British Airways Reviews 

Subject: British Airways: Unnotified Ticket Cancellation, Lost Baggage, and Unresolved Grievances!

Complaint Summary:

I am writing this on TrustPilot to voice my extreme dissatisfaction and warn other passengers about the absolute nightmare of an experience I endured with British Airways, which left me stranded, out of pocket, and completely unsupported.

Here is a timeline of the severe issues I faced:

Extortionate Baggage Fees: I purchased four extra baggage allowances for my tickets, paying 79 Euros for each, which brings the total baggage fee to 316 Euros.

Involuntary Return and Mishandled Baggage: During my initial flight to London, an administrative error by the consulate resulted in me being sent back to Turkey. At that moment, I explicitly requested that my luggage return with me to Istanbul. Although the staff took the baggage tag from my hand and assured me it would come back with me, they instead sent my luggage to New York against my explicit instructions, where it was subsequently lost!

Travel via Another Airport: Once I promptly resolved the consulate's issue, I successfully traveled to the United States by departing from a different airport.

Secretly Canceled Return Ticket: When I arrived at the airport for my return flight to the US, I discovered that my ticket had been canceled! Just prior to heading to the airport, I checked my PNR code online, and the system clearly showed that my ticket was fully active and valid. British Airways did this without sending a single email, SMS, or warning, leaving me stranded at the airport.

It is completely unacceptable for a global airline to unilaterally cancel a confirmed return ticket without any notification—while their online system still shows it as valid—and to recklessly send my luggage to New York and lose it despite my direct request to bring it back to Istanbul with me.

I demand a full refund for the 316 Euros paid for the baggage, compensation for my lost luggage, and a full refund for the disrupted travel portions due to these severe operational failures.

Very disappointing experience with British Airways. I was forced to check in my small cabin suitcase because staff claimed the flight was full, which did not appear to be the case. My suitcase doesn't have a lock, and I specifically booked a cabin baggage ticket because I wanted to keep it with me. This was frustrating and completely disregarded my preference as a paying passenger.

Just checked in at Heathrow T5 only to find out the luggage belts are not running. We have to wait till 4.30am to drop them off. I would have expected BA to have the decency to collect the bags once they are tagged and port them to the belt and plane as part of the price I paid for my business class ticket. No wonder they have lost their reputation and passengers by the droves.
Also, do not fly on an early flight from Heathrow T5
Useless!!

Is there any point in booking extra leg room?
Having booked flights from Gatwick to Rhodes, with extra leg room at a cost of approximately £200 both ways for my wife & me. I boarded the plane to discover our seats had changed. One still extra leg room the second not but also in a different location on the plane, checking the original booking I noted they have changed the seats on our return flight too, no emails, messages or anything, so I have no idea if we get extra leg room on way back.
Now they may have either changed the plane, and simply not bothered to inform or ask me if I wanted to change seats, or as it looks as I write from this flight, extended their club class and bumped me out of my extra leg room seats.
BA does state it can change seats for operational, safety or security reasons, I don’t think any of these reasons apply here, even if they did, surely it would be beneficial to inform the customer of this change, rather than BA burying it’s head in the sand and simply hoping that we would not notice.
Adian O’Connor the head of the flight crew was very nice in trying to help; however, other than free glass of Champaign, there was nothing he could do.
What would I like British Airways to do to sort this, refund me for at least half my extra leg room cost and ensure that for my return flight they give me seats with extra leg room that I booked, I would really expect better from this company!
Let’s see whether they bother to reply and if they do it’s not with some standard, corporate reply, please sort this out!
Now if you look at BA's response to issues, on Trustpilot you will clearly see they write nice little replies to positive reviews & ignore any bad ones........what do we learn from this.
UPDATE - Pays to complain, had a call from BA Customer Service, got seats back for return flight, and and upgrade, so adjusted my review

The last person to help (Stephen) was excellent; however, BA’s customer service in general is rubbish! They list telephone numbers (mostly the same few) which you can supposedly call for assistance, but after pressing 1 for this, or 2 for that, or 3 for something else you generally get nowhere, usually after hanging on with expensive phone call for ages.
BA no longer has a simple email address for Customer Services which would benefit many customers who are unable or unwilling (with good reason) to phone, and whilst WhatsApp can, ultimately, be useful, if the enquiry is urgent then don’t hold your breath!
Sadly, BA, like many organisations these days, pays lip service to Customer Services - perhaps it would be a good idea for BA to ask customers what they want, rather than imposing a system dreamed up by someone who has no real idea what the words “Customer” and “Service” really mean when put together.

