I am an Indian citizen and I booked a flight on British Airways.com for a return trip from Rio de Janeiro-via Sao Paolo- via London Heathrow-to Dubai on 11 May 2011. The local airline from Rio to Sao Paolo was on Tam airways. I got my 2 suitcases checked in all the way to Dubai at Terminal 2 of GIG (Rio) airport. At the gate (31), I was not allowed to board because the gate agent said that I needed a UK Transit Visa to make the 3 hour stopover in London. The agent at the check in didn't tell me that. I was told to wait while the flight left.
No where does BA state that a transit visa is required, not on their website before or after making my booking and they took my credit card payment, not in the e-Ticket, not in the email they sent at purchase, not in the email they sent 1 day prior. They can read out their tailor-made response that it is the responsibility of the customer to get the required "travel documents" but that does not mean visa. I have made the trip of Dubai to USA a dozen times, via London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and no one required a transit visa (Tv), not even in London. So, how is one to know that the Tv is required for non US/Canada flights? How is one to know that US/Canada is special while the other countries are not treated specially?
Should not BA inform their customers that there is a possibility that a Tv is required for UK? Even on the BA website, they only tell you that you need visas for the final destination (on their page where you can enter port of entry/exit and citizenship.)
I was not the only one who was fooled by BA. There were 2 others at Rio airport on their way to India who were denied entry to the flight. They were merchant marines and their company had booked them the flight. So BA fooled a company involved in travel and shipment, not just individuals who didn't know all the laws of the UK.
When my wife called, they say that an "Alexander" apparently called and asked for passport information on the 9th. We didn't call BA or never received a call from BA. This is a lie that they fabricated and has posted on their customer case file, to be able to later claim that they did their part. Why didn't they just send me an email about the visa, after all they sent me an email saying "We are looking forward to welcoming you onboard flight BA0246 from Sao Paulo (Guarulhos) Terminal 1 on 11 May 2011 at 16:15."
If I had known that BA required me to get a Tv, I would not have chosen BA. So BA hiding information makes them a liar and a thief because they are deceiving customers into buying their tickets and then not refunding their money after being denied service.
TAM agents gave me the run around. First one said that she will help put me on a Rio-Sao Paolo-Johannesburg-Dubai flight. Then she stated that she cannot do it for free, I'll just have to purchase the new ticket. They also told me to go to BA counter in Terminal 1 from Terminal 2 where TAM is at. Guess what? No one at BA counter, because they only work a few hours during the day when they have a flight out of Rio.
If you call BA on the phone and you get to be put on hold. They only work 9am to 6pm.
If you go to purchase a visa from the links on BA website, they send you to WorldBridge Service, owned by CSC Computer Sciences Corp, some big corp in bed with the British Government. This is just a way for the British Government to fleece passengers using a service that they already paid for, passengers who are just passing through their airports without staying, when they have already paid all the fees. They fleece and inconvenience passengers by putting them through more bureaucracies when all they are doing is trying to go from A to B and don't care about UK or stopping over there.
I called today (12 May) and talked to Constantine with a German accent (BA customer service is out of Germany) and after wasting my time, he finally transferred me to Christine Dujour, the Supervisor. After much arguing back and forth and her repeating the party line printed out for her, she said that she refuses to give me the refund. She can refund the airport tax minus the $30 service fee. She behaved very unempathetic and unsympathetic the whole time. It is almost like talking to a robot.
I am cancelling the payment on my Visa credit card for this purchase because I feel as a customer that BA lied to me, failed to give me a service for something I paid for, withheld information from me which they had the responsibility to do.

A week ago I had a flight from Washington to Delphi with a connection in London. It was quite an experience. First, we departed Washington two hours late because the plane was not ready to leave on time. Because of the delay I missed my second flight to Delphi and had to spend all night in the London-Heathrow Airport. British Airways told us that there are no hotel rooms available and all they gave us were blankets, watter, and food stamps.

Second, on my arrival I discovered that my luggage is missing. It's been a week and I am still calling British Airways asking for the whereabouts of my bag.

Some friends of ours just took a trip to India so that they could adopt their young son. While they were there one of them became seriously ill and spent some time in hospitals there. Their new son also suffers from a heart condition in which he required oxygen for the flight home. Due to mom's illness, they needed to return to the States immediately so that she could recieve medical attention. When they called the airlines to see about switching their flight, they were informed that it would cost them in the thousands to make any kind of changes. After many phone calls that led nowhere they were forced to take a flight with a different airline and were not able to get oxygen for their new son. Both have returned and are doing better, but when trying to seek out a refund for what was cleary a medical emergency, they are unable to do so because of British Airways policy. It seems they may be one of the few airlines that operate like this. I think it is very sad that when a family was most in need and after they already had thousands of dollars of their money, they were so inflexible and unkind.

I travelled London-Mumbai last time first class. The overall experience left me feeling that travelling in First was not worth paying the difference for once I was on the flight. The inflight entertainment was down on both legs of my travel and food was poor. I didnt bother complaining as nowadays there doesnt seem much point. Just have to make sure you do not invest in that choice again. Yesterday I travelled business class on the same journey. I skipped dinner since it was late and asked if there was simply some ice cream. The Stewardess informed me she always carried some. Later I was served another desert not of my choice at all and there was no mention by her of the ice cream. I had skipped dinner hoping breakfast would be served in about 6 hours and on the menu card a good choice was presented. However on being served breakfast we were informed that there was only going to be continental breakfast available and that the option of scrambled eggs with mushrooms was not available afterall. Actually I arrived more underfed than if I had travelled in economy. It was an hour through baggage/ customs and another hour to my hotel and I did not feel as if I had travelled a higher class of cabin at all. Next time perhaps I will try a lower class since in my experience of travelling with BA these days there does seem to be more of a genuine and consistent effort to keep customers satisfied in those cabins.

I'm new to using British Airways, the first time was last November when I bought two round trip tickets one for me and one for my boyfriend, the service was more than awesome on my way to London, on our way back, all I have to say disgusting! we sat about two seats in front of the back toilet and it had clogged and the whole flight smelled like poop! I kept asking my boyfriend if he had farted? but he kept on saying no, well later that flight we found out where the smell was coming from. I never complained about that as I didn't want to cause a huge thing I thought well things happen that is out of their range. Last night I tried booking a flight for my boyfriend through our executive club membership. On that page it said you can complete this booking using your airmiles if you only purchase 5, 445 more miles for just $190 us dollars. I thought well great that is a great price for a roundtrip flight, and so I did. Well the miles didn't get added until this morning and when I went back to book the flight again, well guess what? maybe you know cause you are the main boss of this airline, but it wanted me to pay an extra $751 dollars extra and use my 25, 000 miles. Do you feel like me now and think that this is just a rip off? cause I then went to the BA home and tried to book the flight without any miles and the total price for the flight was $851 us dollars. So tell me what is wrong with this picture? your company wants me to pay $751+190=$941 plus 25, 000 miles or just pay $851 with no miles. So tell me which one would you pick? even my first grader would give me the right answer to be honest with you. So I called your company and asked for a refund and to cancel the transaction and they said oh I'm sorry mam but we can't do that! Oh really! well that is just great! Because I happen to really like your company and was planning a wedding where many family members were going to fly from London to Denver and we taught of using BA but now I'm concern about your customer service. Is there anything you can help me with since you are the CEO of this great company.