Assessing Airlines – British Airways – Long Haul
I recently flew to New York City with British Airways and it gave me the idea to review the different planes and journey’s I’ve taken as there have been a few now and many more to come.
We picked BA as the price to fly over Easter break was pretty competitive and BA, we thought, were quite reputable. It is after all the UK’s national airline.
Now, the issues we had with this particular flight, both in and out, are quite nit-picky, some may say. But as a 100% advocate of impeccable customer service BA really need to up their game.
We logged on to their website to check in online. We did this at exactly 24 hours to the second before the flight, as advised. There was only a few seats available and only one row with three together. Given we were travelling with a nervous teenager we had to take the tree together, which unfortunately was the very last row in between the toilets.
As it turns out most people pay the extra £30 each to pre-book their seats (an option familiar for low-rent companies like Easy Jet etc.). Given how much you pay per ticket I found it odd that they then sell off all the seats as well. If we were to do this it was an extra £100 for the group each way and makes the trip even more expensive.
I’ve never had a problem picking a seat before on Long Haul flights on major airlines so that was a bit annoying, but at least we were together.
Once on the plane and in our seats (also similar to Easy Jet – only difference really was that BA’s seats are blue), we soon realised that my husband’s headphone jack was missing. Not just faulty, completely gone leaving a huge hole in the arm of the seat. We alerted the nearest staff member who basically just shrugged and said it wasn’t his fault and he would get his manager to do something.
The entertainment system was ancient and the quality of the screens appalling. It felt like you were watching a bootleg film from 2001 that your mate brought back from Bali. I kept expecting a head to pop up on the screen or to hear the audience laughter. I decided I wouldn’t watch what I had chosen as it would ruin the enjoyment of the film.
Meanwhile one hour into the flight and no one had come to see my husband. He got the attention of the staff member from earlier and asked what was going on. He was told that he would have to wait as they needed to get the food out and that was more important. This is the height of rudeness to me and unacceptable.
The manager finally showed up and said there was nothing they could do and we said it was pretty bad since we had no choice but to sit there given the online check in joke and the manager just shrugged his shoulders.
Now, I don’t want to sound irrational here, and even if the sound did work he probably would not have watched anything given the quality but it’s the principle. The staff just did not care. They didn’t even offer him a drink or anything!
Eventually Mr Manager came back and said he would offer us 3000 Avios (frequent flyer points) or £30 worth vouchers to spend on their online store. We took up the Avios as you can use them for other things, not just BA flights*.
After 7 hours we arrived in NYC and all was forgotten.
On the return journey we were sat again with a wall behind us. This is not ideal as you cannot put the seat back at all and makes for a very uncomfortable several hours.
We had a lady who was serving us this time and on the first drinks service she accidentally knocked my red wine all over my white t-shirt, down my jeans. it was everywhere. She did say sorry, but was very gruff with me about it as if it was my fault.
All in all the staff just seem as outdated as the planes. They don’t want to be there.
I never thought I would hate a plane service as much as China Southern (I will spare you that long story) but BA is not a company I would rush to use again. There are so many foreign companies that have really stepped up the game lately. We have heard nothing but good about Norwegian Air and even Qatar and Turkish Airways are meant to be moving up the top of the rankings.
My advice if you need to fly BA long haul:
Be aware that there may not be many seats available at check-in. Pre-book if you need to but that is no guarantee your seat will be in any better condition than the guy who didn’t pre-book
if possible, don’t sit with a wall behind you. Two of the seats didn’t recline and the one that did, the aisle seat reclined in front of the toilet door and was constantly banged and bashed
Don’t expect the staff to have you as their main focus
Don’t hold out to watch that film you really wanna see. Watch it at home or the cinema
Pack a meal. Don’t take the food offered. It’s grey, flavourless muck
WOULD I FLY AGAIN?
Only if I had to
*Upon returning home we found that our £30 vouchers had arrived… Yes we asked for the Avios. They couldn’t even get their apology gesture correct. The vouchers could only be used on tacky things that needed to be collected when you were next on a BA flight.
