British Airways’s earns a 1.8-star rating from 282 reviews, showing that the majority of passengers are dissatisfied with flights.
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Surprise! You owe $950!!
I booked a flight for my mother traveling from Prague to San Francisco on British Airways. She had a long layover in London (12 hours), and I intended to book a hotel for her. I changed my mind and called BA to see if she could get a shorter layover.
The customer representative told me that she could help me by "canceling the original return flight in the system." By doing this, she explained that I would NOT be charged the $200 change fee or the difference in fares. She advised me to then call back and just re-book, and reiterated that I wouldn't be charged any fees. I rebooked the ticket, and at no time did anyone ask for my credit card information, or request any payment whatsoever.
However, when my mother arrived at the airport, the BA representatives demanded more than $950 on the spot. With no other option, we paid this and have been battling to get it refunded from BA since then. A woman named Marcia Friedland from their Customer Relations department rejected the request for a refund. The whole thing is just RIDICULOUS. Had I known they were going to do this, I would have kept the original flight. This surprise fee almost DOUBLED the entire roundtrip ticket!
Shame on British Airways!
very poor service!
My daughter Sandra Velli was on BA0293 from Heathrow to Washington Dulles of yesterday, July 27, 2007. Flight was canceled. I have not been able to receive any information by e-mail or phone (at considerable expense) as to her wherabouts (hotel name, phone number,) airport lounge? Embarkment on another flight. It is urgent that I be able to contact her. WHAT IS WRONG WITH BA INFORMATION? IT IS BECOMING A TOTALLY UNRELIABLE AIRLINE.
With growing disappointment and disgust, Paola Ottolenghi Velli.
Dear Complaints Department,
My husband and I recently flew with two close friends for our annual holiday to Las Vegas with British Airways. Departing 28/06 from LGW for 7 nights. Unfortunately this was not a pleasurable experience on our departing flight.
Firstly, I need to reassure you that I do not complain unless it's really necessary. I work with the general public myself in a tourist destination and understand that spirits are flying high (pun not intended!) But what we experienced was totally unacceptable!
We were sat in row 29, seats J & K. When the member of cabin crew (Ruby, who was not polite or did not smile once) came with the first drink on-board, we were told that all Cava had gone? Unbeknown to us, another traveller had heard a conversation between the cabin crew discussing giving/saving all the Cava to the stag do on-board!
We were the last row to be served our in-flight meal...And that is not an issue because someone is always going to be last. We were told that we couldn't have our first choice, still no problem as the dish was obviously very popular! We gave our second choice, then after quite a wait we were all served our first choice and was told we could have them as they were "rejects" from the first/business class section. This was NOT what my husband wanted from the beginning but we were told by Jack that he had gone out of his way to get them. Jack then said "well, you are probably sat in the worst row!". I am absolutely gobsmacked that BA would train their cabin crew to say this! The food is good when we eventually got it, but not enough for (roughly) a 10 hour flight. Jack then came with two complimentary cups of cava (after we were told it had all gone) which was a nice gesture, but there was THREE people sat in our row!
Four hours into the flight and the stag groups had supposedly drank the plane dry. Excluding brandy and wines. Funny, that we still saw beers being served? I think jack is probably still trying to "locate" my husbands can of Heineken!
Five hours into the flight and my friends TV stopped working. She was sat behind me in seat 30J. Cabin crew member, Shane came to assist her and said he would reboot etc...After a good 45 minutes, My friend was still without entertainment and didn't see Shane or any other cabin crew again, even though she pressed the button for assistance twice. On each of those occasions the light was switched off. I was going to the WC and thought I would let someone know that it still wasn't working. What I saw in the staff quarters was absolutely disgusting and unprofessional! Nobody took any notice of me until I had to ask "Is this a free for all and a youth-club?!" To which nobody cared! Jack was messing around, hugging and giving out snack KitKat bars to a drunken female passenger and Shane was "on a break". I told him that my friend has pressed her button for assistance (twice) to which he replied "oh, it mustn't be working?".
At this point I asked for the cabin crew manager as this behaviour is totally unacceptable! Alison was the manager on this flight and came to see us with her tablet device. My friend was offered a £30 compensation voucher for the TV situation but unfortunately couldn't use it on the flight but thought maybe she could use it on the returning flight, she still hasn't received an email to confirm this. After discussing with Alison the problems we were experiencing, she actually said to my disbelief "you must just be having one of those days!". No actually, you are British Airways and YOU are in control of what happens during the flight! When I informed her that even Jack thinks we're sitting in the worst row, she just smiled a sympathetic smile?!?!
Ok, so I have come to the end of my complaints...of which I'm sure your glad about.
I cannot praise the cabin crew enough on our returning flight. All smiles and very pleasant/helpful. I'm sure it must help that they are more of a suitable age with probably more experience as apposed to those who acted like teenagers. Those kids belong on flights to Ibiza and Magaluf!
I also understand that we were flying to Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world and everybody is so excited (myself included, I am only 32!)...but please note that this was my 3rd time in 4 years and was booked especially for my husband and I's 4th wedding anniversary after marrying there in 2010!
We plan to holiday in Vegas a lot as it holds certain emotional memories/ties, along with some of the best times I've ever experienced so far...but I have to say that I will not be booking by price next time! I have encountered much better value, professionalism, service with the other one and only airline we've used in the past. I feel I have to reassure you that this is ONLY due to our departing flight from Gatwick to Las Vegas.
Every passenger on board pays a lot of money for a flight, but it's a shame we all don't receive the same treatment.
This is very unlike us to have to complain, but we suggest you take a closer look at the service you are providing as apposed to the service you say you offer!
Many thanks,
Ashley & Leigh Squirrell
lost luggage!
My wife is French and frequently flies BA to Lyon via Heathrow. The last 3 times in a row her bag was lost. Each time it took longer to return it. This time she flew on July 3 Mancester-London, and was connecting London-Lyon, but due to potential terrorism all Terminal 4 flights were canceled. And our bag was lost. Now it is July 28, we are still waiting. We have phoned BA a dozen times, sent 15 emails, logged on the "lost luggage" site 50 times and the messages are always the same. Clearly BA has outsourced its baggage handling and is really having problems. I now rank it in the bottom 10% of airlines (I fly about 100000+ miles per year).
I am writing this complaint on behalf of my mother about the British Airways Airline. My mother went on a 2 weeks holiday to attend a relatives wedding ceremony. She left last week November 26, 2007, unfortunately her baggage did not arrive to the specific destination that it was suppose to. Until now, and it is December 5, 2007, my mother did not receive her lost luggage. She is so upset that she could not even enjoy the wedding ceremony that she especially went back home for. All she's been thinking about is where her luggage could be. She had her clothes in that luggage that she was going to wear at the wedding, and christmas gifts that we all sent for our relatives and cousins. They are all gone. My mother has been calling every single day for her luggage 's whereabouts, but no one could help. I want to know how such a big airline like BRITISH AIRWAYS could not find a luggage for 2
weeks. What is taking BRITISH AIRWAYS so long to find something? When
we send off our luggages into cargo, there are sticker tags attached to
the luggages with our names and ticket number and such information, is there
not? Then how can they possibly take so long to find things. The
luggages did not all of a sudden grow legs and run away from the airport.
I am very angry about this, and I am very angry that my mother is thousands
of miles away without her luggage and clothes for 2 weeks. She is coming back on December 12,2007, which is next week. Weddings should be a happy occasion to be attending, instead my mother is stressed out trying to find someone in the BA department to find her luggage. BA losing my mother's luggage and not being able to find her luggage has RUINED her holidays and being able to enjoy herself at the wedding. And who knows where her luggage could be? I mentioned about this issue to my co-workers, and they told me that it is "COMMON" for BRITISH AIRWAYS to lose luggages. THIS IS UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE. If British Airway knows about this ongoing problem, why are they not doing anything about it? Why are they keep letting it happen over and over and over again. I just don't understand. We pay alot of money for our tickets to fly in your airlines, it is unprofessional for BA to not take care of their customers. The luggages should be located within 24 to 48 hours, it should not take 2 weeks or more.
I am totally fed up with BA. In the last 12 months on five international flights they have managed to lose my luggage 3 times. Also, on landing at Heathrow from Singapore on a Saturday I had to wait 3 hours to get my luggage delivered on one of the two successful occasions they managed to do their job. The loudspeaker stated "due to staff shortages etc...". I pay on average $12000 a flight, and I expect a modicum of service and respect.
The latest debacle is a flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam via Gatwick. Do you think these idiots could deliver a bag straight through...Oh No! It got lost at Gatwick. Here I am in Amsterdam with no clothes, a Servisair tracking ticket, and of course...not even a wiff of regret by BA. After a complaining loudly about my situation I was given a pack with a t-shirt, razor and toothbrush. I HATE BA! This is one One-World Emerald passenger who is transferring his, and his entire companies business to Singapore Airlines...NEVER AGAIN YOU INCOMPETENT CLOUTS!
British Airways has horrible service and is to be avoided at all cost. I suggest sustained class action suits against them until management understands.
yet another missing luggage debacle!
