British Airways reviews

Right, here’s where the bitterness is unleashed. I am unable to provide details as my unique situation will allow me to be identified as easily as a morse identifier on a navigation aid. However I must advise my fellow pilots that the training department here is (or was) not fit for purpose. Training sub contracted to third parties who, whilst doing their damned best, struggled to cram so much into the minimum possible time. No sim or instructor or training captain availability meant that he who fell behind got left behind. Office politics sees this framed as the trainees “fault” though avoids explaining how instead placing increasingly arduous hoops to jump through under increased pressure and scrutiny. If BA’s objective was to shred someone’s sanity to ribbons and leave them so shaken they could barely operate a door handle let alone an aircraft they could not do a more refined job. If you are familiar with the term “silo” you will understand the management style in question. Many individuals are great but the system itself is unjust.

Senior finance staff can be dismissive, unhelpful, and condescending. There is little interest in developing junior employees beyond what is immediately useful to the team, and as a result there is a complete lack of thorough training. The technology is decades behind what you’d expect from a major company, with system crashes, slow processes, and heavy reliance on manual Excel work, with only one computer monitor. Teams operate in isolation, making cross-department collaboration frustratingly slow. Approval chains are long, and even minor decisions require multiple sign-offs. Progression is slow unless you actively push for it. There is little structured support for professional growth, and finance leadership seems indifferent to individual aspirations. Month-end reporting is chaotic, with long hours and last-minute firefighting. Unlike banking or consulting, there’s no financial reward for the stress. Waterside is a bleak, corporate campus next to Heathrow's runway, far from the buzz of London. The office itself is freezing, with little atmosphere or energy. The finance function feels stuck in the past, valuing outdated ways of working over innovation. Automation is minimal, and there's resistance to change. If you don’t have a deep love for planes and travel, the work can feel dry and uninspiring. Passion for the industry seems to be an unspoken requirement.