Ryanfozzie

Afternoon all!

I've been looking closely and it seems BA are striking again, and again, and again. Not trying to get political and I understand the crews reasons.

I'm due to fly on BA39 with my wife (fiancee) at the moment on Thursday 10th August in F.

If worse comes to worse and the strikes continue and BA cancel my flight, where do I stand? These were of course booked with Avios. I have an Amex Plat (which I paid taxes on) and Nationwide Flex Plus, both with good travel insurance.

So, if worse comes to worse, do you think I can get BA to book me on another carrier. If not, do you think the travel insurance policies would cover me to rebook onto a new flight? A one way F flight is approx Ł4000pp the last time I checked... YIKES

Any advice would be appreciated!

KARFA

BA39 is LHR-PEK which is a MF operated route. However, there are very few long haul cancellations on the strikes so far, and those few that do happen are on high frequency routes such as NYC where passengers can easily be re-accommodated. I don't think PEK flights have been cancelled at all in the current or previous strikes.

I really wouldn't be concerned if I were you.

More information on the strikes here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...w-dispute.html

UKtravelbear

Very unlikely that BA would move you to another carrier.

As to your insurance you need to check the policies you have and the wording over what they will andwon't cover.

golfmad

Especially in relation to Avios bookings. It's unclear to me how travel insurance would cover this and I'd be interested to know your and others thoughts on this.

I also think there's minimal cause for concern at the moment on your route.

GinFizz

Congratulations on the upcoming wedding, and an anticipatory welcome to Beijing ...

Re: the flights, given the schedule, the MF operation, the loading on LHR-PEK flights over the summer and all the data so far on the pattern of cancellations, there is very little chance of this flight being affected.

Saying that, in the highly unlikely case it is, there are two BA flights a day to PVG on Thursdays, and two flights each day to HKG that you could consider asking for a re-routing on, all of which could still get you to PEK with onward connections on the 11th (same arrival day as the direct BA39 flight).

so3003

Suspect BA39 will be relatively immune from strike cancellations due to the potential visa issues rerouting would cause. If you do end up being rerouted beware of any visa conditions, eg if you are using a free transit visa my understanding is that you need to land in Beijing from a foreign city - but HKG is counted as "foreign" for this purpose, whereas PVG is not. BA have a 777 and A380 service to Hong Kong, and Cathay also have numerous flights a day, so I doubt you'd find yourself in any real bother.

Congratulations on your wedding / honeymoon, and enjoy anticipating the trip!

KenJohn

As others have said, it is unlikely for the long-haul flights to be cancelled unless the loads are extremely light (unlike for PEK). Also crew get overnight allowances for overnight rest stops so strikes are less likely given they get paid more for undertaking those flights.

Yes it is a stressful situation for passengers but that is precisely why the unions strike.

No. Highly unlikely. There has been minimal experience of this from previous strikes. Discussion with BA is pointless until a flight is actually cancelled.

You have to look at the terms of the travel insurance policy. BA's options will be to rebook you onto another flight (so + 1/2 days ) or a full refund. In theory no loss. You have not started your journey as yet so the travel insurance may stop here. Does the travel insurance cover replacement flights? You have to look at the T&Cs.

rossmacd

Are you sure? Looking at today's schedule makes for poor reading....

DME, DFW, PHL, MIA, BOS, DXB, DOH and JED cancelled so far today. A few shorthauls have hit the can also (and I am not including the charters that are running, just has an error in the Flight Status report on BA.com).

mikeyfly

I guess USA is easier to get pax to their final destination with various options probably on the same day. I assume the Middle East may actually be lightly loaded?

rossmacd

It is, but does not help for those less frequent flyers who have their plans disrupted and the associated stress that comes along with that.

There is enough capacity to the Middle East on better airlines