I had planned a long weekend in Paris, starting at Heathrow Terminal 5. Because it was their first day, I did expect teething problems but really did not think that it could go so horribly worng after all that hype!

They've had a long time to get this right. The terminal is just as pretentious and wasteful as lots of others, with a very long walk from one end to the other, past 'boutique' shops just to get something as simple as a newspaper. So, I wasn't even that impressed to start off with. 2 hours after our flight should have gone, we were sent to gates that were closed (just to get us out of the way, we suspected), with not a single member of BA staff in sight. Even when we found someone who tried to help, he had no phone numbers to try or anything, he was as clueless as we were. The whole thing beggars belief, if really did.

I could go on, but I'm still angry, so I won't. I'd just better be compensated for every penny that I'm out of pocket.

Jan, Suffolk, UK

I hope that someone will be able to monitor BA to ensure that they do not take the easy route to solve the bag problem. As reported on TV a few months ago it seems to be easier for them to dispose of the baggage by selling it and to pay the customer compensation which, being weight based rather than inconveinece or loss related, is I guess often less than the cost of re-uniting bag and owner.
For that matter and as may have been suggested elsewhere why are they called "British" Airways". Scotland is the first place to get cut off when BA have a problem and there are more direct flights to countries other than England by Ryanair. It seems to me to be collusion between BA and BAA to increase passenger numbers by both having two bites of the cheery so to speak by transferring passengers between BAA airports. I vote for "English Airways" or even "S.E.England Air Services".

Ian Sweetland, glasgow,

I have travelled with BA before and there has been problems with delays. However when you get on your flight the staff are really nice. It's a shame for them that T5 isn't working smoothly but it will just take time.

Jen, Bristol,

BA could learn quite a bit from Malaysian, Singapore and Cathay Pacific airlines on how to treat their customers in my view. When they compete with the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet for volume, it can only be expected that their service levels also diminish to that level.

Gavin, London, UK

I would NEVER knowingly book a flight with BA.

Alex McGregor, Plymouth, UK

I'm sure there are loads of professional, competent and caring BA staff however my experience of the organisation has been a very poor one over a number of years and this latest fiasco has been brewing for a long time. The company suffers from a culture of arrogance and has no concept of service delivery or customer care. BA has been living on it's out of date reputation for years and I'm amazed that clients haven't voted with their feet before now and gone elsewhere... this organisation needs a massive clear out and to get back to basics.

Iain, London, UK

I regularly fly BA from Gatwick to Izmir, the Gatwick is OK, but security needs a boot up the backside, the BA check in desk staff are friendly enough and the others walking around in jackets are generally polite. My only serious criticism is with the aircraft on this route not only having any onboard entertainment, neither are there any plans to put on an aircraft that does have! A 4 hour flight with children and no entertainment is ridiculous, especially when, as I was told by the people in the row behind me, your childs dvd player is counted as one piece of cabin baggage youre allowed from Gatwick!
Finally one for BA customer services dealing with complaints, could you please read the letters properly before you give reply 147 or whatever it is? Thanks

Bill Glanvill, Horsham, W Sussex

I came through T4 over a week ago.. my connecting flight was not even posted and had been delayed. My luggage never made it to the connection even though the staff had over 2 hours to transfer it. That's just plain incompetence. Can't wait to see what Sunday will bring when I try and make it back to the U.S.

barb, Chicago,

I came through Terminal 4 the day after it opened, more than 20 years ago, and it was absolutely fine. You would have thought the terminal had always been there.

What went so wrong this time?

K John, London, UK

Having moved to Singapore 18 months ago, I concur. Singapore airlines is the only way to fly. Add in the Changi factor, and you have an unbeatable dynamic duo.

Have I mentioned Krisflyer..? A FF program that amazingly offers a wide range of flights in return for your loyalty. Fancy that.

BTW I have a lazy half a million points on BA that I find impossible to use. I suggest we all follow the trend and take a one time hit, a la sub prime fashion, and write them off..!

Guy Middleton, Singapore,

No more BA frights for me. T5 seems outright scary.

Joe, Healdsburg, Calif.

