British Airways Advantages
 

After reading Airline news and many postings in FlyerTalk, one can't help feeling that BA is a third rate airlines! Is it that bad?
To me what matters are,
1. Good seating area at the gate.
2. Relaxed gate agent who is cheerful and politely answers questions. Posts updated info.
3. Easy structured boarding
4. Convenient seating. I am neither tall or obese. Most seats are OK as long as they are supportive of my back and butt
5. Decent room for storing one piece of allowed luggage
6. I do get hungry-a light snack on domestic flights and a meal on International. I don't care for dessert etc.
7. Prompt departure and arrival.
8. Doors of the plane closing/opening for easy boarding and getting off.
9. I bring my own entertainment. However, good movie selections on long distance flights.
10. Important-I do like a pillow. It serves me to buffer intruding neighbor's hands. In this, all airlines have failed in economy, at least in domestic flights.

Has BA failed in these? Which airlines excel in these at a reasonable cost. I have had bad experience in Singapore Airlines-In my opinion they treat Asian Indians like dirt (even in fully paid business class). I like Delta, Malaysian, Air France.

It's not really a BA specific question, despite the title and start of the OP, perhaps Travelbuzz but maybe good to have a less restrictive space for more frank discussion over and above the usual moderated conversations.

As far as I see it BA is a semi-solid operation that prints money. They're not aiming to be a top quality travel provider in any class, despite what they might be marketing, but they get the numbers, and they have a captive traveller base that knows and trusts their brand or is too loyalty-bound to jump the fence

If I was you I would stick to the ones you like. I only take BA if nothing else works. It is not an airline I look at except out of curiousity.

I don't think BA "fails" on any of these, although sometimes things can go wrong.

6. If you get hungry you can certainly get a light snack on BA, as long as you're willing to pay for it.
8. I'm pretty sure that the doors on BA's aircraft do open and close, although I'm sure one of our resident experts will be along soon to confirm.
10. You really can't expect a pillow in short-haul economy class.

or indeed quantify if facts are higher placed than opinion. So, 18% of the long haul fleet are still fitted with the old IFE system, reducing to zero over the course of the next 28 months.

Well now, this is one is a bit unusual for the BA forum.

Now that the OP finds their thread has landed here, I for one would welcome them returning to expand on and explain some of the more unusual/leftfield observations in the list (point 8, for example). Especially in the context where 'international' and 'domestic' mean something rather different for BA than in the OPs homeland.

Much more interesting than having (the usual group of) BA forum posters weighing in with (the same) unqualified, generic BA-bashing and BA-lauding posts we see so often around here.

For #1 , how much control does any airline have over the gate seating area?