Tell me all about British Airways, both positive and negative, please

Wife and I flew BA 747-400 SEA-LHR back in 2008. Was super both ways. We had a bit of a late departure due to the earlier BA flight being a few hours late out of the gate (our departure was scheduled for 8:30pm and the earlier BA flight to LHR was scheduled at 5:30pm, but ended up leaving at 8:30pm so we left around 9:15pm). Flight was comfortable. Food was excellent (though I missed the fish pie which my wife had, and said was delicious). Landed on time (despite our late departure) and then had to wait for a gate at LHR for about 35 minutes after we stopped near the terminal. This was because the late flight out in front of us took our gate!! Not to worry though, finally some buses came up alongside our port side and we descended to the tarmac and got on and were taken to the terminal. I'd definitely fly BA again, though like you, I am a Delta flyer and have miles (and their Gold AMEX) with them so I am flying Delta 767-300ER to LHR this November, and having flown the same airplane AMS-SEA back in 2011, am quite satisfied with it. As a solo flyer, I prefer the 2-3-2 seating arrangement vs the 3-4-3 on the BA 777 operating on the same route (I like to be able to get out to the aisle easily and it's better to just have one person to climb around vs two if you like to sit by the window on long flights like I do.

Interestingly we sat in the very front of economy for our 2008 BA SEA-LHR flight and it was fine, I even sat on the aisle and we were very close to the galley and it was fine. Plenty of leg room as there was no seat in front of us too.

Positive: Excellent in-flight service. Best I have ever experienced on any airline.
Negative: They have poor labor relations with their employees, and have had some very crippling strikes over the years resulting in thousands of stranded passengers at Heathrow. Because of this I will tend to steer clear of them on transatlantic flights. On European flights I'm more willing to take the risk.

My husband and I have flown round-trip form LAX to London, five times. We have been fortunate to use our son's frequent flyer miles and gone business class. Once we flew first class. We have frequent flyer miles with American. American allows you to fly either American or BA. We absolutely love BA. The problem is that BA charges higher taxes than American Air. There is something about Heathrow and their BA flights. I could be wrong, but I think the taxes are only on the departing flights from Heathrow. Even though they charge higher taxes, we like BA better. We have always been able to fly non-stop. If we had gone American, we would have had to stop in the U.S. We rather get comfortable and not have to land in the U.S. There is less chance of our luggage being lost when we don't have to connect to another plane. Plus we figure there isn't as much of a problem with the initial plane or the secondary plane, being delayed. We rather get on, fly and get off. Personally, I am envious you are going to London. We can't wait to go back there. I'm obsessed with England. I even check their weather, a couple times a week. I have a photo of Big Ben/Parlkiament on my phone.

2015 Skytrax best airlines awards. BA 20th. Delta 45th. Mirrors my experiences and sums it up.

I've flown BA round trip LHR to Dubai plus numerous one way flights in Europe and have not one complaint about any of the flights.

We fly BA as often as we can, even though we are in DFW metroplex and AA hub. We always search for a BA flight, not a code share, BA 192 and 193. We are willing to pay higher tax for better service. The flight attendants are friendly and the food is somewhat better, after all it is airline food. They offer water and other refreshments quite often throughout the flight. On one occasion, our flight was delayed stateside and BA provided food vouchers. We book premium economy and pay for our seat selection. In this area, the seat configuration is 2-4-2. Even though I am only 5 ft. tall, I enjoy the extra room. It is lovely not to have someone's head in my lap after they have reclined their seat.

I tend to look elsewhere for flights before BA, as they tend to cost a little more, and if i do book BA, i tend too look at as a treat worth the extra. Only had good experiences so far.

I had a very positive experience with BA in July this year. My family took me to London for 10 days (Big Birthday!); non stop flight from Denver to Heathrow and home again. There is only one n/s BA flight from Denver every day. On departure for home day, there was some problem with the plane which was repaired when it landed at Heathrow BUT by the time we would have left Heathrow and arrived Denver, DIA said we would be landing too late for them to supply International arrival officials, or at least that was the reason given. To us it meant we would be staying overnight at the airport and flying out the next morning. I cannot say often enough what an experience that was! We had vouchers for food, shuttles to and from the airport, baggage was properly and efficiently handled as were all other arrangements (including checking in again the next morning) for our unplanned extra night's stay. We were provided 3 rooms ( two of which were joining for my kids and grandkids) and packets containing everything one could possibly require for an unexpected overnight-even oversized "nightshirts". All that said, we were were not traveling on and missing connecting flights out of DIA. I'm not sure how that was handled but I must say, the way this was all organized and so efficiently executed really, really impressed me.

