I am just a passenger too but not potentially affected though I may be. I’ve been affected before by cabin crew and tubes many times.Despite the inconvenience I support the strikers especially the pilots here as I think BA are bang out of order.

Just suppose strike dates are announced tomorrow, I doubt that BA will allow rebooking/amendments until they know what flights are going to be cancelled which is only going to be a day or so beforehand as of course the strikes could be called off right up to the last minute. BA aren’t going to want to be paying top dollar to competitors for what little capacity there is and I’m sure insurance companies will only pay out if the strikes go ahead not a threat of a strike.

I hear what you say about affecting business flights from September but I’d have thought BALPa would want maximum disruption and embarrassment for BA over their centennial weekend in August, delays to the launch of their new business Class Suite because there haven’t been sufficient familiarisation flights etc. I think 140 flights were cancelled due to the storms in Europe last week and the ATC technical glitch. That caused BA to implode almost, queues of people for rebooking, no hotels at LHR, rebooking for flights 3 days later there are still ripples of flights cancelled today due to lack of crew.

I’d really like to be so wrong in all of this more than ever before. The ideal scenario will be strike dates announced tomorrow, BA think oh we’re in a spot of bother and stop being the fool, talks happen and an agreement is reached and strikes called off. Everybody is happy passengers, BALPA, BA and Flyertalk.....

This is just a big big poker game.. with joe public as the stakes. I think Balpa hold the upper hand and BA have a good poker face but hope they fold quickly but knowing how much of an arse they were over the mixed fleet dispute I do wonder... though this of course is more severe than the mixed fleet dispute

With the TFL disputes the first day of strikes tend to happen, cause mayhem and then negotiations continue in earnest, other strikes are called off and the dispute is finally resolved. The threat of a reinstated strike sometimes is needed to help TFL focus more. I really hope that doesn’t happen as the damage will be done and holidays ruined etc and whilst BALPA will get what they were after it’s at a significant cost.