I checked my suitcase in at Heathrow for BA1400 to Belfast on Tuesday 8 September. The flight was cancelled and passengers were told to leave without their checked baggage.
Eight days later, I still don't have my suitcase.
What followed would be funny if it weren't so frustrating.
BA eventually located the bag and announced that it was going to be sent to Belfast — despite the fact that I hadn't travelled there and had provided my home address for delivery.
I contacted BA before it was dispatched and specifically told them to stop it. After consulting her manager, the adviser assured me in writing:
“We have informed the relevant team not to ship your bag to Belfast.”
BA then sent it to Belfast anyway.
Since then I have contacted BA virtually every day by telephone and webchat. I've spent hours being passed between automated systems, advisers and baggage tracking, repeatedly being told to wait another 24 hours. On one occasion an adviser refused to escalate the matter to a supervisor.
The bag was eventually returned from Belfast and a delivery order was created on 15 September for my correct home address. It was apparently collected by the courier at 16:36. I still don't have it.
Meanwhile, I made a formal complaint to BA. They initially closed it with a generic apology. Their case system then said they needed further information from me and had sent me an email explaining what they needed.
No such email arrived.
The complaint is now back “In progress”, but still says BA is waiting for information from me that they haven't actually asked me for.
Flight disruption happens. Bags occasionally get separated from passengers. I understand that.
What is unacceptable is what happens afterwards: finding a customer's bag, ignoring an explicit instruction about where it should go, assuring the customer in writing that the error has been stopped, making the error anyway, and then leaving the customer to spend day after day trying to find somebody willing and able to take ownership of fixing it.
At this stage I don't need another apology or another request to wait 24 hours.
I just want British Airways to tell me where my suitcase is and deliver it to my house.

If you buy a return flight and miss the outbound they will also cancel your return without any warning.

Charged to sit in a customer service helpline call for ~20mins, to be told nothing can be done, when their own "General Conditions of Carriage" say they have discretionary power.

My wife had already booked a new outbound flight for the next day... too late to cancel, asked to get a add a return to this new flight, the guy quoted us a higher price to upgrade to a return package than buying a single return flight, when I pointed this out to him he put the phone down on me.

Summary, the business is exploitative, the customer service is rage baiting.

Three times I had a transer in London Heathrow, three times they manage to lose my luggage. I am terrified to travel with them with a transfer... Avoid this company at all cost or avoid transfer with them, unfortunately is not always possible...

Very easy to talk via WhatsApp which I prefer to waiting on hold. I've had a few quires and the staff were very polite and helpful.

Agent listened to the issues we experienced with both the BA app & the 800#. We communicated thru WhatsApp and agent was courteous and solved our procurement of seats.

It took a while to get a response but when I did it was fairly helpful. When Charlotte stepped in to the WhatsApp chat she really helped and eliminated the building worry I was experiencing. I’m very grateful to her for the help she gave me and the kind tone in her messages.

The worst experience. Waiting more than an hour on a phone, the guy who answered the phone, couldn't understand my request because was from India. How its possible to support the European market if you cant understand? Why do you pay them?

Our allegations
British Airways — where is the compassion?
Our family contacted BA after a relative was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. We explained the circumstances, the importance of the trip and asked whether BA could offer any special consideration or assistance.
The response was deeply disappointing. BA would not offer any meaningful help or special arrangement.

What made this particularly upsetting was the impression left with us that our family’s circumstances were of little importance unless there was money to be made from them. At a time when we were dealing with a serious and potentially life-limiting illness, we expected at least some humanity and compassion. We did not get it.

Another airline did offer our family help. That made the contrast with BA impossible to ignore. We will therefore be travelling with the other carrier and will be seeing New Order in Santiago in November.

This experience has completely changed our view of British Airways.

A company can talk about caring for its customers, but when a family facing stage 4 cancer asks for a little understanding and the answer is effectively “no”, those words ring rather hollow.

Our experience was that compassion came second and commercial considerations came first.

British Airways should be ashamed that a family in these circumstances was left feeling this way. For us, this wasn't simply about the price of a flight. It was about how a customer and their family were treated at an extraordinarily difficult time.

We will remember that — and we will spend our money elsewhere

Invested in First Class after a challenging year for us…Don’t! Only 8 passengers but suites not as good as Qatar or Cathay, no privacy door so light comes in to disturb sleep. Both starter and main course options not available, so much for à la carte and the experience; no wi fi; very disappointing ….have to wait for business class to get off before first class, so further back in immigration queue. No more corridor space than business class and lavatory same as business class so why pay £+2000 more ….???? Flight was BA 033 lhr to Jhl, 10.9.26

Extremely disappointing experience with British Airways.

We boarded the aircraft only to discover that the plane had not even been fuelled and our bags had not been loaded. We were then left sitting on the runway for several hours before finally being able to continue our journey.

While British Airways did acknowledge the delay, there was no compensation offered, and more importantly, there was no follow-up afterwards to ask for passenger feedback or properly address what had happened.

I find it unacceptable that an experience like this can simply be treated as though it was business as usual once the flight is over. Passengers’ time matters, and when an airline causes this level of disruption, I would expect much better communication, accountability and customer care.

