British Airways Reviews 

My experience with British Airways – BA85, London Heathrow to Vancouver, 30 August 2026

I am writing this review because I believe other passengers, especially passengers with physical limitations, should know what happened to me.

I was travelling on British Airways flight BA85 from London Heathrow to Vancouver on 30 August 2026. I have physical limitations and was experiencing significant pain in my knees, back and foot. The long wait at the airport was already physically very difficult for me.

The flight was delayed by approximately two hours. At around 7:15 p.m., I was removed from the aircraft. I was told that I was being removed for a “medical reason.”

But nobody examined me.

No doctor saw me. No qualified medical professional assessed me. No ambulance or medical service was called. I was given no medical explanation or medical assessment.

I was crying and begging the staff to let me continue my journey. My son had travelled from another city to see me, and we had planned to celebrate his birthday together. I had been away for approximately two and a half months and had been looking forward to seeing him.

I felt completely ignored. It was as if I was speaking to a wall.

I was told that if I did not leave the aircraft, the police would be called. The police were called, but by the time they arrived I had already left the aircraft because I was frightened and felt I had no choice.

Then a British Airways manager came to me in the terminal and told me that I had to leave the airport. I had two suitcases and nowhere to go. I asked where I was supposed to go, and I was essentially told to go outside, to a hotel, or wherever I wanted.

What I find particularly shocking is that the same British Airways manager who told me to leave the airport then personally gave me a ticket for an Air Canada flight, AC861, for the following day.

This flight had been arranged by British Airways.

If I was supposedly medically unfit to fly on 30 August, why did British Airways itself arrange for me to fly to Vancouver the very next day, without any medical examination or medical clearance?

I believe I was discriminated against because of my physical limitations. Instead of receiving understanding, dignity and appropriate assistance, I was removed from the aircraft, threatened with police involvement and then told to leave the airport.

I had to find somewhere to stay for the night and deal with transportation, food and other unexpected expenses. I had been put in an extremely difficult situation late at night, while already in physical pain and emotionally distressed.

I could not sleep that night. I cried throughout the night. I was still crying the following day.

Because of what happened, I was afraid to ask for assistance at the airport the next day, even though I was physically struggling. I travelled to Vancouver on the Air Canada flight arranged by British Airways.

But the worst part is this:

I did not get to see my son.

He had travelled from another city to see me, and we had planned to celebrate his birthday together. I had been away from home for approximately two and a half months and had been looking forward to seeing him so much.

I still have not been able to see him.

I do not know when he will next be able to take time away from his responsibilities and come to see me. And even if we meet later, the birthday celebration and the moment we had planned together cannot be recreated.

The financial costs were only one part of what happened. The physical pain, fear, humiliation, emotional distress, exhaustion and, most importantly, losing this precious time with my son are what have affected me most deeply.

I have submitted a formal complaint to British Airways and asked them to investigate what happened.

I am sharing this publicly because passengers deserve to know how they may be treated when something goes wrong — especially passengers who have physical limitations and may need understanding and assistance.

I expected care, dignity, respect and basic human compassion from British Airways.

Instead, I left Heathrow feeling humiliated, frightened and deeply hurt.

I believe my treatment was discriminatory, degrading and completely unacceptable.

British airways service has been getting progressively worse.

It seems that changing a booking so a seat is lost, delay upon delays and a lack of ownership and contact ability are ateast matched by their classes leading excrutingly bad communication and rectification. It's no wonder that there are companies now set up to handle claims for delays on a no win no fee basis, as British airways are creating that gap in the market. I'm ashamed for them to have British in the title. So poor.

They’ve clearly added extra rows of seats, which ultimately means significantly less legroom for passengers. I’m 6ft 1, so I appreciate that I’m taller than average, but there are plenty of people considerably taller than me, and my experience was extremely uncomfortable.
During my 5-hour flight, my knees were so tightly compressed against the seat in front that I had to stand up for most of the journey. It wasn’t simply uncomfortable — it was genuinely painful, and I’m still experiencing pain two days later.
What made the experience worse was the attitude of some of the flight attendants, who came across as quite rude and unhelpful. This is not the level of service I remember from British Airways, and unfortunately, the whole experience felt like a significant decline from what the airline used to offer.
Very disappointing, particularly from an airline that has historically had such a strong reputation. After this experience, I think I’ll be sticking with easyJet from now on.

Couldn’t get hold of anyone. Clearly allocates nothing to customer service.

Extremely poor experience with British Airways following the cancellation of our outbound flight.

We had to buy replacement easyJet flights at the last minute for £1,126.85. Since June, we have repeatedly sent BA everything requested: the original ticket confirmation, the amended confirmation showing the refund/credit, and proof of the replacement flight costs.

Because our BA Holidays balance had not been paid in full, the refund was applied by reducing our outstanding balance rather than as a payment into our bank account. Despite explaining and evidencing this numerous times, BA continues to ask for “proof of refund”.

Surely BA can also see the original and amended costs on its own system?

Months later, we are still going around in circles. A straightforward claim has become incredibly frustrating and time-consuming. We have now advised BA that if this is not resolved, we will escalate the complaint to independent dispute resolution.

Really disappointing customer service from British Airways.

