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France - ATC strike 21 - 23 March 2018, MAD/BCN also affected

France - ATC strike 21 - 23 March 2018, MAD/BCN also affected

Old Mar 20, 2018, 5:22 pm
  #1  
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France - ATC strike 21 - 23 March 2018, MAD/BCN also affected

There is a series of transport related strikes on the card for the next few weeks, with French ATC due to strike from 18:00 hrs GMT Wednesday 21 March to Friday 23 March 05:00 hrs.
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...-a8264016.html

So there are customer guidelines for BA passengers with BA tickets, for all of France, plus Barcelona and Madrid, allowing rebooking of travel scheduled for 21 and 22 March to dates from 20 March to 27 March, so long as the rebooked date is not the 22 March. My experience is that flights from places like BIO and LIS will simply go a long way around Brittany, but that may well lead to delays. BCN and MAD may do the same but the extra distance is quite substantial.

Advice for British Airways-125 ticketed customers whose BA flight is still OPERATING
Rebook onto British Airways

Airports affected
To or from:-

France - any BA destination

MAD (Madrid)

BCN (Barcelona)

Tickets issued by
20 March 2018
Ticket travel dates
21 - 22 March 2018
New travel dates
20 - 21 March 2018

OR

23 27 March 2018

Rebooking Allowance
Rebook into the same class as the original flight or lowest available in the same cabin
Origin/Destination/Stopover changes
No
Refunds Allowed
No
Redemptions included
Yes
Available for Trade
Yes
Important Info
one involuntary ticket change allowed
Includes connecting services on BA/JB/BA* if issued on the same ticket. Connections on other carriers need to be booked into the same class as original (or class allowed in the fare rules)
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 12:55 am
  #2  
 
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From experience GVA flights also get knocked a bit when French ATC have a little spat like this...
More often delays but can get knock-on cancellations
The flights often take the long route over BE/NL, DE and over CH to arrive at GVA...
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Last edited by SWISSBOBBY; Mar 21, 2018 at 1:18 am
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 1:03 am
  #3  
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Every year again ... I hope everyone gets to their destination without too much delay! Set to fly over French airspace myself on coming Friday, Saturday and Monday so hope it'll be over by then.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 1:40 am
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Thanks for the heads up. My Ryanair flight tomorrow has been cancelled and with no reasonable alternative I have rebooked on BA for Friday morning. Am now 441 poorer. Still, at least it saves a schlepp to Stansted.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 1:57 am
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Originally Posted by BA235
Thanks for the heads up. My Ryanair flight tomorrow has been cancelled and with no reasonable alternative I have rebooked on BA for Friday morning. Am now 441 poorer. Still, at least it saves a schlepp to Stansted.
Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about your trouble - you would probably have saved money had things gone well, but this nicely shows the real cost of FR's "low fares" if anything happens.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 2:18 am
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Originally Posted by EuropeToAsia
Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about your trouble - you would probably have saved money had things gone well, but this nicely shows the real cost of FR's "low fares" if anything happens.
Thankfully theyve refunded my 34.76 😁

The problem here is this a three-times-a-week route, and with the next scheduled flight being on Sunday a weekend away becomes a moot point. Nevermind, at least I have a premium experience on BA to look forward to. Oh hang on ... 😂
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 3:13 am
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Good luck to all!

Fortunately I don't have a flight to CDG until next week, but a timely reminder of why I should avoid flying to France when there's another option...
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 4:10 am
  #8  
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
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We are supposed to be flying EDI-CDG with AF tomorrow AM, then home BA ORY-LCY-EDI tomorrow evening.

Its my wifes birthday and she had a spare days leave, so we thought we go to Paris for the day to celebrate.

From past experience is it likely that most of the BA schedule to/from Paris is cancelled with events like this?