Although this is an old experience, I believe I have read more recently (probably on TripAdvisor) about the same complaint. There are many low-price circumstances where British Airways may not be willing to give advance seat assignments. For transatlantic travel, this is not acceptable to me. I think you might want to distinguish between reviews that apply to what you plan to do, and reviews (like mine, maybe) that apply to other travel needs

We often go places other than the U.K., although when coming back from northern Spain, it made a certain sense to go home through London airports. Anyway, changing terminals in Heathrow is a time-consuming, multiple-search, multiple-line affair. We will now pay more to avoid it.

Since your son is a pilot, you might be old enough (I mean, like me!) to want to pay for Economy Plus, if it's available on your chosen route. While your thoughtful inquiry makes sense, I would observe that an awful lot of travelers make their decision based on the three factors of price, price, and price.

I don't think it helps in Seattle, but we're going to Portugal next month via Milan, because Emirates is facing tremendous competition on NYC-Milan. Even though we don't prefer JFK, we're going there for the price we got. And United's direct flights to Lisbon were already sold out (or maybe it was premium priced for a few remaining seats, I forget), so we knew we'd have to connect anyway. We got two business-class seats for $1,900 each, and we've seen the JFK Emirates lounge hot-buffet, and with a dedicated jetway from the lounge to the business-class cabin.

When we flew SEA-LHR in 2008, I had to wait until 24 hours before departure to check in and choose our seats. It wasn't a problem as we ended up getting excellent seats. So I don't consider that an issue at all. I'd fly BA again SEA-LHR if I had the chance!

When ever possible BA is my choice for international travel. I think they are far above other airlines available to me from Boston. I've flown Delta domestically only and it was OK, but they voluntarily upgraded me. Heathrow is my hub for Europe as well. I've never had to change terminals at Heathrow as we continue into Europe on BA from terminal 5 as well, so we've flown within Europe on BA as well. I'll look at cheap tickets or kayak for a sense of the going price, but I always book BA anyway.

We flew a little hop from Gatwick to Glasgow a few weeks ago. Flight, plane and everything was great for the barely hour flight. They were VERY strict about the carry-on luggage size and it was super expensive to check the bag, if you made it through their line (VERY long) in time for your flight. It's tough to find a carry-on whose handles AND wheels fit in their luggage sizer.

Thanks everyone for the personal experiences. You are helping me to zoom in on a solution. I enjoyed reading the information on Skytrax. The airline and airport ratings are very useful, as is the article on where to sit. When I fly standby, any seat is great. I'm glad to be on the plane. It will be nice to be able to pick my seat.

I think between BECU rewards points (those of you in the Seattle area will know what that is), and lower fares, I should be able to take British Airways for even less that I thought it would cost. Now if I could just get my husband to commit to when he will be driving up to the Pacific Northwest to race next summer, I can book.

But don't let that keep y'all from continuing to comment on British Airways. All the comments are useful for me.

The only downside to BA is the charge to prebook your seats. The upside is that they use new 777s on the Seattle route with 9-across seating in economy instead of 10-across like many airlines.

I highly recommend purchasing an advance seat reservation unless you don't mind sitting by yourself, possibly in a middle seat. This happened to me once and that was enough for me to pay. The other thing to know is that it may be possible to book exit row seats at 14 days before your flight for $83 ea. (a $27 upcharge if you previously paid to book seats). Those are very spacious options for the long flight!

I book the best available seats when I book my flight and then check at 14 days to see if I can grab an exit row. Usually they're available, but sometimes they have been booked by other passengers with elite status.

You might also consider checking out Icelandair. The plane is much more cramped, being a 757, and you have to stop in Iceland, but I have found flights for $900 and sometimes lower. Icelandair just renewed their partnership with Alaska Airlines, so if you collect Alaska miles, you can earn them for your flight (same with BA and Delta paid tickets actually).