Just over three weeks ago, I flew to Stockholm for a wedding. The date of my departure unfortunately coincided with the foiled car bomb attempts in London, and of course my (meticulously packed!) bag never turned up due to additional security checks. I had to assemble an entire new outfit in two hours flat – in a strange city and six months pregnant!
All I know, to date, is that my case was trucked with approximately 20,000 others to Milan about two weeks ago. The trail has since run cold. My blood boils each time I call the CLICK number ("We are currently experiencing extremely high call volumes... please call back later"), especially since the description of my suitcase was totally wrong . Finally, additional staff were deployed for a few days last week . I have to say, the two times I managed to get through the staff were helpful, efficient and even sympathetic but sadly this has not solved my wardrobe predicament.
I understand the problems BA are experiencing at the moment but I think if there was any way the victims could make any contact whatsoever, it would make the luggage debacle that much more bearable.
should I be grateful for being alive?
Our group of six people traveled from Helsinki/Finland to Honolulu/Hawaii and back via LHR-LAX using BA as a main carrier (+ co-chaired flights with AA and Finnair). The whole package makes in total 12 trips, during which not a single baggage item has been delivered on time.
At the destination – Honolulu, we’ve been waiting 6 days to get all baggage collected. According to BA’s personnel at LAX airport, our baggage missed the flight at LHR. Back here in Helsinki, it's now the ninth day of waiting and still four bags have a “tracing continues” status at the worldtracer site. There is a very strong indication that our baggage has been again stuck at LHR. I’ve reported my case through a BA customer contact web form, so far without any feedback. I allso called BA's customer support and received a very "friendly" comment: Being told about our baggage problems, BA’s person stated that “it’s better not to be blown up in the plane and wait a while for a baggage”. I must say it’s the most memorable comment I’ve ever heard from the airline service representative.
Yes I agree with BA, it’s nice to conduct each flight alive in general and particularly with BA to and from LHR. However, with all sympathy and goodwill I feel nowadays for BA (and other carriers and their personnel too), I'd have expected from BA a bit higher service ambitions than just keeping customers alive.
In case BA is willing to respond to this message, the similar story with the contact data has been sent through a BA’s customer contact web form.
horrible customer service!
I recently tried to book flights for my family from Cape Town to London return, I searched around and found BA flights where ideal timings and come out competitively priced.
I went through the website booking process happily enough, and was given a booking reference. The message was given that the booking was put on hold and must be confirmed using Pegasus within 96 hours and payment would be made offline - I was given a South African customer service number to call(though this wasn't mentioned anywhere!) in order to make payment.
I decided that I didn't really want to make an expensive foreign call, so called UK customer services to make payment. Having got through after a 25minute wait, I was then told that because this was a high risk fraud route that I couldn't make payment over the internet or phone but had to attend a BA sales desk at either Heathrow or Gatwick within the next 96 hours in order to confirm the booking and make payment. Alternatively I could try a travel agent.
I then made my way to a travel agent - who, not surprisingly couldn't use the booking reference that you'd given me. Instead they had to try and book me the tickets directly through their system - which came out considerably dearer (just under £300). At which point I called the BA customer services again, and explained the situation stating that I couldn't get to a uk airport in the next 96 hours but I want to book the tickets at the price indicated on the booking (~£2383). I was unhelpfully told that unless I went to the ticket sales desk I couldn't get that price.
I subsequently called Virgin Atlantic and South African Airlines to see if I'd have the same problem there. Both these organizations recognized that the route was a fraud risk route, and that as I wasn't one of the traveling party that additional checks would need to be undertaken. In neither case did these additional checks involve me having to go in person to an airport.
My complaints are as follows:
1. If it is understood that booking South Africa to London return is a high risk fraud route and therefore bookings cannot be made paid/confirmed unless done in person - why does BA allow potential customers to waste their time trying to book it online?
2. I sent a significant amount of time yesterday (totally up to over 1.30 hours) on hold trying to get through to someone in customer services.
3. One of my calls to BA customer service was to see what time the ticket sales desks were open in Heathrow, as that was where you'd advice me to go, there is no information on your website, and after waiting for over 30mins on their customer service line yesterday was helpfully told that who "don't give out your ticket sales desk number" - it didn't help an already frustrated potential customer.
4. As their competitors have found an acceptable method (for both parties) of verifying that I'm not a fraudsters - surely BA can work out a solution.
5. BA customer adviser appeared not to give a damn that I was wanting to spend a significant amount of money with BA, and was looking for some practical help to a genuine problem. I understand that there are business rules that they must adhere to, but as I work as a consultant to a national uk call center I am astonished at how poorly my call for help was handled - there was no empathy with my situation whatsoever.
As it stood - I was actually going to Heathrow to pick up my niece and nephews (from South Africa) this Sunday, and at a push, could have gone to the ticket sales desk (now that I know it would have been open at 5.30am, after waiting 30mins on the phone to find out). However, out of principal I have chosen to book with one of their competitors, the prices were very similar and were not the deciding factor. As BA appear not to care where I spend my money I decided I would prefer to spend it with a company that does. Both their competitors customer service was excellent - I got through to a call adviser, and they genuinely listened and understood my issues and concerns - perhaps BA should learn lessons from them.
My family make a significant number of trips between South Africa and London, and have previously been quite happy to fly with BA. However, after this incident was so frustrating we are unlikely to do so again. But as BA don't seem to worry about losing custom that shouldn't be a problem for them.
Did you know that BA can book you tickets on non-operated flights as per IATA policy? Bet you didn't know that they can also charge what they like for these flights and once the booking is made via them will blatantly do so? Well you do now.
In a moment of madness where I placed my trust in BA to provide fair and ethical treatment and permitted them to book some internal USA flights I appear to have given away any hope of receiving fair and equitable treatment. BA attempted to charge approximately twice the price of the carrier for an upgrade/route change to the ticket (JFK to Vegas). In fact it would have been cheaper to cancel the BA ticket and buy a completely new ticket than to agree to the BA quoted upgrade. Is this a ploy to persuade airline travelers not to use non-operated or non-partner flights? Is this ethical in what should be a fair and competitive market? I'll leave that to you to decide.
My decision is to avoid traveling with BA whenever possible and when/if I finally become CEO of my current company I'll take a leaf out of Chris Bell's book (Ladbrokes CEO) and really hit them where it hurts.
I am disgusted at the way a friend of mine as recently been treated by British Airways. A GROUP booking was made and paid for by my friend in January 2008 to go and celebrate her birthday in New York. Unfortunately, one member of the group has had to cancel due to unforseen cirumstances. The birthday girl telephoned firstly to ask for a name change in order that another friend could take the place but was told that it is British Airways policy that they do not do name changes. As a result of this a telephone call was made to cancel the place but the operator actually cancelled the birthday girls place by error and was unable to reinstate at that present time due to skelton staff working and was told that someone would get back to her. Needles to say no-one did so my friend contacted them and was told by a manager that it was in fact there mistake and assured her twice that this would be reinstated. After 2 weeks of my friend constantly contacting British Airways (as no-one had the curitisy to contact my friend to even just say that the matter was in hand) she has contacted them today and was told by an investigator that they are unable to reinstate and unable to reimburse the whole group. My friend as even enquired to see if she can buy another place (daft as there is still availability for the one that has not been cancelled ?) but was told it would be nearly an extra £700 and obviously she cant afford this. It seems quite straight forward to me, a booking was made for 6 people, 1 place cancelled in error, 5 people wanting to travel therefore it still leaves availability.
your air line s you cancel my conection flight and wont me to spent the night in london in my expence. dear british do u think is that fare and force me to change my returing date.
will fleece you if your travel plans change
My wife and I have flown in BA many times between India and the US. We never had to change the booking till now. This time my wife has to come back early from her trip to India.
This is when I realized that BA has unreasonable terms of service in the ticket. I booked the ticket through an online travel agent (Orbitz). I did not notice that hiding behind a 'fare rules' link was a long fare basis code in all-caps that said 'CANCELLATIONS ANY TIME TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE.'
Most international flights can be canceled for a fee of $50-200 for a full refund. I was able to cancel my Air France ticket for $200. BA does not refund anything for cancellations. I wonder why anyone will cancel such a ticket.
They do not let you change flights before you fly - because only the travel agent can change the ticket. The travel agent gave me a quote for $3400 to change the return leg one month in advance. It costs only $1000 to book a new one-way ticket from India to US. Unable to change the tickets, the Orbitz rep kept forwarding me to BA, and the BA rep refused to handle any changes to the ticket. Finally, I bullied one of the reps to give me the phone to the manager, and the manager said that I could change the ticket once my wife flew the first leg.
My wife flew to India hoping to change the return ticket. Now the customer service reps in India's BA offices have excuses ranging from 'there are no tickets available from London to Boston in July' to 'our computer network is down'. I am trying to change the tickets from the US and I'm getting the run-around too. They have forwarded my 'request' to a 'pricing department' that takes 48 hours to come up with a rate for changing the tickets.
