Anyone flown with British Airways recently.

ronnyb

As per the title. I've booked to fly long haul at the end of March and reading reviews on line BA get a lot of bad ones. Ok so i realise a lot of people only write reviews when they've had a bad experience and there are probably many satisfied customers but wondered if any 'boarders had sampled them. Before anyone asks why did you book with them then. The fare was just too tempting.   

LooseMoose

Which class? I’ve only flown business with them and despite plenty of complaining from people online (and the fact that 747s are falling apart) I’ve been pretty happy. Short haul business product is shocking, mind.

ronnyb

Economy. And yes it's a 747.

Nitefly

ronnyb said:

Economy. And yes it's a 747.

Not sure, but I think those may be outside seats...

Axe_meister

Cattle class is Cattle class. The only difference in flights is down to age of the aircraft. Newer ones have better entertainment systems and slightly better seats.

vasselmeyer

Pretty much all economy is the same, unless you're  on Emirates.  Load up your tablet with what you want to watch in case the onboard entertainment is  old and outdated and just live with it.,,

Teetonetal

Flew to la and back in october with BA. Airbus both ways. Nice modern entertainment console. Was fine.

LooseMoose

I wasn’t kidding when I said the 747s are falling apart. Shame, they are an AMAZING plane but by god they are showing their age.

Oh and in case you didn’t know www.seatguru.com is your friend!

ronnyb

Yes paid for the seats, checked out seatguru. The 747's on the route I'm flying have had interior refits, new entertainment systems. Is it free drinkies on ba in economy?

RandallFlagg

ronnyb said:

Yes paid for the seats, checked out seatguru. The 747's on the route I'm flying have had interior refits, new entertainment systems. Is it free drinkies on ba in economy?

Yes

Jez6345789

The issue for me is less the ageing fleet but the ageing trolly dollies or old ducks who pass for stewards who are hanging on for their fat BA pensions  Somewhere between a Doctors receptionist and the kind of professional indifference of someone who is just making up the time. I did a flight back from San Diego last year cattle  class and to be fair I dont find it a bad way to travel with most airlines. But the indifference and rudeness is off the scale. 

I am not going to recant the whole Fawlty towers experience from walking down the back and asking for some water and getting told its our break now. When all she had to do was pass me a plastic bottle on the rack.  Or the overly camp steward who felt it necessary to snap at an older lady who he dinged in the shoulder as he threw the drinks and pretzels down the aisle like he was on piecework with his trolly. She only gave him a look for an apology and got some rant about yes madam I am gay have been for 20 years  so get over it BA has. She just sat there stunned. 

It was a total shambles.

To be fair, I travelled on one of their Dreamliners this year with a young friendly crew who were all very nice. 
I was chatting to one of the Stewards and got the impression they are bundling the Coffin Dodgers all together and putting the best in their newer planes. 

LoFi

RandallFlagg said:

ronnyb said:

Yes paid for the seats, checked out seatguru. The 747's on the route I'm flying have had interior refits, new entertainment systems. Is it free drinkies on ba in economy?

Yes

Will be for long haul on a 747, but BA fairly recently stopped giving out free drinks on short haul, which is pretty poor for a flag carrier.

(And as Jez says above, some of the stewardesses can be less friendly than other airlines...)

Fretwired

ronnyb said:

Economy. And yes it's a 747.

Make sure you've have a will and have a prepaid funeral plan .. BA 747's are crapsville .. one of the last major airlines flying them. The last time I went BA is was like a third world airline (I have experience of these in Africa) .. and I was in business.  The plane shook, rattled and rolled ...

RaymondLin

I flew long haul to Japan 2 months ago in Premium Eco, it was okay, expected to be better but it felt like economy with a wider arm rest, that's it.  On the way back, i forgot what plane it was, the screen was SO bad, I didn't even turn it on.  I spent the 12 hours playing on the Switch and trying to sleep.  Business looks nicer but next time I am going Emirates, Cathay or Japan Air for the Far East.  I have another economy flight with them to Germany in 5 weeks' time though…at least that's only 2 hours.

rocktron

I booked my return flight to New York City with British Airways and traveled in economy class. As you may be aware, they are in partnership with American Airlines. I booked on 13th July and paid £397.17. The decision to fly with BA was based purely on cost consideration compared to £598.77 flying with Virgin at the time of booking.  .