We flew on BA from Chicago to Heathrow in 2014 and it really did suck. The boarding was extremely disorganized. We were in Business Class and expected to board ahead of Economy. Maybe it was just this flight, but boarding was every man for himself. Then the flight attendants forgot to serve us our dinner. I had a conversation with a flight attendant about wine pairings, but for some reason they just didn't serve us the evening meal. Around 10:00 PM, I asked a flight attendant if the turbulence we encountered had caused them cancel the meal service. That was not the case - they just skipped us for no apparent reason. Since we use AA flight awards for our European trips, we inevitably have to use British Airways for a segment or two - I'm just not wild about it.

Skytrax World Airline Awards are the most respected in the industry.
http://www.worldairlineawards.com/awards/world_airline_rating.html
From the latest rankings ...
10 Qantas Airways
20 British Airways
45 Delta Air Lines
60 United Airlines
79 American Airlines

This is a very unual question because no response would be relevant to base a decision on and it's not clear what answers you want. Do you want anecdotal information which is just someone's individual experience which might have little or nothing to do with the experience you might have? Just because someone says they had great flight or a terrible one - will have no bearing on your experience. That you like opinions should not be a basis for your decisions. Most people that write them generally are doing it for negative reasons as more people are inclined to complaine rather than complement. Beyond that, your son is a pilot? what if anything has he told you. At least you would be getting some presumable inside information.

If you prefer factual information which you can readily find online, such as on time arrivals and other documented information. Some responders to your question sent you some links - which you could have easily found on your own. At least be specific in what it is that you are interested in? Meal service, inflight entertainment, seats - most of that is easily found online as is the fact that British Airways is also known for charging high "extra" charges for award travel. Anyway, none of this is opinion. If your question is about airfares or schedule - again, this is factual. Just do a search.

With a few exceptions, we have been fling BA from PHX - LHR since 1999 and have had no issues . I find their in-flight service to be excellent.

Thanks, Joel. I have that 747-400 flight on my short list which also includes SEA, as I mentioned in my question as well as the RT from LAX. And I've checked on multi-city options, with the return from London to a different city.

It never occurred to me to consider British Airways until it came up with the same price SEA-LHR as many others on an ITA and a Google Flights search. It's also the same as other airlines LAX-LHR. If the PHX flight prices were the same, it would definitely be my 1st choice.

I've flown BA many times and it's just fine, but I would recommend that you find out which aircraft they are flying on your route. I fly out of LAS and most of the planes are their very old style 747s (double decker). BA is going through the processes of renovating the interiors on those aircraft but they are still flying the old, non-remodeled versions out of my home airport. These planes are pretty uncomfortable inside too -- on our last 5 out of 6 flights on BA, we experienced: a broken seatbelt, the oxygen masks popped out of the overhead compartment (before takeoff after somebody hit the thing with his elbow), inadequate a/c (super hot on the plane with no air blowers!) and and the onboard entertainment system was broken TWICE! I think the worst was the broken entertainment system on an 11 hour flight. People were miserable (BA only gave everyone 250 airline miles for our trouble, boo!). Thankfully these weren't all on the same flight, but watch out for those old school planes that have yet to be updated.

The BA 747s are very popular with business class passengers, mainly to seek out the services so they can travel in the top deck cabin. Significantly more privacy than the lower deck or the 777 etc.

Since I retired 8 years ago, my wife and I have made 7 trips to London.On every one of the trips we have flown on British Airways and loved it. We always travel in "World Traveler Plus" (except the 3 times we have been bumped up to Business Class), and enjoy the extra seat width and extra legroom. I wouldn't dream of using any other carrier.

You are looking for recent experience and I can provide that, as we flew on British Airways from LHR to JFK yesterday! Actually we always fly BA to go to Europe, and always from/to Seattle except for this one flight. ( We wanted to stop on the East CoSt to see friends and family on our way home. )

So. . . BA flights in 1998, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2013, and this one in 2015. We have another trip to London scheduled for next May. So obviously we like this airline. But note that we are mileage plan members and fly in business class most of the time, for the long-haul leg only. Between London and the continent, we fly in economy and it is very comfortable.

Business class only affects the seats and meals, it does not vary from the Economy Class experience as far as on-time record. We have never had a delayed flight or one affected by a strike.

The two trips in economy were on 747's and were very comfortable. Note that the 747's are being phased out in favor to 777's. The Seattle to Heathrow flights are now all 777.