Unfortunately, I have no option but to wait for 2 days. In all likelihood they are going to take all the money ($1800 round trip) and probably ask for $1000 more to book another ticket. I will probably book a new one-way ticket from India in another airline and let the other return ticket go to waste.
I realize now that there is no such thing as a 'sure plan', and it makes no sense to go with an airline that is inflexible. I typically fly twice a year to India on official business and my wife flies once a year. We will never fly in BA again. We will also make it a point to warn our friends and colleagues about their 'KICK 'EM WHEN THEY'RE DOWN' fine-print.
So, you say the rules on the ticket you purchased were 'hiding' in all cap letters under the fare rules link? Why didn't you look first?
Next time, don't book an ultra cheap ticket with Orbitz. If yo do, make sure you read the terms. If you want flexibility, you need to pay a bit extra. Airlines aren't charities.
British Airways do, in fact, allow tickets to be cancelled for a full refund but only if you book a fully flexible fare in otherwords you pay the full ticket price. It would appear that on this occassion you, or rather your travel agent, booked the cheaper option of a non flexible ticket which cannot be cancelled.
Maybe you should have read the t&c's in full before allowing your agent to confirm the booking.
You can argue forever that BA or your agent was to blame but at the end of the day you are the only person responsible for not reading the small print properly.
Delayed baggage for 5 days
I am a 68 yr old woman travelling alone from bangalore to dallas with a couple of baggages... is a lousy - screwed system of baggage handling and customer relations from british airways...
I travelled bangalore - london - miami - dallas... After coming to miami I was told that my luggage did not accompany me to miami..inspite of the fact that I checked in the blr airport almost 3 hrs in advance...!
I was told that I can 'peacefully' go to dallas and the luggage in a day... Little did I know that british airways is notorious and is popular to delay and lose luggage on their flights...
I am traveling alone and did not carry even a single set of clothes... I am in someone's home who is a friend and it is the fourth day without my luggage...
I have tried atleast 100 calls to the 1 800 number to speak to some sales representative but in vain... It is extremely horrible and it is getting very embarrassing every passing day as I am not mobile and cannot depend on the people with whom I am staying...
I have been constanting troubling the local vendor who delivers the luggage for ba and venting out of my frustration on them fully understanding that they are not at fault and cannot do anything...:- (
I am now looking ways and means to sue you guys for all the embarrassment that I have been metted with and thinking if I deserve all this just for flying british airways...
'word of mouth' publicity (!) works wonders... Need I say more...
I hope this customer relations mail reaches some sensible people and that they act fast and deliver my luggage at the earliest...
I also spoke to some online support guy who tells me that ba does not have a 'non' 1-800 number...! Do they want me to believe this...
How I wish I knew some foul language... Am not looking for a good attorney to sue them for all the mental agony and frustration and trouble that I have gone thro' and am going thro ' for the last 5 days now...!
My husband and my first trip to Europe was a total nightmare. We were on our way to Belgium and had a transfer in London, at Heathrow airport. Unfortunately for us, it was the opening day of their "terminal 5". After a delayed departure from London to Belgium due to luggage problems, our bags never found us at the hotel we were in for 5 days. I don't understand why BA can't undo in 5 days the mess they created in just 1 day. We are back home now, thank God, and a week has gone by and I am sorry to say we are still without our bags.
I have never experienced such complete negligence from a company or person. I have only to tell of my story to fellow friends and family as I await on the arrival of my luggage. Needless to say, I will never fly British Air again!
Hi,
I lost my luggage 2 months ago since I am in my country for holiday. my trip started at cyprus with the turkish airlines and then I went to istanbul for transit. there, I made again the check-in but I changed the company to the british airlines. after that i went london-heathrow and then to angola. when I arrived in angola I didn't tahe my luggage. I complained with the company here in angola but they still not found my luggage. i has been alrady 2 months and I don't have the luggage.
I would like to know if you can solve this problem or if I can as for the reimbursement.
my regards
British airlines is at the top of the list for losing bags - don't fly British airlines! I was forced to take British airlines because they were $300 cheaper than united. Boy - what a nightmare! I left on Saturday (iad to lhr then to zrh). Have not seen my bags yet and it seems there is no one to complaint to. And, from what i have read, ba doesn't owe us a thing!
Any suggestions on how to get to talk to a person (like that would help). Boy, ba makes me really appreciate united (which i took for granted in the past). A month ago, we went to germany and holland on united and no problems at all with baggage or anything. When i think of it, united was a dream. This should be an advertisement to fly united whenever possible.
Any suggestions at all would be appreciated! I am still in switzerland with no medication / telephone charger / clothes / etc. Class action lawsuit?
Suggestion - don't fly British airways unless you carry your bags on.
If you fly again, maybe try using UPS to ship your luggage to your destination. I believe they have a specific system in place now. You will also have less worry of it being pilfered. Sorry it doesn't help you now.
I totally agree! I went from Barcelona to Manchester via Heathrow as a group leader of 28 teenagers and when we got to Manchester, 3 of us (including me) had lost the luggage! and in my case it took 8 days to get it back! it was a nightmare, being with no clothes, with not a thing for 8 days and not even knowing if i was going to see my belongings ever again!
when i flew back home, the 3 of us were wearing t-shirts with the words "I also lost my luggage with British Airways" and i guess that if you ask at manchester's airport and heathrow, they will still remember us!
SO NEVER FLY AGAIN WITH BA!
Totally agree with your comments. British Airways: fly the flag - lose your bag. We flew out of Heathrow to Barcelona on Sat 14th July 2007 to celebrate my 40th birthday for 5 days. After all the BA chaos at the terminal for 2 hours we finally got to the bag drop and rushed through security. Unfortunately the bags didn’t make it. BA’s ground handling agent in Barcelona rude and not all helpful. The long wait to log the case was impossible as majority of the passengers didn’t have the bags. They gave us a astronomically charged number to call which was closed all weekend and menu only in Spanish. The tracing website which doesn't even work... and track your bag yourself''? (Not quite that bad but you get my drift)... it still shows after a week we returned bags “still tracing” We finally got our bags on the day of our departure after 5 days. What is shocking is the ineptness and attitude of the airline in not responding to a travelers basic needs and communication. The Stress and inconvenience caused ruined my 40th birthday celebration and holiday. When passengers hand over their suitcases at check-in, they should be able to expect to see them at the other end. Good Luck to anyone fly BA, I have made my decision to avoid this airline for the rest of my life as we live in world spoiled for choice.
Contemptuous attitude
In June 2006 on returning from Africa, I was verbally abused by an extremely drunk person upon taking my seat in World Traveller Plus. Verbal abuse of myself, and several other passengers carried on for an hour into the flight. After checking the cabin for spare seats, I then moved into economy. When asked by the purser why I had moved, I explained what was happening, and questioned the purser on BA's policy of allowing intoxicated passengers to fly. I was told it was none of my business...but that there were mitigating circumstances. After the meal, I then requested a drink that was not available in economy class as "compensation" for the disturbance experienced in World Traveller Plus. I was refused by the purser, stating that I had moved into economy through of my own vocation, and that I had not been disturbed. After 15 minutes of further discussion, where I pointed out the distress of the other passengers, and the woman sitting next to the drunken gentleman looked visibly scared, when I had left the cabin, I was told that the situation was under control, that the drink was getting no further alcohol, and that it was now me that was causing the problem. Shortly before landing I then moved back to my original seat, and to my amazement witnessed the drunk drinking wine out of a BA provided wine bottle!
Later I sent a note of complaint, where I then received very little sympathy, and no offer of compensation. Two months later I received a survey invite from BA inviting me to comment on their complaints service... which I then did... and again little or no response.
The main complaint is that British Airways the supposed flag ship of the United Kingdom in my opinion has lost its way when compared to its rivals in Europe such as Air France, and KLM. They have no understanding of service quality, and their contemptuous attitude of both their staff, and administrative staff in dealing with customers complaints is deplorable. As a frequent flyer, all air lines will have mishaps from time to time. The true quality of an airline is how their staff handle such mishaps. I suppose I should just be grateful that I wasn't just told "to get over it", as the first class passenger from Delhi to London was told when he complained after staff placed the body of a woman that had died onboard the plane after 3hrs into the flight in March 2007.
I've no doubt that BA do have some good crew members working for them but there will always be those that make them all look bad. It strikes me that it is usually bullies who are promoted in a narcisstic culture where profit comes first and there is no creativity. That is probably why the problem of arrogant, insensitive, unethical, unprofessional and narcisstic crew members still exists. Like promotes like unfortunately. I had a bad experience with crew too but let it go until i had properly digested what had happened. It really was unbelievable but true so wrote to head office to ask them to train their staff, (who well and truely dropped themselves in it) properly.
Companies that are willing to place their customers in a danger zone and just leave them, is completely stupid! Are there any humans behind this company? Come on BA step up and do what is best for the customers.