Outbound:  Friday 8th December 2017 with American Airlines Boeing 777. 
Excellent aircraft and one of the best flights I've been on. Good choice of movies and comedy shows. Good legroom. Very professional service from the cabin crew. Several cans of coke.

Inbound: Tuesday 2nd January 2018 with British Airways.
The original scheduled aircraft was a BA Boeing 777, but I received an e-mail that my flight was delayed from 21:45 to 2:00 in the morning. BA had to fly in another crew for the flight back on a 747. I am still not clear what caused the delay, and what happened to the 777 which was due in from London for turnaround. 

BA gave a voucher for $19 dollars to each passenger to spend in a food outlet. Luckily, one participating food outlet which accepted airline food vouchers was still open. One Hudson News was open, and all the duty free shops were closed. 

In the event, the 747 was excellent with good legroom. fancy ceiling lights, and modern seat-back entertainment system with a good choice of programs - not a ramshackle plane which was in danger of falling out of the sky at random. Due to the late departure, and at that time in the morning, passengers were tired and most had a snack and went to sleep. The service from the cabin crew could not be faulted. There was some bad turbulence encountered as the aircraft approached Ireland which was caused by Storm Eleanor, but other than that it was a smooth flight.  

These days, when flying long haul, I select an aisle seat so that I can stretch my legs, and go to the bathroom without disturbing anyone..

Kebabkid

Yep. Short haul to Spain. Flight, service was ok and nothing special. However,  we were stung on luggage allowance. Whatever your allowance, ours to use an example was 23kg per person and there were 2 of us, it's a personal allowance/limit, so if you're a couple or family travelling, don't think you can group your allowance with any one case heavier than your personal allowance i.e. one at 25kg and another at 21kg.

The fine is both harsh and steep, especially as the plane was empty and we boarded and were delayed by nearly 2 hrs. BA won't yield on it.

There are better carriers and in the industry, the BA stood for Bad Attitude!

stickyfiddle

I’m not a fan. Terminal 5 is awful, the staff always come across as both grumpy and entitled. And they’re not usually that cheap either.

The gluten free food is usually good though

chillidoggy

Yes, long haul to Fort Lauderdale. Plane was best described as 'shabby', and as this was the first ever time with BA, I was a bit disappointed. Food was pretty cacky. Staff were fine, though.

Thing is, people expect more from a legacy carrier, and I'm not sure whether that is the case with BA these days.

Kebabkid

stickyfiddle said:

The gluten free food is usually good though

Certainly on the short haul flights, they're using M&S for their food and there was a decent choice and as mentioned here, their GF range is good and there was a choice. Oh, and it could've been a blip, but they could only take Euros! No cards or Sterling.

boogieman

Interesting reading as we’ll be using BA long haul fairly soon. Not by choice I’d add, it’s part of a holiday we’ve booked. 

It’s all relative though. If you really want to sample a truly crap flight, try Ethiopian Airways economy. Dear god. 

ICBM

BA's 747s are all being either retired or refurbished, so hopefully it won't be long before the remaining ones are back up to scratch. It's a bit of a sad state for what was once the best aircraft in the world, but times move on...

According to the airline forums, they're getting more A380s to replace them soon. There's no doubt the 380 is the best aircraft now, for passenger experience - I haven't flown on one yet but hopefully will at some point. Airbus is struggling to sell them though - they're just too big and too expensive to operate for most airlines. They apparently came very close to ending production, until Emirates were persuaded to order some more - they're already by far the largest user.

I know what people mean about the 'BA attitude' as well. Although Lufthansa take the biscuit for rude and arrogant behaviour to passengers in my experience.