BA has been deeply complacent for years, and it never learns from its mistakes. Given how frequently these nightmares occur, you might expect them to be better at clearing the decks quickly when lots of flights are canceled. Its not complex: get people reticketed, ship them out to hotels. As we can see (and I have personally experienced) they don't have any coping procedures at all. Whilst Heathrow is clearly a difficult airport to manage, it has just become a convenient excuse for every failure at the company: Overcrowding at Heathrow doesn't explain why it takes them 20 minutes to pick up the telephone (on a good day).
What we are seeing at Terminal 5 is not a unique and unprecedented problem with a baggage system - it is the logical outcome of a decade-long culture of complacency towards its customers and operations.

Joseph C., London,

Even the apologies they trotted out on TV today are the same empty, meaningless, formula apologies they feed to people because they have to. They're basically not genuine.
They don't really care, and they never learn.

J Walsh, Cardiff,

I have regularly flown in BA economy (and in premier/business occasionally) long haul and short haul - only because they seem to have some sort of monopoly over my destinations.

To the point - flying economy in BA I have always been made aware of the 'Zoo Class' treatment meted out - the most horrendous service, most uncomfortable seats and a total disregard to customer service.

I just hope they will learn one day!

Jack Shoe, London, UK

Aberdeen to Heathrow return by BA - £460. Says it all for me. All mouth, no substance and rip off wherever possible.

Chris, Aberdeen,

As an regular international airline traveller of longstanding, I spent most of my time trying to avoid Heathrow...even before terminal 4. In my opinion Heathrow is only a reflection of the problems in the whole of the South East of England. Heathrow, like London, is now in a log jam situation but the powers-that-be are continually trying to make the proverbial silk purse out of a sows ear...it just does not equate. The sooner that it is realized that it is at saturation point and begin to move facilities and resources to other parts of England it will continue to deteriorate and will eventually end up in grid-lock.

Thomas, Alicante, Spain,

BA informed us 90 minutes before flight take off that geneva fight to T5 was cancelled.Gave telephone number to call which was recorded message saying office closed 15 minutes earlier.Flight didnt even take off from LHR so why wait till last minute to tell passenger
More people should read their rights and do what I will-take BA to small claims court

litchfield, geneva,

When it's good, its great but when things go wrong, management seem to let the staff down. The trials should have been a warning but the 'fingers crossed' scenario prevailed. Flew BA to Geneva from terminal 4 three weeks ago and the flights couldn't be faulted, I hope to be landing at Heathrow on Sunday evening on BA but I am not holding my breadth!

Alan Bowen, Harrow, England

Is well know in Europe ,about the chaos in the island,( UK) not only ,is a chaos,with the T5 ,at Heathrow ,now,after a 6 month's test,but ,with the train's is even worst,(try to go from Paddintong to Plymouth on a friday evening,with a reservation in a coach) I whas unable to access my seat so many people standing in the corridors,by the time I reach my reserve seat a young guy ,tould me ,no way ,this is my place.
But also in the pubs ,are people ,every evening ,(not only male,female to.) abusing the hard drink's,and disturbing other customer's.With sport competitions,(futball,rugby ,etc.) is even much more dangeres,if you are by the riots....
The Islands (UK) are certenly a place to aboid ,as a holiday destinations.If I think about the wether......? I better don't talk about, The money (Euro) you do not like to take iT ...?,you are unable to speak other languages,but english,information also only in your language,? and everything no cheap , please welcome to the Island ,UK.

M.C.Brindle, Tavistock, Devon

Sadly I have fairly regularly to fly on a Friday evening to Geneva and Heathrow is my most convenient airport (BA has a monopoly LHR-GVA). Since july last year their tally is 1 cancelled flight (no offer to help - just contact BA Reservations) result weekend ruined and subsequently 4 flights of which the shortest delay was ONLY 1hour 15 minutes. Thursday 20th March delayed 2hours 30 arrived Geneva at midnight - no word of apology from the Captain or crew. Additional 40 euros for car hire for late pick up - compensation for this, don't even waste a stamp!!

The World's favourite maybe - mine definitely not.