British Airways is the Bank of America of airlines. They will throw their passengers under the bus to make a profit. fI bought my mother ( 72 years old) a ticket to Egypt for a Christmas present. Our departure is this Spring ( in a matter of days). Because of the recent revolution, I called for a refund. They told me that they had rescheduled their flights so that they could get us into Cairo before the curfew! AND THEN WHAT?!? No safe transportation, anywhere. Delta airlines has graciously returned the money to travelers to Egypt. I have no doubt those passengers will return to Delta to fly.
A classaction suit chould be inacted against this company that places profits over safety. I'm sure there are more who have suffered at the hands of this complny.
Stay away from this airline
please find enclosed an e.mail that i recieved say that B.A. cannot reunite baggage with their owners, surley they have names and addresses on them, i for one would help distribute the luggage back to the rightful owners i live near the airport and there must be lots of people within the area willing to earn mone from this, i can go nationwide if nescerssary
What I cannot accept is the BA's latest call that it not allow one of it's employees to wear a Christian cross around her neck but yet will allow all other forms of religious symbols to be worn by others. Christianity is then being discriminated against. I can't fly an airline like that.
customer harassment
To: British Airways,
I am writing to you (again) giving a brief summary of the harassment I am facing from your company, British Airways in order to receive a refund and compensation of a connecting flight which was cancelled on my way to Paris for my Honeymoon.
We got on a flight from Calcutta – London on 20/Dec/06 with a connecting flight to Paris the same day after a few hours. All flights got cancelled to Paris because of fog.
The BA staffs were very unhelpful and un-cooperative in booking us to another flight. They did not provide us with any meal vouchers or hotel accommodation and told us that we will have to stay in the airport overnight. They were extremely rude and it seemed that they were purposely unhelpful in assisting us with formalities for a temporary visa.
Finally After 8 hours at the airport without anything to eat we finally got visas. Again they were very rude and refused to give us temporary accommodation for the night. One ground staff told us to take the train to Paris and claim the same from BA later.
So lugging our bags we took a train to the station and took the tunnel to Paris.
At the airport we were told that BA had processed the refund for our cancelled flight and it will be credited to my Credit Card automatically.
After we reached India – I send a formal request for a refund online. When I called the call centre they told me they are not able to process anything and it is going to be approved from the UK itself.
Ever since January I have contacted the call centre at least 10-15 times – Each time I have to wait on hold for 20 minutes and half the times I don’t even get through. Each time they tell me that they are sending a request for a refund and it will take 6 weeks to get credited. Each time they gave me a different email address – where when I emailed – the emails used to bounce back!
Ever since January I have contacted BA through its website at least 10 times
Responses Received
15/Feb/07 - Please contact your travel insurance company
04/Apr/07 - I have also passed on your details to our refunds team and they will get in touch with you as soon as possible about your ticket refund. I'm afraid I cannot refund the cost of your alternative travel arrangements
10/Apr/07 - We are investigating your case, so there might be a short delay in responding to your email.
17/Apr/07 - I have, though, sent your details to our Refunds Department for the refund of your ticket. They will be in touch with you shortly.
29/May/07 - For the refund of your unused British Airways tickets, I have passed on a copy of your letter and email to our Refunds Department. They will get in touch with you soon
31/May/07 - I have contacted our refunds department in the UK and unfortunately as you bought your tickets in India we are unable to refund the London to Paris tickets which were cancelled. However if you contact the sales office in Delhi which you used to buy your tickets, they should be able to refund this part of your ticket.
The Delhi office refuses to do anything about it as they claim that they “are only a marketing office and that they have no power”!
Not to forget compensation for my alternate travel arrangements, compensation for a lost day of vacation, compensation for a ruined start for our honeymoon, you are pretending that if you refund my ticket you will be doing me a big favor!
And don’t forget COMPENSATION FOR THE HARASSMENT I HAVE BEEN FACING FROM YOU IN ORDER TO GET MY COMPENSATION!
Our 6 month anniversary is coming up – and there is no sight of any progress
And on top of that you pass statements like “I hope this has not deterred you and your wife from flying with us again in the future.”
Sharad Jhunjhunwala
hi this is complaint to genral manager british airways.
hi, my name is yudhbir singh rawat, ym ba flight was on 20TH june at 0225 am. by mistakely i missed this flight, and i came on 21ST june at bom csi airport the flight no. was ba 138. I spoke to the airport back ba office, and they told me that dont worry we will send you today, but wait till all regular passanger check in. and all passanger checked in, then they said sorry we cant help.. even ba counter staff not ready to talk properly. they were very roude, and rough, specially third counter lady from left.
i am regular british airways passanger, so to see your counter staff attitude i felt very bad, hope you will consider this complaints.
thank you very much
yudhbir singh rawat
14455 st, germain dr,
centerville, va-20121{ u.s.a}
[protected]
Din mohammed
95 Balsdean Road
Woodingdean
Brighton
BN2 6PG
19 July 2007
British Airways Customer Relations,
EU Compensation Claims,
PO Box 5619, Sudbury,
Suffolk, CO10 2PG, United Kingdom.
Ref: Flight BA6996 Sunday 24/06/07 To Tenerife South
File Reference TFSBA13036/24 JUN07/1118GMT
TAG NUMBER BA364857/BA364858
After over twenty years of traveling with British Airways I feel I need to write this letter and make a formal complaint, this was my first trip to Tenerife with my new wife after we where married in JANUARY 2007, and were BOTH VERY disappointed.
First i would like to say , we travel to Tenerife every few months at the moment and also have another two flight booked one for October 2007 and one in January 2008 with B A , as we are having a villa built in Torovicas Tenerife.
And we always use B A as we feel it is the airline we can trust! For time keeping and service ,this is very important to us ,because we also run our own business here in Brighton. We can only get limited days off when we travel to Tenerife, Always from Sunday to Thursday.
Problems seemed to start right from the begging, when we got to British Airway checking two and half hours before our flight there was only two counters open and one out of order, making us late for our flight so we had to rush otherwise we would have missed our flight! On the other hand there was about 4 0r 5 counters open for fast drop!
When we arrived at Tenerife South our luggage was lost and was told that it will be dropped off at our hotel in the evening, which did not happen, and was then told that it will now be dropped off on Monday which also did no happen finally we received it on Tuesday morning 26/6/07.so half of our stay in Tenerife was with out our luggage, which also contained my medication for my acid reflux.
My wife also wanted you to know that there was no in-flight entertainment, when we asked a member of the cabin crew WHY! They mentioned that it had been out of order for a few weeks!, buy assured us that our return trip the in-flight entertainment was working, if i was to run my business in this manner, i would not be in business very long.
Sincerely,
Signature
hidden fees
I booked a return flight 02/06/07 from Sao Paulo, Brazil to London Heathrow. I have always paid BA in 10 payments without interest on my credit card.
Today I am informed, after questioning the terms of payment by credit card, that it is BA's policy to charge one payment for bookings on the internet, bookings by phone can be made in three payments on a credit card without interest.
BA's credit card policy should be published, not hidden away only for the eyes of their employees. I am appalled at this total lack of consideration for BA's customers,to travel from Brazil to the UK is very costly, I understood credit cards were for the use of by responsible people to plan and finance their expenses. The ''World's Favorite Airline'' has shown its true face once again. The last time I travel BA, a loyal customer for over 30 years, they have really earned themselves some extremely bad publicity and PR.
Yeah right...recent economic events really prove that "credit cards were for the use of by responsible people to plan and finance their expenses." BA is an airline - it doesn't want to turn into a debt collector for people who default on payments. This is a responsible approach from BA.
luggage debacle
My wife and I recently flew British Air (BA2192 - May 4, 2007) from Dallas to Gatwick, London. Going over we checked three suitcases, and took on board two small wheeled-suitcases that fit nicely in the overhead.
On our return flight (BA 2193) from Gatwick, we checked four suitcases. However, as we proceeded to the boarding gate, BAA (airport authority) inspectors asked us to place our two wheeled-suitcases in the dimensional box to make sure they qualified as carry-ons.
They fit, however, the wheels protruded so they forced us to check both carry-ons as excess baggage at a combined cost of US$483! These were the very same suitcases that traveled in the overhead bins on the flight over at no charge.
British Air has not responded to my inquiries, and BA workers at the excess baggage counter referred us to the BAA who cited "increased security concerns" which had nothing to do with baggage sizes.
Our otherwise fine visit to the U.K. was marred by this shocking demand for exorbitant costs. Needless to say, we will never fly British Air again with manhandling like this.
Wayne Specht,
Astoria, South Dakota, USA.
british airways is the worst for baggages .if a passenger have 24kg at the airport they said we have to pay please do our passengers a big favour for british airways futur and we get this problem at london heathrow and dublin.
hopefully next time if i dont have any hand bags i have just a 25kg luggage hopefully its will be granted
I would like to complaint about British airways and their partners I was booked my flight on 4th october2007 from Edinburgh to London and to Algiers the same day, but they confront my flight to Algiers was cancel until next day but i was very upset because I lost very important things with family I was plan to travel this day to Algiers since January 07.
Regards,
s said.
