It once boldly called itself the ‘world’s favourite airline’, but more than 20 years on from that famous slogan, British Airways seems to have fallen out of the public’s favour. After cancelling hundreds of long-haul flights, massively cutting back business class meals and re-jigging its loyalty programme, the airline has suffered a new blow and dropped to the bottom of Which?’s annual satisfaction survey for the very first time.
The consumer groups survey asked nearly 8,000 travellers across more than 9,000 flights to rank airlines based on things like punctuality, customer service, seat comfort, food and value for money. Which? then merged those findings with delays and cancellation data from the Civil Aviation Authority to compile its final list.
The airline got an overall customer score of 62 percent for long-haul flights. It only mustered up two out of five stars in several categories, including seat comfort, food and drink and value for money. Which? says the problem isn’t necessarily that BA has got worse (it actually improved on its 2018 score of 50 percent), but that other airlines have got better.
Though BA got an even lower score of 57 percent in Which?’s short-haul ranking, it didn’t come dead last. It scored higher than Lufthansa, Wizz Air and Ryanair (which earned a measly one star for seat comfort and food and drink).
In a statement to Time Out, BA claimed that Which? only polled around 200 British Airways customers, which equates to around 0.02 percent of its average daily passenger numbers.
It said: ‘This research from Which? is entirely at odds with comments from the hundreds of thousands of customers who we know do travel with British Airways and then tell us about their experience. Their feedback tells us customers are seeing the benefit of our £7bn investment programme.’
‘There is always room for improvement and we know we don’t always get things right, but we’re proud of the progress we’re making and will continue to focus on delivering the best possible service for our customers.’
The research also contradicts a recent ranking that named BA one of the top 20 best airlines on the planet and another one that crowned it one of the safest. The airline also fared pretty well in Condé Nast Traveller‘s Readers’ Choice Awards and at the ‘Oscars of aviation’. So, you be the judge.
The world’s best and worst long-haul airlines, according to Which?
- Singapore Airlines
- Etihad Airways
- Emirates
- Qantas
- Virgin Atlantic
- Air France
- Delta Airlines
- KLM
- United Airlines
- Qatar Airways
- Lufthansa
- Turkish Airlines
- Cathay Pacific
- TUI Airways
- Aer Lingus
- American Airlines
- Malaysia Airlines
- Air Canada
- British Airways
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