British Airways - BAW > Reviews > Domestic short-haul with BA

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Satisfactory
Customer Service	Nothing special
Punctuality	Awful
Space	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Cheap online booking and complimentary drinks
Disadvantages:	Poor quality food and grumpy Cabin Crew

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

For my job I travel frequently (about once a month) with BA on their domestic routes, and have also travelled to France on holiday with them. The service and quality seems to be very consistent, so this opinion is based on experiences of dozens of flights.

For their short routes, BA generally use a Boeing 737-400 or 737-500, the classic 80s short-haul airliner. The interiors of these tiny aircraft now look very dated, with worn leather seats and rickety bulkheads. Nontheless, the seats are very comfortable, with very generous leg room, and the 'ye olde' ambience is bearable on these very short flights.

In my travels, I fly from Gatwick to Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester, and back again, and I've also flown with them to Nice. The Nice trip I booked myself on ba.com, a very easy-to-use and detailed website where if booked early you can grab a real bargain. My return flights to Nice were about GBP 90.00 back in September 2002 - much cheaper than EasyJet!!!

Experience proves that BA's punctuality isn't up to much. In over 50 flights, only three to my memory departed dead on time and the rest were anything between half an hour and three hours late. One flight from Newcastle to Gatwick was actually cancelled, meaning I had to wait around for four hours and catch a Heathrow flight, followed by a taxi! Not a good day!

I would recommend BA short haul to any traveller, but would also warn them to be wary of the punctuality (i.e. do not make plans based on an on-time arrival at your destination!), and also don't expect the service to be up to much. I work as Cabin Crew myself for a Charter Airline and I have to say that not one crew member I have ever worked with at Excel Airways has been as grumpy and clearly bored with their work as the majority of those I've encountered on BA flights. A happy smile is few and far between and the Cabin Crew stagger through the pre-flight Safety Demo (in my opinion, the most important part of the whole flight) as if they would really rather be anywhere else other than on-board that aircraft!

The main bonus of BA versus the likes of EasyJet is the compimentary bar. You can order anything you like to drink and its free of charge! Also, they feed you. On most flights they give you a sandwich from their All-Day-Deli. The sandwiches aren't exactly special. Think two thin slices of bread, filled with stringy lettuce, lashings of mayonnaise and as small an amount of actual 'filling' the caterers' can surely get away with! But at least it fills you up, and on such a short flight (less than 50 minutes to Glasgow) it doesn't really matter! A cake slice or a chocolate completes the Deli-bag. On morning flights, they serve a hot breakfast, which is actually quite nice and includes a sausage, a slice of bacon, beans, scrambled egg and a bread roll.

I've never been on a BA flight over 90 minutes, but as far as the domestic flights go, I would choose them every time. What they lack in punctuality and customer service, they make up for in free drinks and meals! Also, if you book in advance online, the new lower fares are brilliant! In addition, there are no other airlines with such extensive UK domestic routes with such expansive timetables, so compared with what little competition there is, BA is the best!