I would like to strongly compliant about British Airways and their partners “Antler Ltd” the "luggage company", I traveled from Geneva to London in May 07 and my luggage was damaged during my trip with BA, Antler Ltd has handles replacement of Luggage very very badly with their dishonest drivers, BA believes that Antler are wonderful and I am in between, I complained to the Customer service departments 10 days ago in a letter addressed to Maxine Haywood and yet not even received a reply but was told that BA did not receive my letter (after 10 days) despite the fact that I have prove of postage certificate... I think the only way forward is to contact the regulators and put a court case tribunal against BA for the bad service they provide in order to get compensation.
Regards,
Harith Taha.
departure problems
Re: British Airways
To Whom It May Concern,
I am contacting you with the hope of getting your cooperation in relation to flight departure data from Accra to London for myself. This is just a request on the basis that you will assist me as the appointed airline as will be mentioned in this letter. My friend from Ghana was due to leave Accra airport on May 2nd for Heathrow according to the vague itinerary data I had been sent after this arranged flight by her agent whom I cannot get hold of. She is supposed to be a member of a group of nurses sent by a Mr. Collins from Asiko travel based in Accra? However I have sent this woman 4000 euro+ with the aim of meeting her in London and I cannot locate if she is in Ghana or London? My real purpose of asking your assistance is to see if the woman mentioned Philomena Opare has departed for London on the specified date(s) mentioned above. I would be grateful if you could answer this query, as it would sort this part of my inquiry out. She has not contacted me or answered my calls to her I don’t know what to do since the date mentioned of May2nd. I would be grateful for your cooperation and it will be kindly appreciated by myself. This Mr. Collins has not supplied me with any documented proof of this flight? Below is the sparse data that I have been supplied with after I insisting that I be sent proper proof of payments and receipts. I hope you can assist me through your British Airways offices if possible. Thanking you.
Name: Miss Philomena Opare
Nationality: Ghanaian
Date of Birth: 1977 I think?
Occupation: (nurse I think}.
Flight: BA 0078: Terminal 4 Heathrow: May 2nd.
Agent: Mr. Collins. E-mail: [protected]@myway.com
Philip Phelan.
ticket change and/or refund refusal
On March 31st, 2007 I contacted British Airways asking to change my daughter's return flight from LHR to EWR from May 24 to May 12, 2007. As they have plenty of seats available on the May 12 flight I did not expect any problems. To my big surprise I was told they cannot make the change and asked me to contact the travel agent who would be able to assist me. I offered to pay both a penalty and fare difference, if any for the change as we did not want our daughter who is studying this semester abroad to stay 2 additional weeks in London. British Airways insisted there is nothing they can do and the only people who can possibly help us would be the travel agency. However, when i have contacted the travel agency they explained to me that since this itinerary is already in progress the airline took over control of the record Confirmation Code 3VCIZX with British Airways. Furthermore, Sylvana from Expedia's executive customer care desk was kind enough to contact British Airways directly and explaining to them the travel agency has no control over this itinerary at this stage and kindly asked them to help us changing the ticket. Unfortunately, British Airways insisted they would not be able to make any changes to my daughter's return flight leaving us no option but looking for an alternative flight to get her home. By the way, Sylvana from Expedia confirmed she never heard of a case like this in the past, when an airline would deny their customer, who had agreed to pay a penalty to change a return flight to an earlier date when seats are available. Furthermore, British Airways denied us any refund for the canceled portion of this itinerary which was a quite expensive airfare to begin with in excess of $1100!
Moral of the story - book with a decent travel agent. If you book one of the Expedia Special fares, these should be handled solely by Expedia. They are full of BS when they say they can do nothing with an 'itinerary in progress' as decent travel agents can manage this without a problem.
refund and cancellation problems!
I booked 4 tickets with BA on 23 Jan via their website. I booked in South Africa. By 25 Jan i had not received any e-ticket.
I checked my credit card and no debits were present. I went back to the web site and tried to book the same flight again. The price had increased to R34000 (from R31800). I booked a flight with SAA at R26000. On Jan 27 my credit card showed a debit from BA. My bank confirmed that BA delayed processing the card transaction. BA also advised this is "because the card debits are done via London". I have never received an e-ticket although BA say they issued it. After many phone calls, and repeated listening to the BA theme tune i have been told that i can only cancel my ticket via the web site as well as pay a penalty of +/- R4000 for doing so? I would think it reasonable that they refund in full - after all it is their poor systems and procedures that led to the problem. To cancel the booking i had to once again contact BA to get a booking reference as they still have not issued a ticket. The final word is that their web site says "Unfortunately our systems are not responding, so we are unable to process your request at the moment." The worlds favorite airline? Not. (roughly divide R by 10 to get pound equivalent).
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
PLS ND PLS ANY FAVOUR U CAN DO 4 ME
i am ewenla saheeed adebayo
pls help me concereing the money
Adv. Joshua N Aston
Flat 1-A
27 Upper North Street
Brighton BN1 3FG
England, UK
30-06-2007
Customer Relations
British Airways
Heathrow Airport
London, England
United Kingdom
I am Advocate Joshua Aston and my passport number is F3366314. I am doing my Masters in International Criminal Law at the University of Sussex, Brighton.
I had a booking on BA 0198 from Mumbai to London on 30 June 2007. The flight was to leave Mumbai Airport at 1315 but due to bad weather conditions there was an unfortunate delay of six hours. The flight took off at 1915. I do understand that passengers may have to face such unavoidable situations but what I fail to understand is the poor quality of customer service of the BA staff, received by my colleagues and me at the Chatrapati Shivaji Airport, Mumbai. No information what so ever was given to any passenger by the BA authorities in Mumbai about the delay. Since we had already undergone the Security Check we could not get out of the Airport. BA should have at least been considerate and served Lunch but they couldn’t be bothered. We were asked to wait without any information. This was indeed very pathetic.
We landed at the Heathrow Airport at 11.20pm (GMT). I had my booking on National Express from London Heathrow to Brighton at 2135. (Ticket Number ETHR3550) and I was clearly told by the BA Authorities in Mumbai that connections will be taken care of once we land in London. I took my luggage and rushed to the Information desk at the Heathrow Airport. Surprisingly it was closed. I went with my entire luggage to the National Express Bus Office outside the Airport. All the offices were closed. I came into the Airport and looked for help but could not find any.
Finally I met Alesandria who works for BA. I explained my problem to her but she too could not help me. She did make inquiries with her seniors but I was not given a satisfactory solution. I was told to take a cab and proceed to Brighton. I was told that I would have to bare the cab charges (180 GBP). I requested her to put me up in some hotel tonight but unfortunately this too could not be done. I was asked to sit in the Reserved Sitting Area where there was hardly any seat vacant.
I consulted another BA member and explained my problem. What I got to here in return is that according to the contract British Airways is only responsible to bring passengers from A to B. It may not be on the same day or at the same time or with the same Airlines. He also told me to read the terms and conditions printed on the ticket. What could have been more rude than this legal explanation?
Later I had to take a cab and go to the Brighton at my own expense.(Nearly 200GBP) This amount is close to my one way journey to Mumbai.
I am an Executive Club Member of BA and this was only the third time I flew with BA. This is not what we deserve. I am not upset about the situation but I am upset about the way in which it was handled. If BA authorities in London knew that the flight is delayed by 6 hours there should have been sufficient staff to deal with our problems efficiently. Not a single drop of water was available at the Airport as all shops were closed. Isn’t this a torture?
Anyways, I thought I should bring this to notice so that we as passengers of BA can help the Airlines to provide us with better customer service. What we needed is a bit of sympathy and caring…
With warm regards
Sincerely
Joshua Aston
missing bags!
My bag has been missing since December 29th 2006, when I checked in to a British Airways flight to Copenhagen.
Up to now no-one from British Airways has been able to offer any information at all on the whereabouts of my bag, or any vague suggestion of if/when I can expect it to be returned.
The “dedicated” baggage helpline has not been accepting calls for at least 2 weeks and I’ve been reliably informed by a member of staff in the BA Customer Relations team that the online Worldwide Baggage Tracer is no longer being updated.
The average waiting time to get through to the Customer Relations team is at least one hour, and although quite helpful and generally sympathetic they apparently have not received any updates on the baggage situation since the start of January.
Now due to the threat of strike action, Customer Relations are no longer taking calls either...
So, what do I do? Someone please help!
On my flight from South Africa to London on 28/06/07, BA misplaced my baggage. I was given a reference number, supplied them with my contact details and address for delivery but to date I have heard absolutely nothing from them. I have tried to contact them but the phone either keeps me on hold for an hour with no answer or says 'we are experiencing high call volumes at this stage, please call back later.' I have been wearing the same clothes for 3 days now and feel appalled and disgusted that an airline which is geared toward customer service and satisfaction can treat a customer in such a degrading manner. On a holiday, not every person has extra money to buy clothes, toiletries and make-up (especially to the standard that I am used to).
I in good faith entrusted my baggage to a reputable carrier who has treated me in an off hand and careless manner. I want remuneration for my loss but what would even be better is to just get my own bag back untampered with.
This complain is related to my Mother in law passenger of flight 2027 on December 17th 2006 from London to Houston.
