Is British Airways website down? Customers experiencing payment issues when booking tickets

Problems with the British Airways website are preventing travellers from booking tickets. Numerous would-be passengers have complained of receiving an 'unknown error' message when attempting to complete bookings at britishairways.com.

The firm has replied to one complaint on social media, posting: "The payment issue is known and is being looked into. Sorry for the trouble caused and we would recommend trying again in a little while."

Internet monitor, Down Detector, shows a spike in reports of issues with the website starting at around 6pm on Tuesday (January 16) and continuing throughout the evening.

Some frustrated passengers have taken to social media to voice their anger. "Have tried to book flights through the (British Airways) website six times now and each time there’s an ‘unknown error’ after payment - chatbot is worse than useless and won’t put me through to a person and the phones shut at 8pm," one wrote.

Another said: "We are the same, gets to payment and 'something went wrong'. Multiple times..."

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, one angry customer wrote: "Anyone else having problems trying to book (British Airways) flights? So frustrating!"

We have contacted British Airways for comment.