The DISGRACEFUL State of British Airways

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💳 Paid: 46250 Avios + 3916 SEK for KWI-LHR-GOT

FAQ:
Airline: British Airways, BA
Aircraft: Boeing 787-10
Aircraft registration: G-ZBLC
Flight date: January 23, 2023
Route: Doha Hamad Airport - London Heathrow Airport
Flight numbers: BA122
Seat: 11A
Contact for general questions and business inquiries:

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Music:
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Timestamps:
00:00 British Airways 787-10 Business Class Review
12:24 What Happened?!

About British Airways (from Wikipedia):
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers carried, behind easyJet. In January 2011 BA merged with Iberia, creating the International Airlines Group (IAG), a holding company registered in Madrid, Spain. IAG is the world's third-largest airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe.

About Heathrow Airport (from Wikipedia):
Heathrow Airport, called London Airport until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow(IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL), is the main international airport serving London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others being Gatwick, City, Luton, Stansted, and Southend). The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings. In 2021, it was the seventh-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic and eighth-busiest in Europe by total passenger traffic.

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[gemmapenny]

Dan, I work for BA. We’ve always been hopeless at handling disruption. Combine that with a little bit of bad weather and the permanent staff shortages and the operation falls to pieces. The company won’t spend money in building resilience into the system and instead chases profits instead of a reliable schedule.

[juliawigger]

As retired cabin crew, i can tell you that when Lord King, and Lord Marshall retired, the Company collapsed. Most staff as you found out are replaced with cheap temp staff. Management treated all workers with total contempt and as you can see, the effect has rubbed off. Until BA gets a management that inspires and uplifts their workers nothing will change.

[DavidScott-iwiv]

Totally agree - I was flying with heathrow business a few months back and the flight was delayed. Few hours after sitting at the gate, airport security came and told us the airport is closing our flight must have been cancelled and all BA staff had went home! Families stranded, kids sleeping on floor etc. My business seat was replaced with an economy seat the next day, had to sort hotel etc myself, no refreshment or vouchers etc. They just replied after three months saying they will pay the hotel and nothing else (no compensation for downgrade, no cancellation compensation as apparently there were thunderstorms in heathrow (blazing sunshine that day!).
Ironically I had a delay with easyjet a week after that, and they arranged a great hotel stay for everyone, transport, room service meal covered, and all prepaid including taxis, and compensation paid within 2 weeks. I think it's time to accept BA is just a budget airline these days (and not a very good one), not to mention their app and tech solutions are very poor.

[youbyoubalancedliving]

I always feel embarrassed for the actions of some people towards flight crew members when they have no control of the flight (weather related, logistic issues…etc)

[daniellittle]

Hi Dan! I am a US based mainline flight attendant and I want to thank you for highlighting the verbal abuse directed at the BA crew and expressing empathy for them during the insane ground time at LHR. I absolutely love my career and the opportunity to offer professional and caring service to our passengers but I know what it is like to be berated because of operational delays beyond the crew's control. It means a lot that you emphasized these things despite the frustrating ground time. Also, I am a big fan of both this channel as well as your adventures with Oskar!

[giles]

I’m Crew, and we’re all embarrassed by the LHR ground service. No buses, wheelchair support non-existent etc. We get tons of abuse about it & we’re just as embarrassed & angry about it too as we have just finished a busy flight/shift & these things delay us getting home or being commuters getting our flights home.

Sadly the -4 temperatures meant planes waiting to be de-iced causing the gates being used until slots become available. Delays mean build up of more ice, it’s a never ending problem.

[agni]

The thing with BA but also many other companies/institutions in the UK is that when things go well, it’s all perfectly smooth and easy, but if something goes wrong the whole system crumbles down. They are not very flexible and adaptable.

[nutritionalyeast]

BA and Heathrow nearly ruined my vacation last December from these exact issues. The interminable customer service lines (3 hours to resolve ~20 customers is unacceptable), the missed connections due to not having enough busses, extreme delays. And then customer support that is unsympathetic, refusing to help over the phone, only with in person agents who were on break (another hour wait) and who then proceeded to book us on flights with impossibly short connection layovers that we were destined to miss. Glad to see them getting this scrutiny.

[guinessbeer]

This is what happens when the system is collapsing. These companies treat their lower level employees like dirt do no one wants to work for this evil system anymore. We’re done.