British Airways lost one baggage due to a baggage transporter in London as I was told. The reason for this complain is that I have received zero customer service from British. To start It was not any representative from BA to help my mother in law in the airport that date or any one to file the claim. After three hours delay for mother in law to come out from the baggage area. Imagine that she does not speak any English and she is also need help moving area due to her age. I had put a request for help due to her age but I guess BA decided not to provide any. After many hours that she was looking around and she was trying to communicate or get any help unsuccessfully she walked out and she told us about the problem.
I started to look for a BA representative and after two to three additional hours of frustration I was able to communicate with someone that told me ‘We do not have anyone currently, your claim number will be IAHBA47774 and we will call you tomorrow with an update.
After few days and after receiving zero response from BA I was able to locate someone and I was told that the baggage was on its way to the house. Next day I found out that BA delivered the wrong baggage. They are so incompetent that they can not read a tag. Yes the bag had a tag with different name. I called BA and I was told that UPS will come pick up the bag and they were going to call me with an update. Of course I received no phone calls back or any update status. I am not surprised anymore from BA.
I filled the claim (I had to use some forms from Internet since BA never mail any forms to me), then I received a letter asking for receipts for my expenses. I mailed my recent expenses to BA for items that my mother in law had to purchased to Chevelle Burton in Jackson Heights NY. Again no response. I was able to find a phone number and talk with someone. After few days I got a new email with a new person Beverly Bernard and with a new case number 5127355. They ask again for receipts. When I tried to communicate again with Jackson Heights NY I was given a new phone number in Atlanta now [protected]).
I believe BA does not plan to provide any customer service and simply move me around from non existing person to another non existing person. It has been the worst experience that I ever had with any airline company.
Sincerely,
Greg Kokarakis
For Tetyana Smernova
Unbelievably true... I had my luggage delayed about three weeks during Christmas 2006, filed a claim (can't wear the same underwear for three weeks) and am still waiting for a response. All I want to know is which way my claim is going. I don't even get the pleasure of a phone call. We are now in April 2007! Last time I fly BA, I urge all to do the same.
forced to fly ba because it is an aa coshare - lost luggage and not one bit of help
Flew from NY to Lusaka, via London with American Airlines on Dec 12, 2006, Business Class. 5 pieces of checked baggage (for work - equipment and documentation), paid excess fee. Stop over in London and prior to boarding in London, checked for luggage and discovered one piece was not on board: had been seen in terminal 4 at 16:29pm but had not made it onto the plane (2 pieces got on the plane 5 minutes later).
There was little help from the jaded BA staff who are obviously beyond bored with this situation.
Arrive in Lusaka, file a complaint, am guaranteed it is on the next flight.
One month later, the bag is still not in my possession and NONE can give a coherent answer. British Airways in Zambia is a glitzified colonial outfit where the eager staff actually have NO power of say - all is determined by BA London and they too cannot reach a pulsing human being to get any information.
Compensation is GBP 35 for the entire time without my business clothes and documents. Filing on internet is pathetic - my contents listed as: 2 pairs sunglasses and documents... Yeah! let's forget about the close to $10,000 worth of business wear and accessories and electronic miscellanea in there - claim refund amount - disgusting... Not even $800.
The British Airways executives need to get off their high horses - gone are the days of colonial arrogance and welcome are the days of accountability. Your operation is a shamble. The state of the planes you use to African countries a pure reflection of what you still harbour and think. Can you spell accountability? Has Customer Service become such a thing of the past? How about competence?
Cutting costs? Lusaka has one BA office which has now been closed and if one needs to make a reservation, one is obliged to rely on 26,000bps internet connections which make it impossible to securely purchase a ticket. If one is lucky one gets to speak to a BA staff over a courtesy phone on the other side of the wall that safely hides the staff who are obviously under threat by disgruntled passengers.
People. it is time to claim our right as consumers. Band together. Boycott, sue, do whatever is necessary to make these megalithic opportunists accountable.
maybe you should not travel with so much stupid stuff duhhh what are you a princess
BA - still waiting for my delayed baggage!
I boarded a British airways flight from New York to Delhi on 17th Dec '06 with a connecting flight from London. The flight number from London to Delhi was BA143. About half an hour before the scheduled landing, there was an announcement that due to a system failure at London airport, most of the baggage has not reached the Delhi airport. The passengers were...
Read full review of British Airways and 12 commentsstolen items!
Somewhere on a flight from Nairobi to London to Boston in July 2006, a camera was stolen from my luggage. British Airways claimed they had no responsibility. Subsequently my daughter also had items stolen from locked luggage also passing through London. How can BA claim no responsibility when items are in luggage when checked and gone when retrieved? And why aren't they doing more to find what appears to be systemic stealing?
I traveled from Heathrow to Glasgow with British airways,a 55 minute flight!they couldn't get that right.my luggage was left at Heathrow for 2 days, my camera and watch were stolen from my locked case, my son who wasn't yet 2 years old had a small case which was left out in the rain it was socked through,this was July 2007, British airways have only just contacted me to say nothing can our will be done about any of this. I will pursue my case all the way, I would not recommend British airways to anyone nor would I fly with them again. There service has disgusted me, they implied it was my own fault for having valuables in my case. I have stared legal proceedings.
Bad treatment/no refund
Its been an exhausting week. Part of me honestly wants to forget it quietly, but that silence will allow the possibility of it happening again to somebody else, and that thought is hard to bear. Even though I have been planning a holiday to cape town since july, when I eventually made it all the way to heathrow, they refused me entry onto the plane, even though they have known my medical situation for months. BA are blaming aer lingus, and my travel agent for not fully notifying them of my medical needs,even though I had to send medical certs and undergo a phone check by a BA rep before the tickets were issued.
For the healthiest of specimens, enduring 2 airports in the same day would be taxing, but for me to push myself around the airports of 2 countries in the space of one day, and innumerable security checks, was an uphill struggle, which had a conclusion, which left me shell shocked and speechless.
It was the look of shock by the stewardess which lingered. The first thing she said to me was that “you’re not going to make this flight darlin” and I could see her worried look as she saw me balance on the airline wheelchair which had no armrests . Yes I did topple to my left, trying to turn around to answer a question from the man with my wheelchair, but I am very strong, and quickly salvaged the situation. It doesn’t look like homework was done by BA on the fact that I have friedreich’s ataxia (even though all certs were provided), and all that implies. It looks as if investigations were left at “wheelchair user”!
Issues of safety are paramount of course, but everything has its own context, and if again you put forward the legal reasons, then maybe it is an idea for passengers who need assistance to sign a liability waiver. I know I would have gladly signed one, rather than waiting outside the plane door on a cold evening, in a foreign country when I should have been in a plane bound for a long dreamed of, and planned for holiday!
I am not a litigious person, but have to speak up, in order to stop this happening to someone else. Why was my money taken so readily? Doctor’s certs not examined, and questions asked at the front of a departing plane which I had answered ad nauseum before? Indeed I was so shocked to be asked these questions again, with fresh faced inquisitiveness, in combination with my speech impediment, that no words would form, and I knew that they had made up their minds. They told me that my luggage was being taken off. I truly was beaten down, and was torn between what had just happened, and the fact that I hadn’t eaten since 3.
We finished talking at 11.30, after which I had to wait outside for half an hour, with my bus and hotel voucher. At midnight the dinner voucher is pretty redundant. I thought the hotel was a nice touch, but what was the alternative? Have me sleep in my chair? I listend in shock, as the BA duty manager suggested sending me back to Ireland to have a colostomy bag fitted, after which time my flights would be rescheduled, was a non runner. Invasive surgery doesn’t happen overnight, and I only have 2 weeks leave. It didn’t seem like a great holiday to me to spend half the time (at best) in hospital, and a short revised week in cape town.
I am aware of the reluctance and hesitance which lawsuits have brought, but again I needed assistance only getting to, and not using the toilet.
It is impossible to manually push the onboard chair, so even if the person can briefly stand, they still need help getting from a to b, but any sort of assistance seemed to be out of the question for the crew of this particular flight.
My bowels were empty. I have no bowel problems, and was certainly not going to overeat during a long flight, so that was not going to be an issue. 3 years ago, during my BA flight to Johannesburg, the guy merely wheeled me to the loo, put a blanket up behind me (as I could not fit in totally), and ….. Was I really that blessed with the extraordinary helping efforts of that particular crew? Compared to Sunday’s crew maybe…………..
Which leads me to ask if it was known since july that a passenger using a wheelchair because of friedreich’s ataxia, was going to be onboard, could there not have been one or two strong helpful guys on the rosta? The crew seemed to be mostly female. I feel very let down by BA. I don’t know if I will physically be able to make a trip like this in the future, and now I feel so mentally battered, that I sincerely don’t know if all the preparation and effort would be worth it.
[protected]@hotmail.com
BA59. Sept 17/9/06
Wednsday 20/9/06
I just said to my boss in work today (went back in, otherwise I’d just be at home mulling over all that has happened). I said “isn’t it ironic that in this age of hyper caution and extreme safety measures, that I am refused entry on safety threats. He bluntly said “You weren’t a concern just an inconvenience” I thought that was a perfect word. My dignity was of no concern as I was at the airplane door cold and isolated, and having to talk about toilet issues and colostomy bags with complete strangers.