What should have been a relaxing family holiday turned into a traumatic and frightening experience due to a serious safety incident at a hotel-organised barbecue event.
While attending the barbecue with my family, there was a sudden explosion and flare-up from the barbecue equipment, resulting in my young son, 11 years old, being struck and injured. The incident left him with burns, bruising, and significant shock. An ambulance had to be called, and the whole experience was extremely distressing for both him and our family.
To make matters worse, the hotel was unable to arrange access to a doctor at the time of the incident. Following our return home, we sought medical advice and were told that Tommy had been very fortunate. The area at the back of his head that was struck is particularly vulnerable, and there were concerns about potential complications, including bleeding, hearing impairment, and other forms of head trauma.
We were advised that my son may have suffered a minor concussion and was instructed to avoid contact sports for five weeks. We were also provided with guidance from the Headway charity regarding concussion and head injury recovery.
As parents, witnessing your child injured in what appears to have been a preventable incident is incredibly upsetting. The physical injuries will heal, but the anxiety, distress, and impact the event has had on our family should not be underestimated.
This incident raises serious questions about the safety procedures, equipment maintenance, supervision, and risk management in place during hotel-organised events. We expected a safe environment for families and children, and sadly that expectation was not met.
I would urge the hotel to thoroughly review its safety standards to ensure that no other family has to endure a similar experience.

The hotel offered 80,000 points , £100, as way of compensation!

You pay for hand luggage to avoid having to wait around for it upon arrival, only to be forced into handing it in at the gate. You make sure to respect the weight guidelines in order to at least have a fast process at arrival, only to be told that that is not a right, despite for the fact that you have paid for exactly that.

Make it make sense! How is it that you sell hand luggage tickets, if in fact you don’t have space on the aircraft for it???

I booked a flight on BA website. The flight got cancelled. BA refuse to deal with it and refuse to compensate saying: The flight operated by our partner, go speak to them .
What a rubbish service for a frequent flyer.

Lovely flight to Portugal. Top service. Very comfortable seat and tasty food. Very happy.

Very disappointed. I flew to LA recently and I found the onboard customer service very poor. Unfriendly stuff, disgusting meals and no kindness whatsoever. I definitely won’t fly with them again. Not worth the price for sure. Even on business class the air hostess was quite rude.

I recently had the pleasure of booking flights in the British Airways sale, for a trip to Japan next June, and I want to take a moment to commend their outstanding service. From the very beginning I was able to speak to real people and not a chatbot. The staff I spoke with in relation to my booking were incredibly helpful, courteous, and understanding.

What truly stood out was their proactive approach in identifying suitable seating arrangements for passengers with mobility issues. They went above and beyond to ensure that the needs of our group were accommodated, providing reassurance and support throughout the process.

It's rare to encounter such great customer care and professionalism, and I am genuinely grateful for the effort British Airways has made to make our journey comfortable and stress-free. I look forward to flying with them again and highly recommend their service to anyone seeking a caring and customer-focused airline.

Thank you to all the staff I spoke to and the team behind them.

83% of BA's reviews on Trustpilot are just one star. That takes some doing.

My gripe is this. I flew on a partner airline - Qantas - and put in a claim for avios earned for the flight. BA told me they'd get back to me in 4 weeks. This was 3 months ago. I've tried to repeat the claim - I can't - one of the airport codes comes back as ineligible. The same code is in the email I got from BA saying they were processing my claim - so BA's system is wrong.

Terrible customer service. Constantly devising more ways to trim their already poor "loyalty" offering. Constantly devaluing the points and upping the cost of flights. Awful phone response times. Website that doesn't function properly when adjusting flights, which might explain the awful phone response times.
Tiny seats. Uncomfortable flights.

I would like to give zero stars.
Awful customer service, cut off twice!
I paid for seat selection, they changed the plane and gave me a totally unacceptable seat! Refusing to change or refund me! Did not notify me of the plane change so I could choose a suitable seat!

They were honest , helpful and no questions left unanswered. Thank you for reassuring me on what I needed to know . Once again great service

Absolutely disgusted with how BA has treated my parents ... they are 77 & 76 ... due to fly back from Gibraltar on Wednesday ... flight was cancelled due to weather and long story short ... they arrived home yesterday ... after being coached to Malaga ... left there and eventually flying from Malaga to Madrid then Madrid to Heathrow ... BA should be ashamed you offered no help ... my father is an assisted customer who needs help and you abandoned them ... disgusting customer service ... shocking ... I would like someone to contact me to discuss the fact that he became ill during this time left with no hotel no support ... they have had to fund all everything themselves including taxis and hotels and have spent over 14 hours waiting in airports ... you should be ashamed of yourselves ... 1 star because u have too ... there should be an option to not have to select a star

Service ❤
Timing ❤
Security ❤
Luggage size ❤
Thank you, BA, you are fantastic.

The British Airways staff at Berlin desk was incredibly rude, forcing me to check in my hand luggage under the terms "You are in Germany this is not London" as the reasons to have to check it in. I understand if the reason was "the plane is very busy", but just to say that, I find it out of order. I was travelling for business and I carry expensive laptops and cameras that can't go on the hold for security and as well because they will get damage, that is the reason why I pack them in a carry on business bag. Unacceptable behaviour

Our overall experience using BA for the first time was pretty poor, customer facing ground staff were disinterested verging on rude, very slow to check in, flight attendants not much better, were in such a rush serving drinks that when I asked what the options were they had already moved on. The food was awful. The cabin was ok, although so many people now take suitcases on we were asked to put our rucksacks by our feet - not very comfortable and not very fair. Unfortunately we definitely would not fly with BA again.

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.