To address one of the comments above: as noted we have never had a flight on BA affected by a strike. There was one year, I believe it was 2010, when strikes were threatened but they did not occur ( AFAIK). I do not recall any strike threats more recently--those all seem to be Lufthansa. But of course there are no guarantees, but I do not worry about that with BA.

I did not check the seat map for the 777 in economy, but if like many others it has 2-seat rows near the back where the fuselage curves and narrows, those are great for a couple.

Most of the negative reviews of BA relate to their policy of charging for advance seat selection. I think it is $50 for the long-haul flight but well worth it if they have those 2-seat rows at the back. Otherwise you can select seats for free at online check-in, 24 hours in advance.

As far as safety, which is a legitimate concern, I believe they'd have one of the best records, and both their pilots and mechanics are highly rated.

I've never flown BA, but three of my friends on our recent trip to England did. Two paid to pre-book seats. The other did not. Unfortunately, this was her first time out of the States and she couldn't check in or get a seat assignment for her return flight out of LHR. She did get on the plane she was scheduled for, but she spent an evening and a morning understandably upset. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you decide to pay for tickets on BA, pay the extra to pre-book seats.

So maybe she could not check in for the return flight because she did not have access to wifi? If you check in 24 hours in advance of the flight you can choose your seat for free. We have gone to an Internet cafe in Europe to do this if we did not have wifi at our lodging. But more often we pay for earlier seat selection. Just add it to the cost of the trip when comparing airlines.

Thanks for the info on Wi-Fi check-in. I will have to do that.

Of course, if I go BA I'll be buying the flight with BECU rewards points. So far as I know, I'll not be able to choose my seat at that time.

Has anyone bought a BA flight with rewards points of any kind? Were you able to get your seats at the same time?

We fly Seattle to London on BA with miles---either Alaska miles or BA Avios. The seat selection is the same as for a paid ticket----you either pay extra to select seats in advance, or you wait until the 24-hour check-in and choose seats for free. ( People flying with young children can choose for fee before that).

We always pay extra to choose our seats together ahead of time, as we are flying business class and there are not that many. From what I have read on travel forums like Tripadvisor, two people flying Economy or Economy Plus have no problem getting seats together at the 24-hour check-in, but if you have specific preferences like a window seat behind the wing, you may or may not be able to find that.

We (me and hubby) flew BA from Nice to Gatwick a few weeks back...didn't prepay to choose seats (it was a short hop, so whatever). I checked in for the flight about 18 hrs ahead - and we had seats assigned to us - we were across the aisle instead of seated beside each other. I was going to change seats, but I was going to have to pay to do it...so no option to change or choose seats for free. So I left it as is. The plane was a 3/3 config...we actually could have sat beside each other as in both of our rows, the middle seat was empty. But is wasn't a big deal to sit across the aisle from each other, and it was nice for us (and the window seat pax) to have that middle seat free.

While doing your research, look at www.seatguru.com to compare the cabin layouts and individual seat dimensions for every airplane flown by every airline. We've found it to be a valuable resource in maximizing our comfort on long transatlantic flights.
One interesting factoid to note is that the oft-maligned Iceland Air 757's actually offer more pitch (legroom) than most other airlines flying the Atlantic route.

I avoid BA at all costs. The reason is a few years ago, they had a strike. I had a pair of tickets through London Heathrow to Paris. They flight to London Heathow was rescheduled for the next day, while the connecting flight was left unchanged. No amount of email or phone calls could get BA to sync up the two flights. Their attitude was that is not their problem.

Got my money back from the credit card company and I let everyone I can know to avoid BA at all costs.

British Air flown by British Air is great. BUT British Air flown by anyone else is hell. You see British Air won't let you reserve seats until quite late, which is fine on British Air because everyone else is in the same boat and your seats will be just fine if you reserve as soon as they will let you. But they wouldn't let carriers flying for them reserve seats early, even though those carriers do reserve seats early for their own passengers. This means that British Air passengers are last in line for the seating on flights flown for them by other airlines. Plan on sitting in the middle at the back if you do this.

We have flown British Airways - five times to London. Granted we have always used American frequent flyer miles and gone business or first class (once). We have always booked our flights through American, almost a year in advance. We have always gotten our seat assignments at booking though. We have never had any problem with BA. We prefer BA to American, even though the taxes are higher on BA.