I’m a BA GGL/CCR/GfL (and VS gold), so I have some idea what I’m talking about about flying into and out of LHR. BA are the largest airline operating into LHR: how many flights did they redirect for a strike with a significantly uncertain chance of happening? None.

Point being VS gave absolutely no communication along with the cancellations: just a “your booking has changed” email, so I had no clue if the strike didn’t happen if we’d be reverting to LHR or staying with LGW. I bought business class tickets for my step family and their toddler: VS doing the hokey-Corey without a clear explanation of their reaction function to the industrial action (which was out of their control, but their reaction was certainly in it) made planning post-logistics impossible. This isn’t good customer service, no point trying to convince me it is.

VS “proactively” cancelled thousands of seats for an event than didn’t happen. The threatened vs actual strike ratio at LHR is really not that high, so BA’s stance of “let’s see what really happens” was mich more pragmatic than “let’s panic and cancel a bunch of flights so we’re resilient”.