I have mixed opinions on Calder, but at least he is a public voice for travel in general, probably second only to MoL in his visibility over here!

However, he's far from alone in his criticism of BA over this. It's easy to talk about shareholders and the like, but under no circumstances should a ticket be made available for sale, at whatever price whilst BA has passengers stuck overseas - many in airports (would you like to be stuck in Mumbai Airport for a week??! - not so bad for BA but Jet, AI & IT has passengers stuck in transit as they don't have a visa to leave the airport) - it's a ridiculous situation.

What's more BA's excuse "we have priced all available seats at the highest fares specifically to discourage new customers from buying them" doesn't wash. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...ys-seat-prices) Why is this seemingly unique to BA? I refuse to believe that they cannot zero out the seats on ba.com. This has been badly handled.

It's left a bit of a sour taste as i've been genuinely impressed in seeing BA in action over the past few days as it had been recovering much of the post-strike support with it's pro-active approach, commitment to supporting stranded passengers, and the pressure it has placed on relevant regulatory bodies - an model airline that many others have trailed behind miserably (he says looking eastward at a myriad of Asian carriers with their fabled customer service!).

Let's not lose this forward momentum eh BA?