the broken site and gave me roundabouts way that i can file complaint form, and i have to do all this within 7 days after which i am no longer eligible for claim, running full on illegal scam site.

On returning to Manchester Airport my BA made a conscious decision not to include my bag on the flight to Manchester . Th the staff on the ground.
Have confirmed that it is a regular occurrence for the late flight to Manchester at 9 o'clock for baggage. To be deliberately missed up from the flight. In order to meet the departure deadline . Do not do not check in a bag on the light flight.Because there is a high probability that it will not arrive

I flew British Airways Business Class (Club World) on BA 197 from London LHR to Houston IAH on September 2, 2026. What should have been a safe journey ended in unacceptable public harassment and distress for my family.
During final descent (~20 minutes before landing), my 2-year-old toddler unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up in his suite. Due to the high partition wall in Club World, I could not reach across from my seat to buckle him back in. I pressed the call button for help, but no flight attendant responded. Faced with an unbuckled toddler during descent and zero crew assistance, I secured my child on my lap to protect him from sudden turbulence.
Rather than helping, Cabin Supervisor "Maria" approached my seat and began shouting and berating me publicly in front of the entire cabin. When I calmly asked her to lower her voice, she escalated her hostility, claiming my request was "disrespectful" and that it "really bothered her." She then grabbed my toddler with physical hostility to re-seat him, leaving a 2-year-old terrified.
After touchdown, she approached me a second time to continue shouting. When I asked to escalate the matter to a senior manager on board, she refused.
This level of verbal aggression, failure of basic duty of care, and hostileness toward a toddler in a premium cabin is alarming. A formal complaint has been filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation. Avoid Club World if traveling with young children.

Two flights, two weeks in a row from NCL to LHR and the baggage has taken over an hour to be offloaded - need to do better BA

We waited there for over an hour and were told that we needed to go upstairs to the other baggage claim and speak to a British Airways representative. We went through the security check-in and whatnot and went up to speak to a British Airways representative, who told me to go over to the oversized area, which I did. He informed me that I needed to go back to speak to the British Airways rep. I came back and he had me scan a QR code to submit a claim or a report for the lost car seat. Obviously we needed the car seat to get to our final destination legally, as we can't travel without one, so I filled out the claim with the British Airways rep.
He then told me that he had to stay with a bag that was there and all of his colleagues were on the other side of the airport. If we wanted a loaner car seat we would have to wait a while before someone could get to us. That was fine. We waited and the person whose bag he was standing with came and got their bag. He kind of just stood around so I said, "Hey now that you're done with the bag, could you please go and get us a loaner car seat so we can go home?"
About 10-15 minutes later he came back with three options:
- A booster seat, completely not suitable for a 19-month-old baby
- Two were broken. One of the clips was broken on one where it fastened into the base.
- Only a front-facing one for a 40-pound-plus baby. My baby's 30 lbs. so it needs to be rear-facing.
He was kind of frustrated that those weren't working for us so he went to get one more that they had. That one was a baby carrier that clipped into a base, which can be used for my son's age. We put that in the car and we noticed that the clip that secures into the base had been snapped. If you pull on it, it comes out of the base, so again another broken piece of equipment.
I went back to explain. He was very frustrated. He said, "I gave you four options. What more do you want from me?" I asked if he could call the manager. The manager didn't bother coming to speak to me face-to-face. The manager spoke to me on the phone and said, "We've provided you with options. I suggest you call an Uber and file a new claim on BA.com." Didn't give me directions on where I would file the claim or anything like that.
I asked, "Obviously the airport has rental car companies that have car seats," and she just hung up on me and said, "Call an Uber." The biggest frustration for this is that British Airways does not know how far away from the airport I live, how we were getting home, or give any kind of due care and attention to our situation. We had just traveled across the world, arriving in the dark, and now I can't drive legally with my baby. I explained this to the BA rep that was there and he said, "I gave you my manager. What more do you want from me?" He walked off.
We then were stranded at Cincinnati Airport and had to find a way legally to get to our final destination. We managed to figure it out ourselves but it is absolutely disappointing that British Airways would not take care of or take responsibility for this situation to ensure that its customers made it safely to their final destination. Even though the flight and the experience on the flight were the best we've ever had and everyone was so nice, the treatment in the airport once they realized that the bag wasn't there was just nothing short of irresponsible.
We've had to purchase a new car seat because it's been 2 days and we still have no update on where anything is. We have not been notified if it's been found. We've not been notified if it's on a flight coming to the airport or it's going to be delivered. Nothing. We have had to buy a car seat and other items to get by for the mistake made by British Airways.
My biggest concern is that British Airways doesn't know whether I live several hours' drive from the airport. That means they had to purchase an Uber to come and pick us up to bring us home and front that money and hope that British Airways would return or reimburse me. Obviously I believe that British Airways should reimburse me but in that situation I could only imagine that if it was a single parent traveling alone with very low means, they wouldn't be able to order an Uber to get to their hometown (maybe 2 or 3 hours away). That's why I would never recommend someone fly with British Airways.

