British Airways

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British Airways Reviews

July 17, 2008
seat prebooking for a firat class ticket
I phoned BA in JHB to inquire why I could not prebook my first class ticket from Heathrow to Jhb on the 31st of July. Thos should be a formality with a first class ticket. Instead I was given a runaround of note. I first spoke to a person called Zuko who kept me on the line for 20 min without returning. In the interim I phoned from another phone and spoke to Evidence who was just as unhelpful and made me wait for 10 min without returning. I then asked to speak to the supervisor (Natasha) who promised me she would look into the matter. I phoned back twice the next day to inquire as well as leaving messages the day after, as she was never available. I am still waiting for a response from her. I find the service atrociously bad, with no real attempt to sort out the problem, and it is a first class ticket which is supposed to have SOME benefits.

Please respond soonest. They cannot tell me that they cant preseat me or tell me which seat has been allocated to me. I find that totally implausable. Ref no (YCFBNH)

Regards
Steve Breuning
June 14, 2008
assistance
i am compaining for my mother mrs j douglas 3 portal road knightswood glasgow g13 3xn who flew on a connecting flight heathrow to glasgow thursday 12th june flightba1474 my mother is 77 yrs old and had just flown from sydney and we asked for assistance however the problemn came at heathrow and my mother had to struggle when arriving ar glasgow airport this i find most distressing and can assure you will go into more details about this and myself will never fly with ba or recomend to any of my friends or family .
June 9, 2008
Bookings and safety
We were unable to book the seats that we required and then on booking in a couple were upgraded to the seats that we were told were unavailable. We were given row 2 D and F in club class and was assured that seat E would not be used so that we would be together. Just before take off a man and a 3 year old child got on board and that child was given the seat between myself and my husband, seat E. the man then sat in the window seat of the row behind leaving us to deal with the child. We had 2 grandchildren with us sitting in economy and would have liked one of them to be with us not a strangers child.

On the return journey the front row was empty and 2 more passengers were upgraded to these seats. To add salt to our wounds our daughter brought our 4 year old grandson to sit with us whilst she used the toilet. He sat down put his seat belt on and we were told to remove him as soon as possible as they did not allow children in club class. We were very upset about this but decided not to make an issue of it on the plane. The flight details are London / Gatwick B A 2952 to Cagliari on the 31st May 08. Return flight B A 2953 on the 7th June 08. We have other issues about this flight regarding the booking in and miss allocation of my daughters seats but we would like you're comments on the above matter Peter and Lynne Wilkinson.
June 2, 2008
Bad experience
I have return flight (BA 0156) from Kuwait to London on 6th December 2007 as ticket with reservation code (QQQZBK) indicates. I notice that information which has been included into the ticket is not strict even with departure or arrival time. On the other hand, I have never notice any kind of information that may be included in ticket or else where mentioned the last time of checking in. I arrived at check in counter in Kuwait airport at 8:00 am on 6th December, but I have been told that the gate was closed. I begged them that I have an appointment at a hospital tomorrow. They without any kind of respect refused to check in my luggage after they checked with British Airways branch in Kuwait airport.

We went to Kuwait airline to check if there is any flight to London, we have been told that there is one at 10:00 am and we may be able to transfer the ticket to Kuwait Airline after my friend explained the situation to them. We want to British Airways office, the door were locked, we knocked it, a guy came out and we explain the matter and he told us that the ticket is not transferable because it is not endurable; this is another doubt! Then, when I asked him about rebooking for next day, he informed me that the ticket is invalid that is even before the boarding was started that is happened at 8:35, and then I asked for of the name of the employee, he wrote it down as “Wagol”.

We went back to Kuwait airline to book the ticket to London, I paid 115 K.D which I have a receipt to prove that, while we finished the whole procedure we went to check in counter and she refused taking my luggage because the gate was closed, we talked to Kuwait airline manager who instructed the counter to take our luggage. This incident shows that there are no strict rules in airports and for this reason I think your branch in Kuwait airport is responsible for my awful situation as well as for paying another ticket to reach my hospital appointment.

I think I have not been informed that I should be at the check in counter at specific time; neither have I been informed about the last time that I must reach the counter with. Therefore, there is no reason what so ever which give you right to put the responsibility on me and punish me by paying another ticket to reach my appointment. I am looking forwards to hearing from you and to get my right by paying back either my original ticket or the ticket which I brought from Kuwait airline, with many thanks for your assistance.

Yours sincerely,
Ammar Abbas.
May 29, 2008
No Refund
In November 2007, my mother and I booked two seats on flights from San Diego CA to London (via Los Angeles) for an 8-day round trip, beginning March 14, 2008.