I was never personally addressed by the captain, he just gave me an indifferent look, at this person before him with inward facing feet and a floppy posture who was clinging onto this onboard chair with no armrests. I wonder just on face value, did the captain think I was on drugs or drunk?
My safety was of no concern as I was put on a bus at midnight alone and shocked, trying to find a bed for a few hours with no toiletries or change of clothes That is no way to treat people!
I told the BA rep in july, that the help I needed was for someone to hold the chair steady to allow for a safe transfer. They refused to do even this. I know they don’t have to, but people come with different needs, and as the men pushing me off told me “that it all comes down to the attitudes of the crew and captain on the day. We have seen many cases worse than you, and sometimes even other passengers are more than happy to help” I know hindsight is 20/20 but I should have asked one of the hundreds of fellow passengers if they’d mind helping me down toward the loo. I’m sure they would have had a better attitude. I don’t need, and can’t justify somebody to hold my hand on the plane, much to BA’s incomprehension.
So all the planning has been for nothing and I fear this disaster will have lasting effects. I am still missing luggage, need a break, but now know even holidays can drain you;. I hope this episode has a redeeming conclusion. This was a major holiday, with a lot of time and planning invested in it.
Update Thursday 21/9/06: You will not believe it ( I had to phone up twice to make sure. Apparently my luggage was taken off, but they were put onto a cape town bound flight the next morning. It seems outrageous to me that I was refused entry out of safety concerns, but my luggage ( a suitcase, one big and one small sportsbag) was overlooked! Someone has their priorities mixed up! My insulin and everything bar the kitchen sink are in those bags, so I hope they get returned soon.
Update:24/9/06 2 bag arrived last night and the smaller bag was back on Sunday 24/9/06 minus my digital camera and broken shaver. This bag had all my insulin, an was firmly attached to my lap all day. I thought I would be swiftly reunited with it, but apparently my bags were put on 2 separate cape town bound flights the next day. I am loathe to keep going over this nightmare, but BA are digging their heels in, and even though its very much david v goliath, I have to try and get my story out. I should be relishing all the sights and marvels of this unique country after my months of saving, planning and preparation. Instead I am back, sooner than expected in rainy Ireland, with the batteries on low and uncertain about future travel plans. If all this hassle comes from a “holiday”…………I was in Egypt this may, and this was meant to be the year that I would travel, but events have conspired against me.
What should I do next? I am alone and voiceless and at the moment, nearly a grand down.
I remember in the 70’s when luggage manufacture Samsonite used to throw a large piece of there luggage into a cage of a large angry gorilla who failed to damage it, it was a true testament to how durable this stuff was, I suppose that being the case British Air Lines have decided to hire Two Gorillas in there ground staff at Heathrow as my luggage have returned to me twice looking like they were through the Blitz. I am a frequent traveler as I work abroad all through Europe and central Asia so I have the opportunity first hand to rate Air Lines and see how they are servicing there clients. I have been very disappointed with British Air the last few years and this incident just solidified my opinion. This is the second time this has happened to me with British Air and after giving them the benefit of the doubt the first time this has happened I have decided to never use there Airline again. Both times this has occurred I was traveling from Dubai to London with in the same year and have had both pieces of luggage destroyed. I have yet to be reimbursed for any of it. The last time this happened the luggage in question was brand new just bought in Dubai literally hours before the flight, when I sent my complaint and received my verification and complaint number in Customer Service at the Air Port I was asked for receipts for the luggage they destroyed. The first time this happened the case in question was over 6 years old so I no longer had a receipt but the second time it happened I was prepared as it was still in my wallet. It has been over two years since and have yet to receive 1 cent back from them and have had numerous eyes rolled at the air port when I inquired along with a host of unanswered Emails. I was talking to my fellow Engineers at my firm and was surprised to discover that they had the same problems. We now have a “No British Air Policy” in our firm. We are not that big as we have about 25 consultants and engineers abroad at any given time but in time I am certain there will be more who do the same thing. There service is truly horrible and there general attitude is poor, I expected more from them, , , Regards’
I have been flying weekly with British Airways now for over 14 years and in all this time I have never has a single piece of luggage go missing neither have I experienced bad customer service.
The comments made my this lady (actually the letter was rather confusing as she keeps refering to herself in the third person, which I find incredibly annoying and it is also a terrible use of the English language.) Her claims for compensation are a little excessive, she should have checked BA's policy on compensation (which is the same for every major airline) beford she booked.
Talk about a whinger...get a life Madam!
Actually, what a horrible horrible service! Never Ever again with BA. i am one poor man tried to save 450 dollars to buy a ticket and took me a little bit more than a 8 month to buy a ticket. Well i finally got the ticket BUT guess what they misplaced my bad.
I had two suit which i wear at work but unfortunately had to take with for the weeding. BUT guess what ? Didn't come home with me because of the horrible service i got. I called to the BA customer service and been told several times that i should get a refund. I didn't ask once, twice , ... but more 7 times and i got the same answer from all of them.
After i bought a suit my bag came 13 days later. And i ask a refund my expense i have BA said " since you are resident we know that you have a close so we can't give you the money" after i spend all i had otherwise i couldn't go to work without suit because it's not allowed. What a service...
Dear Nikhil Phalsamkar - British Airways Customer Relations,
Thank you for your e-mail dated the 2nd of January 2007.
Here are the details for our claim for delayed/damaged baggage and the series of events that occurred. I am copying this to Amos Phillips, our MPs, the Consumer Association and the media.
Mr Phillips and I made a trip to India for both work and holiday.
We left the UK on 18th December 2006 on flight BA199. We had one item of checked luggage between the two of us - this contained all our necessary luggage. On arrival in Bombay we were left awaiting our luggage at the carousel. Our luggage did not arrive.
We went to the baggage desk where it was already known that our luggage was not on the plane ! We were given a form that had been filled in before arrival at Mumbai airport. We gave our address in Mumbai and our address in Cochin where we were going from 21-24 December (written on the form - a copy is enclosed with this letter).
We were initially offered £35 to cover the expenses for two people as the luggage in the bags was for both Amos Phillips and Michelle Baharier. We were eventually given two lots of £35 cards to release from an ATM within 24 hours. The exact amount we could withdraw in rupees was in fact less than £35. In fact what we really got was 2800 rupees each, which on that day’s exchange rate amounted to only £32.
We arrived at our hotel without essential items which included medication called DERMATIX which had cost me £34.50 on that morning (needed for a scar as I had not long had an operation) Vitamin-E cream which I need to rub into the affected scarring area, Mosquito killer to plug into the rooms whilst sleeping, Mosquito repellent to spray on to body, Mosquito repellent to wash into cloths, suntan lotion factor 40 and 50 and water resistant, vitamins, moisturiser, tea tree oil, insect sucker that sucks out the poison from any animal bite, toothpicks, cotton wool, witch hazel, pencil case, paint box, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, padlock, rucksack cage, knife, rucksack lock, 2 forks and spoons, mixed fruit, toilet rolls, Bombay map, soap, sanitary towels, homeopathic remedies, creams, rescue remedy, Tea tree cream, Rough guide to India book, vitamin-E oil, money belts, names and details of people, rechargeable batteries, battery re-charger, camera memory cards, torch hairbrush, hair ties mobile phone charger, towels, sandals, sellotape, water purification tablets, Vaseline Mosquito bands, swimming costumes, holiday and business clothes.
On arrival at our hotel we were unable to shower or rest as we had neither essential items to do so nor any clothes to change into that were suitable for the heat of Mumbai nor did we have mosquito repellent.
This was not a good way to begin our holiday. We went out shopping when we were supposed to be setting up meetings regarding my work. I had to cancel a meeting on the 19th as I had nothing to wear or wash with, nor did I have sun screen or mosquito repellent and the strong kind we buy in the UK is not available to buy in India.
It took us 5 hours to find some clothes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoos, soap and towels, however, sun screen was unavailable so were bras and pants. We brought washing powder and mosquito coils to burn in the room, We were suffering badly with the heat as our London clothes were far too hot.
We were also suffering from being bitten badly by mosquitoes.
Michelle Baharier suffers from eczema and various other skin sensitivities so all products she uses need to be tested.
I have listed all our expenses on a separate sheet
We were attempting to buy only essential items as we were hoping that our luggage would appear as we had been told our luggage would be on the night flight at midnight and be delivered to our hotel in the early hours of the morning.
On the morning of 20/12/06 we called Mumbai airport luggage section. We called the airport at least 20 times - we did not get through as the number was constantly engaged. We decided we needed to try to follow our plans. We had only our winter shoes which were extremely uncomfortable and made us sweat and made our feet get blisters if we tried wearing them without socks.
It was also really difficult to find batteries and a camera card for Michelle Baharier who is a professional artist and needed a battery charger and memory cards. This completely stressed her out and she was feeling unable to use her camera and it really disturbed her pleasure of the entire trip.
