british airways - premiere airline
 

i got a flight on BA. i've heard they are the premiere airline in the world. is that true? why?

Singapore Airlines is consistantly the higest rated airline by frequent travelers. BA is usually ranked in the middle of the pack.

Rich

is there somewhere where i can see the rankings?

Here's one source: http://www.airlinequality.com/StarRanking/ranking.htm

Where did you hear that from? I rank them very low.

All I know is that BA is the airline I've flown overseas that has individual TVs and a good selection of movies available in coach. They also gave each passenger a little travel 'kit'.

Most of the praise that BA gets is about first and business class.

Their economy is nothing special. Pretty much average. They may have a slight advantage with somethings, but they will also be not as good with something else. Their customer service is not very good, unless you are traveling in the front of the plane. BA really showed the world how it feels about the economy passenger when it retooled it's frequent flyer program. Only 25% of actual milesflown and I maybe wrong on this, but I think the few miles that you do get won'y count for status. The final kicker was when they announced that to just signup with the program your first flight has to be full fare or higher. So as you could see the economy passenger does not get much espect with BA.

Excellent in First class - usually in the top five together with Cathay Paxific, Singapore, Qantas, Emirates.

Very good in business, especially after installing full flat bed seats.

Economy Plus and regular economy - very average. Economy Plus has more room, but the service is identical to economy.

Its true, British Airways consider themselves the premier airline. Or "The worlds favourite airline".
Its just a shame no one else does.

Muck

We usually take Air Canada economy to London, and usually found the service lacking, especially after the one time we took BA. However the layout of the planes was better on Air canada. BA's layout was 3 seats/side and 4 in the centre. Air Canada's configuration is 2/5/2.... meaning there is one less seat going across and therefore more room. It's still desperate for legroom, especially when the person in front reclines, but it's very nice if you're part of a couple and it's just the 2 of you sitting together on a side. Would hate to be in the very middle of the 5 seats, though.
Taking business class to London and Greece in late summer on AC and partners Austrian and Lufthansa... it will be interesting to see what that's like.
Still feel the service, food, movies etc on BA were better than AC but as I try to sleep on the way over, comfort is more important to me.

Muck, you took the words right out of my mouth, or in this case, right off of my screen. :-)

I agree with AAFF that economy class is average, although they still provide free wine w/dinner unlike some of their competitors. The individual TV's are nice, but not unique to BA, as we had them on my most recent AA flight to London.

One time BA made a mistake and printed my ticket wrong. I booked an economy ticket, but on the return they mis-printed it as business class. On that particular day they were certainly my favortie airline!! Business class in BA was airplane heaven. It was the only time in my life I wished a 10-hour flight could have been longer.

My biggest regret about BA is that they only award 1/4 point per mile flown in economy. For this reason I am in the process of using up my miles and switching to AA's frequent flyer club.

Since whatever is said on this post is probably not going to prompt you to change airlines I'd much rather know if you got a good price for that flight!

I'm flying BA to London next week -- but ONLY because of their great sale last fall. Otherwise it would be Virgin for service or AA for the extra leg room. BA would never be my first choice. It is decent -- but "the premiere airline" -- Hardly.

no i didn't. i bought them yesterday for july. though they were the best available at the time.

I guess I just don't travel enough b/c I thought BA was great when I flew them in April. Everyone has different experiences on planes, and I am sure there are people who have been unhappy with even the top ranked airlines. A lot depends on the crew and, to a certain extent, the size of the plane. What matters is getting to your destination safe and sound so that you can enjoy your vacation.

I rate it as the one airline that has made me the angriest - - because of their <i>strictly enforced</i> FIVE kilogram weight limit for carry-on luggage. Exasperating.

Best wishes,

Rex

I have flown BA twice from NYC to London and from Nice to NYC via a London stop. I was very satisfied with the seats, the staff, the individual TVs and the food. I also hear Virgin is amazing but have never flown on Virgin. After my flight on BA I would have given BA around an 8 but after my last Europe trip via Al Italia I would rate BA 10 out of 10.

We fly BA to London all the time. I haven't flown any other foreign airline, but BA beats every US carrier hands down.

Hi Taggie, you'll be pleasantly surprised with Lufthansa. We can fly cattle class only and flew them a few years ago and for efficient, helpful service, and great well-maintained aircrafts, seats, they top BA any day in my opinion. So I have no doubt that biz class will be even nicer.

Hi Francophile... I am looking forward to the business class trip! It's thanks to my husband's massive points accumulation. The funny thing is, on that flight (Athens to Vancouver with a stop in frankfurt) he will be in the cheap seats 'cause it's his employer flying him home from the Olympics. I will have to try not to gloat.
I can usually only fly steerage as well. Still, better than nothing!