[davidwheatley]

I used to be an onboard manager with BA. Its been like this for YEARS! This certainly isn't a one off. The company couldn't care less about their passengers. They'd happily send an aircraft out with not enough food, no food at all, broken toilets that you can't even flush, no IFE at all, premium cabin seats that don't even go into a flat bed. The list goes on. The ground handling is like this practically on a daily basis. Once they have your money, they couldn't care less. The poor cabin crew are treated like dirt. Ohh how the mighty have fallen. BA was amazing back in the day but that ship has long sailed. Its a national embarrassment these days.

[finntran]

Well that reflects the current British economy well. I just recently flew with a few Asian airlines and Asia seems to be doing very well. Singapore air had great staff, Wifi on board and was super clean- all in ECONOMY. Vietnam Airlines had hot towels, welcome drinks, ADULT sized silverware, amazing meals no matter if it’s supper, dinner, lunch or breakfast (plus bubble tea on board)-all in ECONOMY

[kenpark]

I took BA from San Diego to Heathrow in Nov 2023. I had a connecting flight to Lisbon leaving 3.5 hours after landing. Plenty of time, right? Wrong. We actually landed about 1/2 hour early, but sat on the tarmac for two hours, first waiting for a gate space, then waiting for buses to arrive. By the time I got to the security area, they didn't let me proceed. Apparently, I was supposed to be there at least 1 hour before my departure, but I missed it by 1 minute. I pleaded with BA agents to let me in to no avail. They didn't care about the fact that my lateness was their fault and that my connecting flight was actually delayed by 20 minutes. No apology, no sympathy. They made me to go to the service counter with about 100 people in queue. It took me two hours to talk to the agent for rebooking and arrived in Lisbon via Madrid 7 hours late. BA and Heathrow were the worst I experienced.

[macgregor]

Hi Dan, I would say its lack of staff thats the problem, not equipment. British Airways are on a massive recruitment drive at the moment. They got rid of to many people during covid, its their own fault 100%

[mateenio]

Great insight, it has been chaos at LHR. The problem is a chronic shortage of staff in all roles across the airport. Thousands of staff were made redundant during the pandemic and then asked to return on lower pay, many (rightly) refused causing huge operational delays

[drew]

The last time I traveled through Heathrow, the business class got off and we got to the terminal door and it was locked! Nobody at the airport seemed aware and we tried to open the door only to yelled at by airport security. After waiting about 20 minutes, we finally were able to leave.
This is after more passengers in the plane we're all backed up in the hallway. Not to mention my bags were lost for my connection to Iceland. They arrived two days later!

[kaunas]

There seems to be a general detonation in many companies which now only seem to pursue short term profits. My friend was on a Lufthansa flight where the passengers were kept in the plane on the ground waiting for 3 hours before take off and 2 hours after landing because of a ground crew strike. I recently went on a Royal Caribbean cruise where they changed the departure port at the last minute to another port 400 km away thus causing chaos and lost money among the passengers...and Royal Caribbean offered no compensation for their actions. Instead they blamed the passengers. Just terrible and they do not care.

[retrojunction]

I just paid for 7 business class tickets for my family to Male from London via Qatar airlines, and we were transferred to BA instead as the route is shared. Despite the booking being made 6 months in advance and it involving young children, we were told on arrival at Gatwick that 2 of the tickets had been downgraded. When we questioned the logic for this we were told that the computer had decided which people to downgrade and there was nothing we could do about it. We were handed a piece of paper that said the flight had been overbooked, and all airlines do it. They staff said that they didn’t even work for BA and this was just the way it was. Despite them wearing BA uniforms. They are a complete and utter shower! I will never give BA another penny of my money ever again and I will make it my life’s work to ensure no-one I know or meet ever does either.

[christenehoo]

The whole experience with BA is a nightmare and Heathrow in general. In November I waited for 2 hours for my luggage to come off my BA flight and arrive at the carousel. Passengers were tired after a 12 hour flight and this was really a disgrace.

[bobatidas]

This is the general chaos I find in England across the board, I’ve lived her 13 years now and you do get used to it, surprisingly and your tolerance levels become a lot higher

[dbirch]

Love your videos.

Ive also experienced terrible customer service from BA when there are delays. An 8-hour flight from Heathrow to Newark turned into a two-day nightmare with minimal communication from BA to explain what was going on.

That said, I try to remind myself that the fact that we live in a time that a thing such as an airline industry even exists is a miracle.