Customer Service is an Oxymoron at British Airways. Sad really as they used to be exceptionally good.

paul buckland, london,

BA like many other large organisations require their managers , at all levels, to be highly trained. Sadly the training is based on computer models and stereo type classroom scenarios. Few of the staff have had the benefit of working with and understanding all parts of the organisation. Confronted with real problems they are completely outside their comfort zone and fail the basic management skill. BA need to see all their line managers working alongside and encouraging their staff and not meeting in small groups, often in the public gaze, consulting theoretical tomes. All theory and no practical skill makes for weak management structures poor quality customer service .

Don WEBSTER, Kendal, Cumbria

I flew out to Amsterdam by BA and back by EasyJet at much lower price. I enjoyed EasyJet much more.

John, Woking, Surrey

Willie Walsh should resign. He is unable to run this airline.

Roger Sherrin, Nairobi, Kenya

I stopped using BA when they gave only half air-miles for transatlantic trips because "BA was my home country carrier". I started using American from Manchester via Chicago instead. BA does not offer decent services from Manchester, so that was another good reason.

If you fly anywhere from the UK into Heathrow to change - then expect a good chance of your baggage going missing. It happened to me when going to Pittsburgh - the bag arrived on a later flight and BA left it going around the luggage carousel in Pittsburgh airport for 2 days. And they had explicitly told me that they would arrange its delivery to my hotel.

I found out because a Pittsburgh cop phoned my hotel room at 5:30am asking why I had left my suitcase at the airport for 2 days. BA had just abandoned it after it came off the plane. It wasnt stolen, but only by luck.

BA - Bl00dy Awful.
BAA - Bl00dy Awful & Arrogant too.

£4.5 billion for T5 - it's a glorified shed.
Staff training ? A week's dry run ? Ha!

A.Kirk, Manchester,

It is no surprise to learn of the disaster at Terminal 5 yesterday.

I arrived at Terminal 1 on Tuesday morning from Hong Kong. The baggage area looked like it had been hit by a tornado. There were piles of bags all over the place, and we had to move them out of the way to get close to the belt that carried the bags from our flight.

There were no personnel in the baggage arrival area, and my estimate is that there were at least 500 bags sitting around in heaps waiting for who knows what to happen with them. It is no wonder that they are always losing bags.

And, please tell Mr. Walsh that passengers are what we are. Not customers. Ever.

I am a passenger, a traveller in a conveyance. I am only a customer if I am purchasing a commodity. And I would no more purchase a flight from my tailor than I would buy a suit from my airline.

George Saul, Brookfield, CT USA

A few weeks ago I was on Bangkok flight to LHR and flight was delayed by over 26 hours...previously I was on a JFK to LHR and was again delayed by three hours. Could have just been bad luck...

filip dx, london, england

After a dreadful flight to France a few years ago I promised that I would never fly with BA again. However, we flew to Brazil last year with them and the whole affair was a shambles. They mucked up our booking, when we complained the staff were rude and THEY LANDED AT THE WRONG AIRPORT!!!! They were supposed to land in Sao Paolo but landed in Rio. We were supposed to end up in Rio but they wouldn't let us off the plane until we had flown to Sao Paolo and back again. Meanwhile we had to wait for a number of hours on the tarmac.

On the way back they just cancelled our flight so nowhere near as major a balls-up as the flight out.

Dreadful, embarassing and should be renamed so we don't have to all share the shame.

Paul, London,

My colleague was on a flight to Vancouver yesterday and had to leave (and arrive) for a week's skiing without any luggage.

As a firm that specialises in customer engagement and advocacy we're interested in what the long-term effect of this will be for BA - bad experiences like this are spoken about a lot more than good ones!

Read about Helen's experiences here:

http://blog.freshnetworks.com/?p=41

Matt Rhodes, London,

BA should be re-named London Airways as, with the exception of New York from Manchester, the only destinations available from the regions are the London Airports. Does Mr. Walsh really think that this is what a full service airline that purports to be the 'flag carrier' should be doing, and does he really think that after this fiasco we, in the provinces, are going to willingly fly to/via T5 when better alternatives exist? Dream on!