We both need to be at work on Friday, so the worst case scenario would be getting stuck in Paris (normally that would be fine, but not on a day trip)
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 4:17 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by Samaras
.
From past experience is it likely that most of the BA schedule to/from Paris is cancelled with events like this?
I don't think past experience helps here, I'm sure I'm not alone in recalling everything from "all services cancelled" to "pretty much unaffected" and everything in between. You can stare at the crystal ball for as long as you like and still get another outcome.

Where BA is generally getting better is in the pro-active cancellation process, it follows a particular pattern: if they are going to cancel Thursday's flight pro-actively they will do so about by around 17 hrs today, and perhaps a couple of hours before that. So keep your mobile phone to hand (assuming you booked directly via your BAEC account) and think about what plan B looks like using purely BA/Aer Lingus metal. Then call in before everyone else does. That said, LCY seems to take delays more than cancellations, it doesn't often feature in the pro-active listings.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 4:30 am
  #10  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
I don't think past experience helps here, I'm sure I'm not alone in recalling everything from "all services cancelled" to "pretty much unaffected" and everything in between. You can stare at the crystal ball for as long as you like and still get another outcome.

Where BA is generally getting better is in the pro-active cancellation process, it follows a particular pattern: if they are going to cancel Thursday's flight pro-actively they will do so about by around 17 hrs today, and perhaps a couple of hours before that. So keep your mobile phone to hand (assuming you booked directly via your BAEC account) and think about what plan B looks like using purely BA/Aer Lingus metal. Then call in before everyone else does. That said, LCY seems to take delays more than cancellations, it doesn't often feature in the pro-active listings.
Thanks C-W-S, my booking is through my BAEC account so will keep an eye on this.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 4:36 am
  #11  
 
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Originally Posted by Samaras
We are supposed to be flying EDI-CDG with AF tomorrow AM, then home BA ORY-LCY-EDI tomorrow evening.

Its my wifes birthday and she had a spare days leave, so we thought we go to Paris for the day to celebrate.

From past experience is it likely that most of the BA schedule to/from Paris is cancelled with events like this?

We both need to be at work on Friday, so the worst case scenario would be getting stuck in Paris (normally that would be fine, but not on a day trip)
Be aware that it is a general strike day in France, not just the air traffic control. Have you had any news on whether your Air France flight is operating? I've seen on one website that their cabin crew have been called to strike that day, but haven't seen the anticipated impact yet.
The Paris public transport will be affected, but still running. RER line B to / from CDG and OrlyVal 3 out of 4 trains on average will run (2 out of 3 in rush hour). Metro will apparently run almost as normal.
Also be aware that even if flights are not cancelled, you can get long delays waiting for departure slots.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 5:12 am
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Originally Posted by flyingbee
Be aware that it is a general strike day in France, not just the air traffic control. Have you had any news on whether your Air France flight is operating? I've seen on one website that their cabin crew have been called to strike that day, but haven't seen the anticipated impact yet.
The Paris public transport will be affected, but still running. RER line B to / from CDG and OrlyVal 3 out of 4 trains on average will run (2 out of 3 in rush hour). Metro will apparently run almost as normal.
Also be aware that even if flights are not cancelled, you can get long delays waiting for departure slots.
Thanks Flyingbee, I was going to get the Train from CDG to Gare Du Nord, as we have never visited Sacre-Coeur. After that we were just going to get an Uber or Taxi to where we are going next and back to ORY.

The AF flight is still showing as scheduled. Its a 0610 departure, so if the inbound flight makes it to EDI tonight, then it may depart tomorrow (at some point)
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 6:10 am
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Although I had to hold for about 15 mins on the Gold line before getting through, it was very straightforward to bring forward tomorrows BCN-LHR flight to this evening. 👍
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 6:35 am
  #14  
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Fun fact. There was a French ATC strike exactly two years ago too.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 6:39 am
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I'm in Paris at the moment, hoping to return on Friday. Flight is still showing as on-time, but I notice that the last CDG-LHR flight tonight has already been cancelled by BA, so I imagine others will be too.

Judging from the reporting here, it looks like the action will end on Thursday night / early hours of Friday morning, so most of Friday should be okay.
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