Many thanks, although now I'm worried I may have set myself up for failure with any future posts :D

It's just such a shame to see a difficult situation handled so very poorly, causing much extra totally unnecessary stress and upset for so many, whether they are ultimately affected by a cancelled flight or not. Even in less troubled times, the disconnect between the image promoted and the service the staff are enabled/permitted to deliver just grows wider and wider.

So as to protect space for those who need to be reaccommodated because their flights aren't operating. You would have a different perspective on this if you tried to think about it from someone else's viewpoint.

Of course, BA is used to the maxim that no good deed goes unpunished.

Or alternatively, someone might think "BA doesn't answer the phone to rebook me and instead it wants to get £600 from a new sale instead" (or someone disrupted who panics and buys a new ticket online, thinking it'll all be refunded). I don't think this is entirely fair, but I can see people taking this view.

Or the other place where it plays out is if someone is initially rebooked 2 days after the strike, but a seat becomes available 1 day earlier, and BA refuses to budge on their one-rebooking-only rule. Then it looks like profiteering.

If BA wanted to truly protect space, they wouldn't be selling seats on these flights. Yes it does loosely protect in a roundabout way, but only because the majority of people won't pay the high fare, but also let's face it, it's fairly obvious that it's about making money.

No, it's not. If they make these "Adjacent flights" unavailable for booking in any fare class then people can't be rebooked on to them using BA.com or the phone staff if their originally booked flights end up being cancelled. By using the combination of (1) only offering full fare seats on Adjacent flights and (2) allowing anyone on cancelled flights to rebook into full fare booking classes they maximise the possibility of reaccomodating passengers on to the flights they want.

The only other alternative would be to stop selling tickets on Adjacent flights and then forcibly rebook passengers on to those Adjacent flights, even if they aren't convenient. This is the best mix of preserving seats and offering cancelled passengers a degree of choice.

I really like these "error" e-mails from BA to BALPA.
Maybe the BAEC Forum needs a "Jet Blast" type of thread..............

I often wonder why people see the world in such a binary black-and-white way.

By restricting availability to the full-fare booking classes, BA is protecting space for those who need to rebook because BA won't take the raft of reservations in discount classes that might otherwise have come its way. BA clearly doesn't think that it will need every last bit of space on every flight on adjacent dates - for example, many displaced passengers won't want to travel on an adjacent day and will have to be booked on another airline on a strike day; and some will just cancel their trips. In the meantime, the world continues to turn, and people continue to have important reasons for making new travel bookings even on adjacent days. Why can't BA manage the increased but not overwhelming demand for flights on adjacent dates in exactly the same way that it does (without complaint from the outside world) on any other high-demand flight or date? That appears to be what it's doing.

The way this discussion goes, anyone would think that BA is only allowed to do one thing or the other, and not both at once.

Oh please no don't suggest that! We would never hear the end of it. Plus I don't want any more adverts with Arnie saying "I'm coming to get you" unless he's saying it to WW and Senor Cruz.