We picked BA as the price to fly over Easter break was pretty competitive and BA, we thought, were quite reputable. It is after all the UK’s national airline.
Now, the issues we had with this particular flight, both in and out, are quite nit-picky, some may say. But as a 100% advocate of impeccable customer service BA really need to up their game.
We logged on to their website to check in online. We did this at exactly 24 hours to the second before the flight, as advised. There was only a few seats available and only one row with three together. Given we were travelling with a nervous teenager we had to take the tree together, which unfortunately was the very last row in between the toilets.
As it turns out most people pay the extra £30 each to pre-book their seats (an option familiar for low-rent companies like Easy Jet etc.). Given how much you pay per ticket I found it odd that they then sell off all the seats as well. If we were to do this it was an extra £100 for the group each way and makes the trip even more expensive.
I’ve never had a problem picking a seat before on Long Haul flights on major airlines so that was a bit annoying, but at least we were together.
Once on the plane and in our seats (also similar to Easy Jet – only difference really was that BA’s seats are blue), we soon realised that my husband’s headphone jack was missing. Not just faulty, completely gone leaving a huge hole in the arm of the seat. We alerted the nearest staff member who basically just shrugged and said it wasn’t his fault and he would get his manager to do something.
The entertainment system was ancient and the quality of the screens appalling. It felt like you were watching a bootleg film from 2001 that your mate brought back from Bali. I kept expecting a head to pop up on the screen or to hear the audience laughter. I decided I wouldn’t watch what I had chosen as it would ruin the enjoyment of the film.
Meanwhile one hour into the flight and no one had come to see my husband. He got the attention of the staff member from earlier and asked what was going on. He was told that he would have to wait as they needed to get the food out and that was more important. This is the height of rudeness to me and unacceptable.
The manager finally showed up and said there was nothing they could do and we said it was pretty bad since we had no choice but to sit there given the online check in joke and the manager just shrugged his shoulders.
Now, I don’t want to sound irrational here, and even if the sound did work he probably would not have watched anything given the quality but it’s the principle. The staff just did not care. They didn’t even offer him a drink or anything!
Eventually Mr Manager came back and said he would offer us 3000 Avios (frequent flyer points) or £30 worth vouchers to spend on their online store. We took up the Avios as you can use them for other things, not just BA flights*.
After 7 hours we arrived in NYC and all was forgotten.
On the return journey we were sat again with a wall behind us. This is not ideal as you cannot put the seat back at all and makes for a very uncomfortable several hours.
We had a lady who was serving us this time and on the first drinks service she accidentally knocked my red wine all over my white t-shirt, down my jeans. it was everywhere. She did say sorry, but was very gruff with me about it as if it was my fault.
All in all the staff just seem as outdated as the planes. They don’t want to be there.
I never thought I would hate a plane service as much as China Southern (I will spare you that long story) but BA is not a company I would rush to use again. There are so many foreign companies that have really stepped up the game lately. We have heard nothing but good about Norwegian Air and even Qatar and Turkish Airways are meant to be moving up the top of the rankings.
My advice if you need to fly BA long haul:
Be aware that there may not be many seats available at check-in. Pre-book if you need to but that is no guarantee your seat will be in any better condition than the guy who didn’t pre-book
if possible, don’t sit with a wall behind you. Two of the seats didn’t recline and the one that did, the aisle seat reclined in front of the toilet door and was constantly banged and bashed
Don’t expect the staff to have you as their main focus
Don’t hold out to watch that film you really wanna see. Watch it at home or the cinema
Pack a meal. Don’t take the food offered. It’s grey, flavourless muck
WOULD I FLY AGAIN?
Only if I had to
*Upon returning home we found that our £30 vouchers had arrived… Yes we asked for the Avios. They couldn’t even get their apology gesture correct. The vouchers could only be used on tacky things that needed to be collected when you were next on a BA flight.
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