Last week at Heathrow, returning to Manchester from Chicago on a delayed flight, I was assured my hold baggage was on the aircraft. Guess what? It turned up 30 hours later - pretty much a regular occurrence.

Whenever one complains the most noticeable thing is the complete acceptance of the situation by BA staff that at best seem totally demoralised and at worst are just cynical about the company and its current direction.

The only good thing I can say is that some of the cabin crew are still terrific (although others are ..............)

Paul Kempsey, Gisburn, England

I think the comments are a bit unjustified as it's not a unique case at Heathrow. Here in the US, Denver International Airport and Pittsburgh Airport suffered similar issues when they opened their new airports in the '90s. We heard stories of bags lost forever, bag delivery times taking two hours, and a general malaise for several weeks until all the bugs had been worked out.

As an ex-pat frequent travler who always flies BA for Inter-Europe flights (and American Airlines for domestic and US-UK flights), I find BA service to be better than most US based airlines, and on par or better than many other European airlines.

Let's also not forget that the world's busiest international airport has just TWO runways. The only way for Heathrow (and Gatwick for that matter) to address and BA to improve its issues is for more expansion at the airports. That presents issues in and of itself, as everyone knows.

Paul H, Los Angeles, CA, USA (ex-pat)

Paul Hughes, Los Angeles, California

I have now travelled on over 50 airlines and it is totally wrong to say that BA is the worst or even close to being the worst. All airlines have their failings and some are worse than others but in my long experience BA are one of the best. Anyone who thought day 1 at T5 was going to be all plain sailing (sorry, no pun intended) is just incredibly naive.
I have had my reasons to complain about BA but on balance I think it is a good, safe airline.
I also think it is unfair to blame BA alone. The airlines are our direct contact at the airport so they are the ones on whom we vent our anger but let's not forget the airport operators - and there are lots worse airports than Heathrow although it's the in thing to criticise it.

David Wilson, Binfield, UK

Three flights just in this year : January, Hamburg-London-Sydney, luggage takes a week to arrive. February, London-Hamburg, luggages arrives 3 days late. March Sydney-London-Hamburg, luggages takes 3 days to arrive. Find it amusing that luggage tracking for British Airways is being done by an Italian company. At the Hamburg check -in the staff are a) rude and b) unhelpful. Monday morning will be the very last chance and after that will book all flights via Frankfurt or Dubai.

Hoeger, Hamburg

Hoeger, Hamburg, Germany

I've travelled with them for years now. Excellent service and in my experience, very punctual on arrival times. They fly to so many places in the world that for me, they are my airline of choice. Sorry if that dissapoints you.

Una, London,

I work for an airline and see the daily successes and disasters that occur. The reports coming from the T5 opening would have me heading for the job section in the news papers, quick smart. I would hope that BA and the people responsible would sort this problem out for both passengers and for the sake of their "coal face" staff. Good luck.

Will, Dublin , Ireland

It's a shame that BA and BAA have such similar initials. With all the bad press BAA has had recently BA ends up being tainted by a lazy confusion between the two company abbreviations, in print or in newscast. Perhaps one day soon BAA will acquire a new title.
I've been a regular customer with BA since the days of BOAC, mostly long haul. Sure, there have been occasional irritations but I think it a good airline when compared to many other carriers. Their inflight passenger service has gradually but noticeably pared down, but then, did all of us need a full meal in the middle of the night at 35000ft? Over the years all airlines have had to change their priorities, move with the times too; but in my experience BA still maintains a good solid standard overall.
Jan Denning

jan denning, Paris,

Dear TOL:

How about this? I fly from San Francisco to London on Saturday 17 May, thence to Glasgow on the 18th. I expect - hope! - that BAA works out all the glitches in Terminal 5 by then. If they do, or don't, I'll put in my two cents worth.

John Ralston, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A.

Ah they're not that all that bad - I've flown with them recently on internal flights and it was fine, good service, etc.

I might be a bit of a sucker for marketing though - still like the BA brand and all it entails. Have to feel sorry though for travellers in Terminal 5 - nightmare.

