People often ask why I fly British Airways as it appears to be an inconvenient option for me. Being based in Dublin means I have more reasons to fly Aer Lingus or Ryanair direct to European destinations. It would make more sense from a time perspective alone.
I continue to fly with BA even when it means I have to connect at London Heathrow. Despite some annoying aspects they still remain my carrier of choice. I have my reasons and here they are.
Strong Executive Club
The Executive Club is a very good frequent flyer programme which offers many opportunities to earn Avios points. Besides flights, I can earn with hotels, credit cards, on shopping and all sorts of things. It makes collecting points quite easy. Points can also be transferred to Iberia and Aer Lingus as well.
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- Redeeming for Qantas flights means poached eggs!
While earning is great, it is more important to have plenty of options to spend those points. I can usually find availability for the flights I want which is where other programmes fail. As BA is a member of the oneworld alliance, I can redeem my points on other carriers in the alliance. This is excellent value in some cases, especially for flights within Australia on Qantas in business class.
Delightful Cabin Crew
Besides having a very classy looking uniform, BA crew are one of the reasons I keep flying the airline. Many of them seem to wear their heart on their sleeve in that it is easy to tell who is having a good day and who is having a bad day. They are very real in a way that some over trained crew on other carriers are not.
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- Designed by Julian MacDonald, the unform is timeless!
All of them seem to have a decent sense of humour and appear to enjoy interacting with passengers on a social level. I have spent time in the galley having a chat on more than one occasion with BA crew, not to mention being given the occasional sneaky gift. All of this coupled with their professionalism gives me a great impression of the airline.
Mighty Fine Catering
Meals on long haul flights are of a very good quality and the choices are adequate to find something you want. In my experience the food is tasty, plentiful and on trend enough not to be boring. While I have experienced good and bad meals overall I find it to be consistently fine.
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- Salmon starter in Club World – yum!
On short haul I am a sucker for the afternoon tea service. Finger sandwiches, scones and cake is right up my alley. While the meals in Club Europe on the shortest sectors are uninspiring and boring the ones on the longer sectors are excellent. Several times the cod has been a total stand out hot meal.
Decent Lounges
Lounges at British Airways vary depending on where you are. Places like Edinburgh and Washington DC have excellent lounges with nice decor to go with the decent food options. I have spent hours in the lounges at Heathrow and once you find a place to sit it’s perfectly comfortable. The lounge dragons are always ultra lovely!
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- British Airways Galleries First Lounge at Heathrow
Another advantage is their alliance membership. The lounges of the other oneworld carriers are some of the best in the world. My BA status lets me in to those lounges and that makes me happy. Sometimes those great partner lounges are the lounge British Airways uses, such as the Cathay Pacific one in Paris.
Champagne! Yes, One Of My Reasons!
Regular readers know that I like Champagne. British Airways serve a decent drop in Club Europe and they have feature Champagne bars in the first class lounges. Bubbles everywhere and I like it like that.
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- Champagne everywhere in Club Europe!
It is nice that BA treat you like an adult and serve what you ask for which is different to Qantas who actively monitor your consumption and won’t provide more unless what you already have is completely gone.
Overall Thoughts
While I continue to be based in Europe I will continue to fly British Airways. Unless something else comes along that is more convenient or offers a better frequent flyer programme, there really is no reason to switch. In Australia I was a member of Qantas Frequent Flyer and the BA programme feels far more convenient to use though things may have changed since I last had status with them.
Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Tony Rogers via Concorde SST
thanks for this great post. forget what other people are saying, how rude! i am flying BA for the first time in the summer and this has definitely put my mind at ease. that being said, I wouldn’t mind some tips about the downside of BA and perhaps ways to overcome that. also, would you recommend reserving seats before your flight (pay to reserve seats) or do you think its ok getting your seat during checkin? also if you would compare classes, and the benefits between them I would love to hear that as well. eg. is it worth to… Read more »
Thanks for your kind words! With regards to the seats, it really depends. If you don’t mind where you sit, don’t pay… if you are particular about where you sit (for example you absolutely want an aisle seat) then pay to choose a seat. I always select a seat as I always like to sit in an aisle seat on long flights. World Traveller Plus is definitely worth the extra money. I have a review on that. The main course at dinner comes from the Club World menu so you essentially get part of the business class meal. The seats… Read more »
Your post brought a huge smile to my face! I am so happy to have come across your blog and follow along with your journey. I’ve been inspired by the beautiful and honest photos you’ve taken of these countries.
Thank you 🙂
So you spend more money and time (thanks to connections) to fly BA over other options so you can… spend a couple minutes chatting with a less polished cabin crew and have slightly better food / champaign?
Choose a direct flight and use the hours you’ll save each trip to chat with the people you’re actually traveling to see. Use the money and remaining time you’ve saved to buy 5x better food and drinks at restaurants on the ground.
For short haul I don’t spend more money necessarily as the connecting flights are similarly priced to direct flights or I use my miles which makes it much cheaper than a direct flight.
Hahaha – I like flying very much so to me the flight is part of my holiday which is why I choose to do what I do. Thanks for the comment!
Im sure you agree balanced reviews are much more valuable and adding value looking from a reader point of view. This one, im sorry, is not credible.
Well, thank you for reading it anyway 🙂
a very nice summary … “sponsored by BA” Sorry, but too sweet for my taste 🙁
Well, it was to highlight the reasons why I like to fly BA. If I did another post on what I dislike about BA, that would be a very different list. I may do that actually. Thanks for the comment!
I’m sure you agree that balanced reviews are much more valuable looking from a reader point of view, otherwise its a sponsored article. Not what we are looking for 🙁
I think you will agree that since the title of the article is “5 Reasons Why I Like Flying British Airways” that most readers would have the intelligence to realise it would focus on the positive.
Sponsored content? I have never been asked to write sponsored content nor have I received any compensation, financial or otherwise, from any of the travel companies I write about. Have a nice day! 🙂