Budget airline standards it passes.

Three times BA have changed the flight times for what was meant to be a great 70th surprise trip this coming December.
The final straw was when the change meant we would lose several hours at both ends of our 3 night trip abroad.
Their chat bot disclaims any responsibility as Booking.com made the hotel and flight arrangements.
What an absolute joke.

I disliked the fact you cancelled BA2520 and didn’t immediately put me on BA2522 (which was the replacement flight for the cancellation). I spent multiple hours on the phone and on live chats and I was repeatedly lied to saying the BA2522 was fully booked.
For context I had been booked onto 2526 for some reason, which meant I would’ve spent over 12 hours in the airport.
I had paid £1400 specifically to not spend 12 hours in the airport on the return leg. If I wanted to have such a long travel journey, I would’ve stopped off in Dubai and saved myself £500 on the ticket costs.

After creating a post on X (previously Twitter) with all the screenshots showing what happened and that BA2522 was available for booking, my connection flight was changed to BA2522. This resolved my issue.

Second time in two weeks that you lost my bags! Hideous delays , arrived over 3 hour late at my destination. Connections desk said speak to the lounge to check my bags were onboard, the lounge didnt want to know - they said check at the gate. The gate wouldnt help either. Your baggage call centre is on a loop so impossible to speak to anyone. Thank goodness for professional cabin crew as otherwise no one would ever travel with you. Shocking.

My return flight was originally with AA, and I paid over £100 for a confirmed seat reservation. BA has now changed the flight to a BA flight, meaning the seat I paid for has simply disappeared yet BA is keeping my money.
On top of this, my flight time has been changed by almost FOUR HOURS, which is completely unacceptable and has significantly disrupted my travel plans.I have repeatedly tried to resolve this with BA, but your online chat keeps kicking me out and I am getting no response. I expect an immediate refund of the seat reservation fee and a proper resolution to the significant flight time change. This is not acceptable customer service. Why am I still bothering flying BA when every single time there are issues with the booking!

British Airways have totally refused to give us a refund of £1034 and 24620 Avios points because we were forced to cancel our flights to prevent our grandson being taken into care as a result of our daughter suffering a mental breakdown. After a 20 min wait!! to talk to customer service, they did not sympathise in any way and viciously kept telling us it was our fault for making the wrong booking!!! Victimisation and Abysmal / Non Existent customer care - fleecing fixed income pensioners and previously very loyal customers.

online check in glitch saying i didn't have esta at last minute causing me to have to call esta in usa & very worrying
lengthy phone calls which ended in wrong information given
downgraded at check in whilst others offered upgrades
hundreds of useless repetitive automated email
info handed at airport regarding downgrade led to air travel company chasing me for money
ignoring my emails asking for my complaint to be escalated
onboard service - vegan meal given way before meal service but cabin crew refusing to remove tray before all passengers meal service finished
dreadful food
dirty toilets not cleaned onboard but closed instead leading to long queues
I could go on

Booked a flight from LHR to SFO through a third party with BA, purchased seats for about $300 US directly on their app. Ended up cancelling that reservation under 24 hours just to make another reservation on another travel site, and booked the exact same flight with the exact same seats. They refused to give me a refund for my seat selection on the cancelled reservation because it wasn’t booked on BA.com. So in reality I basically paid for the same seats twice. Horrible customer service. I will not be a repeat customer. Choose another carrier.

Horribl call center process and ridiculous wait - UNLESS you are purchasing a new ticket. Wait time to purchase a ticket is less than a minute. Wait time to make a change or use a credit, runs over an hour. This speaks volumes to how British Airways values a new sale over retention of an existing customer.
Existing customers are not valuable to British Airways. I say this after several bad experiences in the past 3-years, after flying BA for most of my 58 years.