David, London, UK

Not sure that BA is the worst ariline in the world, but it must been down there in the bottom quartile.

After havig spent a working lifetime travelling almost exclusively with BA on short haul (almost weekly) and long haul (every two months or so) flights, I have built up a mountain of airmiles. Or should that be several times the wolrd's circumference of air miles?

During that working lifetime I sadly watched BA deteriorate. To the point where I am unlikely to cash on those air miles.

Anthony Harris, Moleson, Switzerland

I run a small company which works across the UK and Europe. In one week we lost in excess of 4 man days due to delays on BA flights in and out of Heathrow. We cannot afford this and as such have switched to other carriers and other airports. Simple ecomics will take thier effect on both BA and BAA.

David, Chertsey, UK

a little teething trouble with such a huge project is to be expected by anyone

however in general they are in decline caught between trying to compete with budget airlines and cater to 'fullservice' economy and business

they neither cut costs enough or cater to the top end so they achieve neither aim

last time i flew i was left stranded overnight in a hotel and had to make my own arrangements to get new tickets by making expensive calls back to uk and buy my own meals, get to airport and so on

they then tried to refuse my claim until i went to the air users council who made them, pay my expnses

steve , chelmsofrd, uk

Dear TOL,
I am a foreign national living in the UK but I always fly BA whenever possible even to my home country. I have never had any problems with them and find the staff to be attentive, efficient and helpful on flights. This year I went a step further and decided to book my holiday with them as well (flights and hotels - I was flying from Aberdeen to Rome). I am pleased to say that all connections on the outward bound and return flights were made smoothly and we were happy with the hotels we stayed in.
My mother flies with them too and the only time she did have a problem was on a return flight from Zambia when the aeroplane developed a technical fault and their flight was postponed till the next day. However, they arranged for tansport to and overnight stay in a local (4*) hotel and she was happy with the way they handled the situation.
Overall I am happy with continuing to use them as my travel provider of choice.

ML, Aberdeen, UK

I went into the BA shop in Kingston Upon thames to ask about a return to Auckland going via SE Asia. At first I was told to find another airline as they only fly that route via LA. When I asked if they could put together a route with one of their One World partners, the price came to more than 3 times the cost of flying with Malaysia Airlines.

Luke, London, UK

We flew LHR to Dubai with BA last October and have nothing but praise for them - helpful staff, our baggage wasn't lost and the food was good. The flights were also punctual. The only thing which let us down was the BAA security check - too few staff at T4

Roy Jones, MONTCHERAND, Switzerland

It´s a shame T5 has had these problems and they´ve not been handled well but I´ve flown with BA loads of times and never had a problem.

David, London

David, London,

I've flown between Toronto and London on BA several times, and my first trans-continental flight ever was from San Francisco to London on BA, and all have been without complaint - no lost luggage, no seriously delayed or cancelled flights... BA staff have always been courteous and helpful to me and I have no complaints. I count myself lucky as I realise there are a lot of people out there who've had problems, not to mention this T5 thing, but I have to say I have no complaints whatsoever. I plan to keep flying them.

Cheyenne, Falmouth,

Should be renamed "Terminal Airways".

alan routledge, chester, england

BA has completely lost touch with it's customers and has no concept of what customer service means . I was a longtime fan and extensive BA Gold card traveller but I became so frustrated at it's indifference that I actually took the drastic step of mandating that none of our staff use BA for longhaul travel .

Gerry Connolly, London,

I travel with them regularly and very often have a wonderful experience - great staff and products. This week is obviously a shambles but I think people need a balanced perspective rather than this obsession with bagging on BA.

Tom, London,

Both BAA and BA spent too much time on self promotion that they forgot that they actually had to do some work to get T5 ready for operation. I still remember all those billboards at Heathrow about T5 being a great "success" - on time, on budget, blah blah blah...
I liked the comment from a guy on CNN yesterday who said that T5 was typical example of modern day Britain, all show but no substance.
If T5 is a signal for what is going to happen to 2012 Olympics, IOC should now take a decision to move the games to a country where people work more and talk less and save the British people some embarrasment in front of the whole world.

