Arrived at Chicago Ohare and asked if there was any availability to pay for an upgrade from Premium Economy to Business Class.

Was informed there was one seat left in BC and the cost was $1,030 for the upgrade. A hefty amount, but thought why not splash out for once and travel home in style (overnight flight).

This is where things started to go wrong…30mins later and I was still stood at check in waiting to make my payment as the lady behind the counter couldn’t work out what to do. Finally resolved, I was told there was no fast track and they were unsure if I could use the ‘American Airlines’ lounge - our departure terminal had been changed to T3 and BA do not have a lounge there.

Safe to say, arrived at the lounge and there were issues with gaining access. 15minutes talking to the person on reception, I was finally allowed entry. Only 30mins before the flight starts boarding. A very quick drink and snack (I had BA’s business class menu to look forward too) and it was off to the gate..

Now, I have flown business class before and there is normally a glass of ‘fizz’ offered after boarding, alas on this occasion an extensive offering of water or orange juice was offered. My colleagues in premium economy were served sparkling wine - interesting.

Before the flight took off my order was taken for food. I love smoke salmon and was delighted to see it on the menu, sadly I was informed they had ‘run out’. So soup it would be, followed by ‘pan seared’ cod. I was also asked if I would like waking for breakfast…100%, yes please, I have a four hour journey from Heathrow to home when we land.

A nice glass of wine was served after we reached cruising altitude and this went down extremely well, why not have another I thought, it is business class after all. Well, what a chore that was for the attendant. No smile, no friendliness and a very clear frustration that I had asked for another glass. I didn’t ask again!

The food, well, the soup was nice and I wouldn’t complain. The cod for the main course had never seen sight of a ‘pan’. Total slop and surely not what BA business class should be serving. The cheese and biscuits for desert were good and I thought to myself, breakfast can’t be worse, surely.

Time to put my head down. The seat is good and the full flat bed is comfortable. Sweet dreams…

‘Good morning everyone, this is the flight deck. We will be commencing our decent into London Heathrow in the next 10mins. The weather is…’

What about the breakfast I had asked to be woken up for?!?!

I asked the stewardess and was apologised too. With the same ‘happy and friendly’ way I had been greeted with when I asked for a second glass of wine 7hrs earlier. Is there anything I can have was my question..? Everything has been put away and you need to return to your seat for landing, was the reply..!

For a $1,030 fee to upgrade to business class you have got to provide a quality service.

- Why allow someone to upgrade without advising there is no BA lounge?
- Why allow someone to upgrade to business class if you don’t have enough food?
- Why allow someone to upgrade to business class if providing a quality service is too much trouble for some of your crew?
- Why offer a ‘wake up call’ if you can’t remember to do it?
- Why bother at all?

Shocking experience compounded when my colleagues told me how well they had been looked after in premium economy. No lack of options on food, top of drinks happily offered without having to be asked for, comfy seats and they also enjoyed their breakfast 😞

BA has a long way to go if it believes this kind of service is acceptable. What was supposed to be a treat (an expensive one), was one of the worst flight experiences I have had. Definitely the worst for price paid.

My advice…think long and hard before you part money for an upgrade with BA. Actually, stick to premium economy, it’s much friendlier!

Booked a flight in January 2024 from my home in the U.S. to Paris, France through Expedia. One leg of the journey would be on British Airways from Philadelphia to London then on to Paris. THE DAY BEFORE my flight, BA informed me via email that the BA flight had been cancelled "due to organizational constraints" but assured me that they would rebook.

When I called to have that transatlantic flight rebooked, the customer service agent gave me a hard time and told me there were no other flights available that day. I asked to speak to a manager and was put on hold. When the agent came back, I was given an alternate flight overseas and emailed a confirmation.

I next received an email from BA telling me that I would have a problem should i attempt to board the rebooked flight and to call BA. When I did, I was told that the rebooked flight was invalid. Upon pressing the issue, I learned that the reason BA would not allow us to fly was because we'd booked through a third party aggregator and there were no available "discounted" seats.

I offered to fly out of a different airport and was told that was against BA policy. My only choice was to cancel the flight entirely or to accept a rebooking for the following day. Since so many other arrangements had been made, I had no choice but to delay the trip by one day. That meant losing one day of our vacation and one night of our nonrefundable hotel reservation.

In all BA was unprofessional, uncaring and a right bloody rotten company.

I have tried to support BA these past years but when our flight was cancelled last week I was stranded with 2 disabled people plus 4 cases and a walker and left to fend for ourselves. Their actions were discriminatory and it’s been impossible to make contact with a person - to email my complaint. Everything is online. I’m even a silver frequent flyer and still the ‘executive’ club can do nothing. Shame on you BA.

This Airline is a joke. I bought a ticket which i was allowed to chamge as many times I wanted. I changed fes times. The last time i tried to pushing back my flight their Call Center had the system down so they couldn’t assist me for 5 hours and guess…they made me miss my flight and I lost money. I bought a new ticket after i sent several emails and open severa cliams with ZERO responses. The delayed my flight so i wasn’t able to get my connection so they rebooked me to another flight the day after. When i showed up to the counter for the check in they told me that there were no reservations under my name. They made me miss another flight. I called the Police and right in fromt of them they told me they were sending me an email with the details for the refund. They sent me an email in GERMAN (I am Italian 🤦🏻‍♂️). After that they sent me an email stating that they released a refund in April 10th. We are now on May 1st and no refund ever received. I have the feeling that they do this all the time because otherwise there wouldn’t be any reason. I claimed a lawsuit now. If someone has similar issues we can jump in to a bigger one.

Waste of money. Staff rude.
They only came round twice with drinks no nibbles I asked For a Prosecco and told no as I had received one already. My daughter was down graded to economy. Told that she would receive compensation. She only received £75. They make it impossible to contact them to complain. The Economy flight we flew out on, they ran out of all food and drinks soft drinks 5hours into a 11.5 hour flight. It was so cold in cabin made me ill on holiday. I don't know how they get away with it. The air hostess said that they are only given five hours supply for long-haul flights. BAs reputation has gone down the pan!