Unfortunately, on the day of the planned trip, my mother had to go to the hospital ER and was unable to travel. The doctors told her not to travel for at least a week and so we tried to reschedule our flight with British Airways for the following week. However, they were fully booked and we were unable to get the flights we wanted.

In attempting to reschedule the flights with the airline, I was talking with Reservation Agent "Jessica", who advised me to completely cancel the tickets, since there were no available flights for our required dates, and request a refund from the airline. (She then advised me to rebook on another airline). Jessica mentioned that, since my mother was unable to fly due to a health matter, there would be no problem in getting a full refund. She also advised me to fax the appropriate paperwork from the doctors to BA, prior to the time of our first scheduled flight, stating again that there would be no problem in getting a full refund, since we had experienced a medical emergency. I followed her instructions and the fax was sent about an hour prior to flight time.

Other than one email advising us that we were entitled to a refund of taxes only, British Airways have thus far ignored our correspondence and requests for a full refund. At this point, they are not responding at all to us and we have tried on several occasions to contact them.

We are currently $1775.98 out of pocket and have received no further response from BA during the past two-plus months, other than an automated fax receipt.

I have contacted my credit card company but they cannot help in this situation as we are more than 90 days out from the time of booking, on November 27, 2007.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. $1775.98 is a lot of money for a Senior Citizen (my mother) to be duped out of.
May 21, 2008
Transferring of luggage!
Since returning from our holidays on May 4 2008, I have sent three emails to British Airways asking why our luggage could not be transferred from Malaga to Doha, Qatar. On all three occasions, an automated response came back to me saying that the matter had been passed onto my Country office and they would be contacting me re the question. To date, I still have not had an answer.

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. 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.

I know I am not a Fist of Business Class passenger, just a mere Economy mortal, but with their reputation at stake I would have thought they would have been quicker to answer my simple question. At the time of traveling, my husband had torn muscles in between his ribs and having to collect our luggage at Gatwick airport to recheck into Qatar Airways, was a highly painful experience for my husband and did not help his condition.

I am truly disgusted with British Airways and they deserve all they get as far as I am concerned.

Mr and Mrs Michael Haylock,
Doha, Qatar, Arabian Gulf.
May 20, 2008
Customer service
Last year due to a timetable fault I had to cancel a BA ticket. After a lot of being passed from BA .com back to the Cyprus Office I was given a travel voucher. This should have settled the matter as I travel a lot from Cyprus to Manchester.
However then BA gave up their franchise with GB airlines who operated this route on behalf of BA.
I am now left with a travel voucher I am unable to use.
I have again being in contact with both the Cyprus office and BA.com. Once again I have been passed between both offices with no one being prepared to assist me with a cash refund. (bear in mind it was only my own cash!!) I have now been told even though the routes have been changed. The voucher is not refundable.
I am left £500 out of pocket.
My view is beware using British Airways as they have no idea of how to deal with customers or their complaints.
April 28, 2008
Total Lack of Assistance and Compassion
I acquired BA points through one of their credit card partnerships. Previously I had travelled this route by converting credit card points to Asia Miles.

I booked a flight to Hong Kong from Vancouver - BA points on a code-share flight with Cathay Pacific. When I booked the original flight, I was able to book Business Class to HK, but only Economy home. No big deal. However, my understanding was that I could change this at a later point if seats became available. All in all, the BA call centre in Toronto (when I booked the flight, they have subsequently closed this office) was very helpful.

I flew to HK with no problems. However, while in HK I broke my ankle (broke the tibia, snapped off both sides of the joint, completely dislocated the ankle). I was hospitalized for one night, and the ankle was set in a temporary cast. I was advised to undergo surgery as soon as I returned to Canada (which was scheduled for a few days later). When I was released from the hospital (to the great care of my friends whom I was visiting), I proceded to try to contact BA. Sunday - no luck.

So, waited until Monday, and called BA in Hong Kong - they wouldn't deal with me and advised that as I had booked the ticket in North America, I must deal with North America. So, wait another 12 hours for it to be Monday in NA. When I called the service centre (now in Fort Worth, Texas), I provided my booking number and explained my predicament - I have an unstable fracture, I must have emergency surgery, and as I am not a HK resident, I must have it when I return to Canada. In the interim, my foot must be elevated (problematic in cattle class on a 12 hour flight!) - I would like to use 25, 000 BA Miles to upgrade to business class. Reply - you have started your trip, you cannot make changes.

After much discussion the best I was able to get was to use 50, 000 points to book an entirely new one way business class ticket (with taxes and fees - which, of course, I had already paid once).

I expected better... Next time, will convert my credit card points to Asia Miles!