Jens, Copenhagen,

I worked at Heathrow for many years for BAA and almost without exception I found the BA aircrew and ground staff who I dealt with on a daily basis most unpleasant to deal with, their arrogance was only exceeded by their belief that Heathrow Airport and all its workers and services were there to serve and pander to BA.
Since leaving the aviation industry 8 years ago I have watched the decline of BA over the years from a distance and can only wonder if the attitude of the workforce that I have witnessed in the past has directly translated into how they deal with their paying passengers today.
The self proclaimed 'World's favourite Airline' is actually not a true claim at all. Perhaps their advertising should be ammended to reflect their true position amongst the favourite airlines of the world.
BA may like to remember that airlines come and go, but airports are here forever.

Paul , swindon, wilts

Pick up your socks leaders of government at all levels and heads of key transport infrastructure. The 2012 games will be here sooner than you think - you should be really really worried.

Jamie, London, UK

BA = Bad Airline, Bad Attitude, Bags Anyone?

I recently flew too and from India with BA, I thought that I was in for a treat as I usually fly on budget airlines, but right from the start I had a terrible experience. The first problem was having checked in online with my fiancé sitting next to me for the long journey, when printing our boarding passes I noticed that we had been moved to separate sections of the plane! On checking this to find out what was going on, we had been moved so that another couple could sit next to each other!

On the return journey the computers at Delhi were down so everyone was having to be checked in manually, this didn't seem to cause to many problems for the numerous other airlines, however those "valued BA customers" had to wait for about 4 hours, to then be abused by angry ground staff insisting that we had to wait. Of course no seat numbers were assigned so the plane was chaos. Having boarded the situation got worse, no food/drinks etc.

James Hogan, Sevenoaks, England

Never flying with them again. I mean it...

simon, Oxford,

I still haven't forgiven them for ditching Concorde.

Jane Palmer, Reading, Berks

BA, teamed with BAA, are absolutely the pits, the worst bar none. I remember the utter lack of care they showed us passengers during the security alerts of August 2006 - after having queued up for over 3 hours in the car-park and at the check-in desk, we were shunted to another queue without being given any reason, only to be told at its head that no more accommodation arrangements could be made by BA. The flight took off with only first-class and transit passengers, or so we later learned. Attempting to claim expenses (taxi fare at the very least) and EU-mandated compensation, BA's legal / customer (dis)service team wrote back denying cancellation of the flight (absolutely correct) and therefore, any compensation whatsoever. It is another matter that though it took them 2 weeks, the cost of tickets was refunded, thereby, I am sure, accepting denial of passage. What grated most, apart from the inconvenience, was the apathy shown by BA ground-staff, none of whom were around to help!

Subin Paul, London,

Because of teething? Staff could n't find out the parking by navigation?
It make me laugh. As I am foreigner, Japanese, UK is one of the worst place to live.
I've been lived here more than 10 years but my feeling for living London is more expensive and more meaningless things.
It seems the people are forced to waste money and time for most of things.
Therefore, I was expecting the caos in the T5 then actually it was happened.
By chance, I will take a BA fright to Tokyo next week with my young children. I hope I can check in our hold laguage, otherwise I have to waste money for clothes etc in Japan.
Train doesn't work properly, Road is always conjestion, Petrol is sky high price (even though UK is producing Oil), Utility Bill also high. Good thing? Oh, yes. I can see the rich people (share holder) are getting richer fast ever!! Prime Minister, please see the people who is suffering much more than 10 years ago! You can spend but wisely please!

Masa Nishimura, London,

To be honest till date whenever i have travelled with BA it was good except when there was strike of food supplier for BA .
It is not justified to say so that BA "the least favourite" .

Pradeep, London, UK

In December when leaving Kazaksthan for Turkey, our Air Astana flight was a day late. We had British Airways tickets onward from Istanbul to London. Because we missed our connection BA made us pay an outrageous amount for new tickets and had no sympathy or consideration whatsoever. they have also mistakenly cancelled my household mileage account when I changed address last year and I have been battling for 9 months to get over 200,000 miles reinstated.
Outrageous.

Jennie S, London, UK