How to Actually Get British Airways on the Phone

Here’s the situation: you look at your British Airways app and find out that your red eye from Glasgow to London City Airport tomorrow is delayed by two hours. But that will make you late for your meeting tomorrow which you cannot miss so you need to get in touch with British Airways now and make other arrangements.

So you call British Airways, not just on any customer service line, but on the “oh you are so valuable to us” Executive Club Silver line that you have access to you because you’ve flown so many loyal miles with British Airways. BUT NO ONE ANSWERS. What do you? Yell at the gate agent? Head to the lounge and eat your feelings?

If you’re a FlyerTalker, you head to the British Airways forum and start the thread “Can’t phone BA anymore!?!?!” like the FlyerTalker in this exact situation did. Roughly three minutes later, they got their answer.

The Well-Known Way Around That

Turns out, they weren’t the only one who’d been frustrated by their inability to reach British Airways on their customer service line which, in the UK, is only open between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. What if you need help outside of their operating hours?

Call British Airways’ US Number: They’re Always Open

Not in the United States? There’s a trick around that as well: “The well-known way around that in this forum is to use Skype on your gizmo to call the USA number, to be routed (probably) to Newcastle-upon-Tyne.”

Using the U.S. toll-free number–U.S. toll-free number (1-800-247-9297)–requires a VOIP pre-installed solution, such as Google Voice or Skype. If you don’t have Skype or Google Voice, you’ll have to make an international call and charges will apply.

Try Social Media

“DM via Twitter.” While call centers sometimes go unmanned, most airlines, British Airways included, keeps on top of communication on Twitter. Because they know that angry customers are prone to @ them out loud and that’s never a good look.

But, all of British Airways’ employees aren’t covering social media and they fly millions of customers so expect a delay. FlyerTalk reached out to the airline via Twitter asking about the best way to reach them for delay information. As of press time, we’ve been retweeted, but have not received a reply.

Try the Gold Number

Sometimes silver doesn’t work. And, in that case, feel free to try Gold. “So in under five seconds I got the gold number off Google, then in 43 seconds went through the options and a human answered,” noted another FlyerTalker. “I have the gold number saved, just seeing how easy it is for everyone else to do the same.”

How do you get to the gold or the silver line? You have to have to be an Executive Club member. Bronze, Silver, and Gold members all have their own dedicated lines which you can find on the Contact Executive Club page on British Airways.

Are there other ways to get those numbers? Of course. Check out this other helpful British Airways forum thread, helpfully titled, British Airways Gold Phone Number. But, be aware that sometimes British Airways changes those numbers to give exclusivity back to Executive Club members.

For more British Airways secrets, head to the British Airways FlyerTalk forum to read what frequent fliers have posted (or to post your own question).