We had to spend more time shopping for essential items not knowing where to look, One of Michelle Baharier's work colleagues had to take us to a place where she could buy toilet rolls, sanitary towels more shampoo and other essential toiletries. We returned to our hotel to find that BA had not called and we were extremely concerned as we were leaving the next morning (21/12/07).
Michelle Baharier phoned her sister and asked her if she could intervene on our behalf and actually speak to a human being in the UK at BA as Mumbai numbers were just constantly engaged.
On the 21st December we flew to Cochin and after our arrival at our hotel at about 9.30pm BA baggage section in Mumbai called to tell us our bag had not arrived and they did not know when it would arrive as there was now fog in London and lots of flights were being delayed. They also said they would only deliver the luggage to an airport and not to our hotel; they gave no reason for this. It would have taken half a day to a day to collect this luggage and would have cost 1000 rupees for us to do this.
On the evening of 21/12/06 we had had to replace more items including sandals as our feet were hurting and cut to pieces, we were bitten endlessly even though we brought Odomas the local cream insect repellent.
This time we brought decent sizes of toothpaste, shampoo, soap and towels, as opposed to the little sachets as we kept anticipating the arrival of our luggage. My sister called at midnight and said that BA in the UK had shut down its phone lines and was refusing to talk to people.
We were totally exasperated. The next day (22/12/06) we called BA in Mumbai – permanently engaged, we decided we needed to replace more things and that we needed a bag. We also realised we had to modify our holiday plans what should have been a much more adventurous holiday had to be modified as we did not have the essential items to do what we had planned - namely medical supplies water tablets and protective clothing.
The stress caused by BA's lack of information or contact point really damaged our ability to enjoy our holiday. We tried phoning Mumbai BA baggage section every day but to no avail. It was impossible to get through.
Not only did BA not contact us when our bag arrived but when we eventually got through to Mumbai BA baggage section on 26/12/06 we found our bag had been sitting in Mumbai airport since 21/12/06.
Staff at Mumbai lied and said they had no address for us in Cochin – if this was so how did they manage to call us there on the 21/12/06? After we had explained that BA did have our address details and we had been contacted there the story then changed and we were told that they phoned every day from 21/12/06 – 25/12/06 we did not believe this and we would like to mention Ravi as a particularly inept BA worker with non-existent customer care skills who should not be employed by your company, he kept cutting us off and it took about 40-50 times to get through to the baggage section each time we phoned up. Lisa Marie and Melissa were slightly better and eventually Lisa-Marie agreed to return the baggage to UK. However, she would not sort out sending the baggage to Michelle’s sister’s address and were quite adamant about this. We pleaded with them because we no longer had an address in India as we going to be on the road and taking night trains, and it was their fault that our baggage not been delivered and now could not be reunited to us in India, the least they could do was return it to an address convenient for us. They said they did not have that sort of power. We think this is ridiculous - a massive global company unable to act sensitively and efficiently with a baggage problem.
The non-delivery of our luggage before 26/12/06 meant we had to replace all our items.
The staff were unhelpful and rude and it took from 8 am in the morning till 1.30pm on 26/12/06 to sort out redirecting our luggage to my sister in the UK, there were perishable fruits inside our luggage that needed to be removed before everything was ruined. The morning calls cost 250 rupees on our mobile and then even more on the family's landline we were staying with, in all our 500 rupee sim card was used up by calling BA and my sister regarding our baggage.
The staff hung up on us numerous times, cut us off and lied. None of this is helpful and BA should introduce customer training for its entire staff, this is extremely uninspiring and makes us not want to travel with you again.
The staff in Mumbai also gave us an invalid file number, as it had no letters on it. My sister, Linda Baharier, had to search for some time to find the correct file number.
Linda provided us with an international call line for BA customer services which we rung everyday and a message said that this line is closed. We were very unimpressed with BAs customer services by this stage.
How much would it have cost BA to e-mail all customers with an apology at the first sign of trouble? This could have reassured many customers.
On the 28/12/06 after discussing the issues with Linda we had to send a fax to give her the authority to discuss our luggage problems with BA in the UK, but to make certain we sent three - one to her and two to BA, this again took up valuable time when we should have been relaxing and enjoying ourselves, rather than calling the UK and getting stressed out.
To get to the damage. Our luggage had to be washed and the bags cleaned. With one of the bags the smell of the fruit cannot be got rid of (it cost £109.00 3 years ago) and a book costing £12.99 titled “The World Travellers Manual of Homeopathy” has been severely damaged.
In addition Linda incurred numerous costs due to the time it took assisting us. She had to take one and a half days off work trying to contact BA customer services on our behalf. She incurred large telephone costs and it cost her money to wash and dry our luggage after she received it. We would be grateful if you could reimburse Linda Baharier for her costs. If you require a greater breakdown of her costs please let us know.
Our pleasure and our holiday was completely ruined by worry and stress caused trying to locate our luggage and redirect it so that everything was not ruined and it was not stolen from Mumbai airport.
Also what we did not have access to were items of a far higher quality in our original luggage and far greater cost we lost pleasure of by not being able to use, just for example the sun screens and mosquito killer cost in the region of £60 - they would have given us peace of mind instead of which we were bitten constantly.
We were unable to swim as we had no costumes and could not find a place that sold such items, this spoilt our enjoyment no end. We would like to know what is BA's compensation for wasted time and effort.
We are also shocked that a multinational company such as BA takes seven days to send a reply to people it has placed in distress. BA needs to get some customer care skills and do some work If we are ever to fly with them again.
I look forward to reimbursement in full and compensation for wasted time lack of holiday and stress. The table of costs shows some of the items we were able to replace, it also shows the cost of our time spent replacing these items when we should have been enjoying our holiday. BA needs to note that we wasted well over £100 on items we brought in the UK that will not be used unless we return to India. I note that in 2000 BA paid Victoria Beckham £100,000 in compensation for lost luggage and BA has not answered if she and her family have received free first class flights for life?
Due to need we brought items where we saw them this included small market stalls and some people were not able to provide receipts - we do have the items and can produce them if necessary. We were also unaware that the situation would escalate and that we would need receipts. We kept a daily record of all our spending. In addition to the above we feel we are entitled to a full refund on the price paid for our airline tickets because we did not have the holiday we planned due to BAs inefficiency and through no fault of our own.
Economy passengers are the bread and butter of any company it is time we were treated with dignity because if we leave BA will go under which almost happened when it tried to delete its economy class a few years back.
We not able to collect our baggage from my sisters house until 15th January 2007 so we are using the time limits set out in the Montreal Convention, from the day we received our baggage.
BA HAVE WRITTEN BCAK AND OUR NOT PAYING US COMPENSATION NOR HAVE THEY COVERED MY SISTERS EXPENCESS
I love the USA and visited friends again this summer throughout the USA. For reasons best known to British Airways, I had problems securing the return flight home, and ended up being stranded in the USA. I had to buy another ticket, and duly did so with another airline for $300.
As I result of my experience, please avoid the expense that I incurred and avoid British Airways. (The staff are treated just as ruff by the management anyway, hence why they down tools and go on strike whenever they feel like it).
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Hi Mark,
I'm just handling the worst experience ever with BA and wish I had heard any of this before...
I made a booking, economy class, and then upgraded with mile to Business.
Few things happened, I had to change my flight (this was London - NYC - London by the way) but was told I could not cancel just the return flight as it was booked economy with restrictions, which I agree.
So then I asked if it would be possible to cancel the upgrade just on the return flight (as I would not be taking this), the lady who I spoke with on the phone was not sure if she could do that without charging me a fee (?).
For some reason, they cancelled my whole upgrade and she even "wrote on the notes" that I had been advised that I could not cancel upgrade in 1 way only; it had to be both ways or nothing.
They are now refusing to give my seat back, unless I pay $7,000!
No one respond to email, some of the agents are really rude.
Although I am a Silver Club Card Member, I will not travel BA ever again!
About the change of plans I mentioned somewhere above; my return will not be to London but to Buenos Aires. I called, made the booking, asked if they had any seats available for upgrading, was told no.
I paid for my upgrade, and right after they had charge my credit card (nearly $3,000) they CANCELLED my booking (?).
These are the most unreliable people in the world. The CEO, Willie Walsh, has no idea what so ever of what he is doing - not saying I would do a better job, but taking as an example AA - BA do not know how to handle complaints, nor how to handle important issues, this is one of the most unorganized airways company ever!
...But then, United Kingdon is the most unorganized country I've ever been to. Everything you do here, you need to send on paper, by post or courier, and also need a proof that it was delivered; and you still got to go to court sometimes to solve the matter.
Thanks for letting me vent!
Hi Mark,
You will not get your money back by talking to BA. The only way is to take them to court. You can do it online. However, you should first write to BA formally explaining the situation and the amount owed to you. Do mention that you will take them court if you hear no response.
In the worst case, if they do not respond, file your complaint online:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/index.htm
You must have all supporting evidence (tickets, receipts,...) to win.
Best Wishes,
Arvind.