[TonyR]

In a recent Which customer satisfaction survey, BA cam out one of the worst airlines for short and long haul.

https://news.sky.com/story/worst-airlines-for-customer-satisfaction-revealed-13079618

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esselle, FDOS

[cwoodward]

yougov 2023 survey reveals a rather different outcome –

https://business.yougov.com/content/45092-uk-which-airlines-left-their-customers-most-satisf

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ASK1945, christ, FDOS, AndrewinHK

[FDOS]

That YouGov survey, at face value, will favour local airlines, because more people would have flown them.

I tend to believe the Which survey is more informative, as it rated a range of topics, rather than asking two ipsative questions.

From personal experience in the last 12 months (a small sample)

– Singapore Airlines are very, very good
– BA is no more than mediocre

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LetsFlyNow, esselle, JonathanCohen09, tomwjsimpson, cwoodward

[Mark]

Just the typical cycle for BA

Happens periodically and new service “improvements” implemented before another downward spiral begins.

Like a TV re-run

Such a shame the airline has no experience in running this type of business for 100yrs 😁

[YorkshireTraveller]

I regularly fly Jet2 and will pay more to go with them. They are fantastic and will sort you out if there is a problem. Conversely I’m still waiting for BA to credit missing miles from December…

[SimonS1]

Depends. If you ask the fan boys on FlyerTalk BA board they will tell you BA is the pride of the sky.

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FDOS

[AndrewinHK]

I struggle with the anger many feel towards BA, I might have just been very lucky, but I have never really had any issues. I admit I am a fan and a glass-half-full type of person, but flying with them 10 to 20 times per year depending on the year, I haven’t ever experienced anything other than minor issues that were handled as any other carrier would handle.

I think comparisons with SQ and others have to be taken in context, SQ uses long-haul aircraft on short-haul routes, and they charge accordingly, if you take SQ on SIN-KUL they charge from 200 pounds return in Y, versus say BA LHR-CDG they charge from 100 pounds in Y, do you get twice the value flying SQ versus BA, maybe you do, but BA operates in a different market.

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ASK1945, BackOfThePlane, Montysaurus, GBAIR72, cwoodward

[FDOS]

“I struggle with the anger many feel towards BA”

Anger? How is expressing dissatisfaction anger?

I am pleased you have had no major issues with BA, however I’ve flown them heavily until Covid and have had a number of issues, some of which have required referal to legal process to gain resolution (in my favour, I’ll add).

A lot of the aircraft I travelled on were dirty – vomit on the seat, in one case, premium seat were broken (e.g. lights would not turn off) or damaged (TV screens requiring cardboard pieces to be inserted by the cabin crew), the business class seat pitch was redcued to 30″ on shorthaul, the boarding process is shambolic at home base, long delays, canx, etc.

This is not anger, it is a statement of my experience and why I no longer use BA. My experiences align with the Which survey, which has a far larger sample than one traveller.

[cwoodward]

Unfortunately I had serious and costly issues with BA on the last three occasions that we flew or attempted to fly with BA. Three years ago and but for the kindness of folks at Cathay in London would have been stranded in London and needed to purchase new tickets back to HK.
It is the fact that BA demonstrated no care, empathy or interest when things went seriously wrong 3 times in a year. Front line staff and managers just did not give a dam and being OW Emerald seemed to be of absolutely of no interest to anyone.

Three times in a row is enough for me and that coupled with what I read here and in the media since serves to continually reinforce my view of the airline that – I happily flew with for many years From about 1970 until the early 2000’s I had very few issues with BA flying long haul from HK and latterly mostly short haul around Europe or to the USA ex LHR and if things went array they were fixed promptly and well with a degree of sincerity and care.

My needs as a business traveller have always ben relatively simple- a decent seat decent food decent service with an airline in which I can be reasonably confident will step up if things should not go to plan

I have been flying 40-50 flights a year for over forty years until recently and understand well that things go wrong and sometimes badly wrong -it is how these issues are handled that sorts good airlines from the also-rans not for most business travellers the extra half cm of leg room the glitz of the cabin or the quality of the Champagne.

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fatbear, FDOS, AndrewinHK, esselle

[AndrewinHK]

FDOS I can say from my years of travel, and for life, in general, happily I have never found the need to be litigious, from reading your posts on the forum it seems it isn’t only BA that has caused you to seek recompense. I wasn’t referring to you personally when I referenced anger, more of a general tone when it comes to the flag carrier on forums.

[esselle]

Do you really think it is right to refer to BA as the “flag carrier”?

Didn’t they give up that claim when Ayling ditched the Union Flag for “world” art, and Virgin cleverly nicked it for their planes? Or when a Spanish registered company became its owner? Or when they dropped “Fly the Flag” from their advertising?

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FDOS

[GBAIR72]

This satisfaction survey is comparing Low cost carrier with what at BA? When I fly first or business I am more satisfied then any economy class flight on Jet2 easyJet and whoever else.
If I fly economy on BA I normally have connections that point to point low cost carriers don’t. Things sometimes go wrong with missed connections. Complexity of BA operation is not the same as Jet 2

I have had dire experiences with Jet2 cancelling flights.

I think they are no like to like comparisons.
Compare Jet2 to JetBlue a who are miles better.
Compare frontier and spirit to Ryanair and see ….

Thes are not like for like airlines and no fair comparisons. Very skewed voters in survey who don’t really fly much

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ASK1945, FDOS

[AndrewinHK]

You are being a bit persnickety esselle. I didn’t say IAG, I said BA, by your logic Swiss isnt the flag carrier of Switzerland, or Austrian of Austria.

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cwoodward

[esselle]

AndrewinHK

I’m only saying that even BA don’t position themselves as the flag carrier any more. They stopped describing themselves as such a long time ago.

My only observation, really, was when it happened.

And I think most observers would say it is a great shame that they no longer do so.

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cwoodward, FDOS

[FDOS]

Andrew in HK

I seek a legal solution only when an airline is being highly unreasonable, by which I mean bad faith actions including refusing to pay EC261 care, reimbursement or compensation when it is clear to a reasonable person that it is due.

Over the past 5 years, the claims I have made and which arbitrators or the courts have found in my favour. are well into four figures, with no cases where the airline succeeded in their defence – this tells its own story abouot air carrier probity, IMO.

Quite frankly, I believe that this demonstrates a high level of cynicism by the air transport sector and IMO, the payouts should include a punitive element when the carrier tries to get out of paying what is due.

I do not enjoy prepping for these cases and it takes an awful lot of professional time, which cannot be claimed as wasted, due to the airline friendly Montreal Treaty.

esselle is also correct about BA not being a flag carrier, in the traditional sense; they lost that status when privatised.

As I said before, I am pleased that your travels are serene. I have just enjoyed a near perfect trip home from SIN and wish all trips went as well. Please also bear in mind that I am not generally a leisure traveller and if the airlines mess up my itinerary, it can make life very complicated.

[Author]

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