A very disappointing experience from British Airways, and certainly not the standard I would expect from a major airline.

BA didn't load a single piece of checking luggage to a London to Hamburg flight, not one item. For 3 days they didn't communicate any info on its whereabouts, had to go to the airport in person and discover that it had all arrived the day before and was just left in the baggage area. 3 months later, they're still dragging their feet on costs incurred. Hopeless bunch, not a single member of BA in Germany. Fly Eurowings is my advice

Dishonest company. They forced us to check in our hand luggage under the guise of there not being enough space in the overheads. The overheads were at 25% capacity when the flight actually took off. They just can't be bothered to optimise their systems.

At arrivals, I then had to wait 2 hours for my bag to arrive. All because of British Airways laziness.

Our family’s experience with British Airways following severe disruption to our Nassau–London journey on 21 August was appalling.

We were a family group of nine, including three children — one just two years old — elderly relatives and a family member who is PEG-fed and has specific medical needs.

After our aircraft returned to Nassau, what followed included hours of uncertainty and inadequate communication, children trying to sleep on the airport floor in the early hours, repeatedly having to ask for drinking water and food, long waits for luggage despite staff being made aware of medical circumstances, our family being split between hotels, unsuitable accommodation with no cot for our two-year-old, refreshment vouchers that didn’t work, and further difficulties after BA rerouted us via Charlotte.

We eventually arrived home approximately a day later than planned.

Things go wrong in aviation. I understand that. What I found unacceptable was the lack of care and communication when they did.

I subsequently submitted an extremely detailed formal complaint setting out 12 separate areas of concern and specifically asked BA to investigate each of them.

After waiting two weeks, BA’s response effectively addressed one issue — why our family had been split between hotels. I was told there wasn’t enough hotel availability and that the feedback had been passed to airport managers.

That was essentially it.

No substantive response to most of the welfare concerns I’d raised. No meaningful explanation of what investigation had taken place into them. No response to my request for goodwill redress for the customer-service failures.

I’ve now escalated the matter to senior leadership at British Airways and asked either for the complaint to be properly investigated or for BA to confirm its final position so I can pursue independent escalation.

For me, the most disappointing part isn’t that an aircraft developed a problem. It’s how we were looked after when it did — and how little ownership I’ve seen since.

I am utterly disgusted by the way BA is handling its 26 hour delayed flight BA 2238 from Trinidad to London. No accommodation, transport or meals were offered despite an email from BA saying that these were available. BA staff simply said its ‘it’s a pay and claim situation’ situation, which is very unsatisfactory indeed. Many passengers were left totally stranded.
Never in a long lifetime of international travel have I seen such a poor response from any airline, let alone one of the standing of BA.
I expect to be flown to London tomorrow on time, plus a full refund for the cancelled flight and full compensation for the emotional and psychological trauma experienced.
Moreover, trivial as it may seem by comparison, I was offered a voucher for 14.00$US to cover the initial 3 hour expected delay (which is now 26 hours). This voucher had to be accessed by downloading an app called Swiipr, a name unlikely to inspire confidence, given that swipe is a synonym for steal. I will not and never will download this app. Once downloaded, I was required to transfer the $14.00 to my mobile wallet. I do not use and never will use a mobile wallet, the very idea makes me cringe.
The horribly delayed flight will now hopefully arrive just a couple of hours before my onward flight with a different airline takes off. That connection is of course not covered by BA’s claims service, a service which is complicated, riddled with obstacles and intimidating, rather than helpful as BA claims.
All in all, the experience has been appalling and I hope other passengers (not customers) will complain in a like manner.

1/5 - would give 0/5 if it were possible.

British Airways cancelled our original flight and then somehow rebooked my girlfriend and me onto completely different flights on different days.

After around 45 minutes on the phone, I eventually managed to get us moved onto the same flight. Despite us having already paid to sit together on the original booking, BA didn’t bother to reinstate our seats next to each other.

Because of the cancellation and rebooking, we lost our original train tickets and had to pay for replacement tickets, as well as an additional hotel near the airport.

Unfortunately, the replacement flight was no better. Boarding was painfully slow and disorganised, with seemingly no urgency at all. We weren’t even seated until after the aircraft was supposed to have departed.

We then arrived around 30 minutes later than the arrival time quoted by the pilot, which caused us to miss yet another train and pay for another replacement journey.

To finish things off, our hold luggage then took more than 40 minutes to arrive at baggage reclaim.

What should have been a straightforward journey became a complete disaster, involving cancelled flights, being separated onto different flights and different days, lost seat reservations, multiple replacement train tickets, an unexpected hotel stay, further delays and an excessive wait for baggage.

A significant amount of additional expense and inconvenience caused by BA’s handling of the journey from start to finish.

Absolutely appalling experience. I’ll also be submitting a claim for the additional expenses incurred.