Cathay Pacific gets kudos, they treated me very well and were helpful throughout my flight and all the way to my family who were picking me up to take me to a Vancouver emergency room to await surgery - the next trip should be interesting (will set off metal detectors with my ankle from now on!).
March 25, 2008
Lost BA airmiles!
We booked BA return flight from Cape Town to Heathrow. We regularly fly BA and had almost enough BA Airmiles to upgrade to Economy Plus. I purchased enough miles to do this. and paid £50 each so we could move the flight if necessary.Unfortunately we need to change our return flight and we are now told that we have to pay £50 each (fine we knew this) and £155 each to change the date of the flight. We have lost our airmiles and cannot upgrade using airmiles again.

What a rip off!!! What a way to treat loyal customers!!! We won't be customers for much longer.
December 12, 2007
Safety compromised!
SUBJECT: BA jeopardized my safety whilst I was traveling with them and in their care. I have recently traveled to Italy flying with British Airways. On the way out the plane landed at a different airport because of adverse weather conditions. BA arranged for a transfer to the intended airport via bus/coach on the motorway; hence the coach was traveling at speed. Not long into the journey I noticed that the driver of the bus was making telephone calls on his mobile handset. I knew this as I could both see his face in his own large rear-view mirror and also see him holding his light blue 'phone to his right ear. He made several calls, each time looking downwards as he manually keyed the numbers with his right hand, glancing up at the road ahead and then back down to the 'phone, with only his left hand on the steering wheel. It occurred to me that this was a most unsafe practice for a driver with a fully laden bus to expose his passengers to and the more I thought about the situation the more uncomfortable I became. As I watched him make repeated calls my uneasiness turned to anger as it was totally selfish of him to compromise both mine and the other passengers' lives just so as he could use his mobile phone . Therefore I took the decision to confront the driver and made my way down the aisle to the driver's seat. I sternly requested that he cease the call in progress immediately, which he did, and not to use the telephone again during this journey. I advised him that he was both jeopardizing passenger safety also pointing out that he was breaking the law, and although he obviously did not speak perfect English he was left in no doubt that I was not going to tolerate this further.

I returned to my seat and explained to the Italian lady sitting next to me what had occurred. She passed this information on to the other Italian passengers who voiced their appreciation at my actions. I expected this to be the end of the episode and settled back in my seat for the remainder of the journey.

Not more than five minutes later it became noticeable that the bus would occasionally drift over the motorway lane markings and then swerve back again. I looked towards the driver and I was utterly amazed to notice that he was again using his 'phone, but incredibly this time he was not talking but texting! As it was night time and the interior of the bus was unlit, in his rear-view mirror one could clearly see the glow from the keypad of the 'phone illuminating the driver's face. I just couldn't believe my eyes and pointed this out to the lady sitting next to me. Once again I made my way to the front of the bus and for a while just stood behind the driver's seat to observe him to ensure my assumptions were correct. He had the 'phone in his right hand in his lap as he was obviously trying to conceal his actions. His head was mainly tilted downwards as he was creating his txt message with regular glances upwards as he checked the road. This could not be allowed to continue further and I instinctively grabbed his 'phone from his hand. I ordered him to stop the bus immediately at the next slip road exit which was just ahead. He stopped the bus and I severely told him that this blatant lack of consideration to my safety meant that I had lost total confidence in his abilities as a driver in command of a bus full of people on the motorway. I advised him that I would not be continuing and despite the fact that it was night time and raining I would be leaving the bus. I also advised him that I would be both reporting the incident to the Police. I went back to my seat to collect my hand luggage and explained the situation to the passengers. Before leaving I handed the driver's 'phone to a lady passenger and advised her not to give it back to him until completion of the journey.

And so I left the bus at 00:45, collecting my two other suitcases from the hold. I made a note of the registration number of the bus [CR147GT] and the company name [Air Pullman].

The bus drove off back onto the motorway slip road leaving me on the roundabout in the rain and darkness with only the forecourt lights of a garage visible in the distance. Luckily though just as I was making my way to the garage a taxi passed and I flagged it down.

Since returning to the UK I have taken this matter up with British Airways. They have refunded my taxi fare. However they have advised me that "the Italian Codice della Strada (Law on Vehicles and Streets Codes of Conduct) states that there are some exceptions to the law against drivers of rented coach and buses on behalf of third party companies. Under this law the bus driver was therefore allowed to use his mobile phone whilst driving." BA are denying any breach of the law and have become defensive.

I am now somewhat confused by this response and have written to my MEP who in turn has taken up the issue with the Italian Embassy. Their legal representative however starkly disagrees with BA’s interpretation of this Italian legislation. With the backing of my MEP also, he is understandably keen to pursue this case against BA.

The problem at the end of the day is that it will cost someone [presumably me?] lots of money to pursue this issue against BA, and anyway what case do I have as I was not directly affected or injured by the use of the mobile phone by the BA driver; I don’t believe I have any legal case or grounds to sue?

I would be pleased to hear your comments.

James Linton.

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