Roger

Really?

spanishflea

There is definitly a sense of BA burying their head in the sand on this and not informing CS staff that there is a problem...

BugAlugs

Perhaps i spoke to soon... CS agent called me back. Until the flight is 'offically' marked as cancelled they cannot make our flight moves

Checking the timetables shows no flights to Orlando now leaving Gatwick on each Monday and Thursday of Jan (and their return flights) so thats the 14 17 21 24 28 & 31 of JAN

lets hope i do get a call before the rest of the world try and rebook

BugAlugs

Dave_C

Does anyone know the methodology that BA are using to decide which flights they cancel?

I've got three SZG's booked over the next three months (in CE), and really don't want to use FR instead.

Or, if anyone has a consolidated list of which flights on which days are either cancelled, or wetleased to Astraeus/Titan/Monarch, that would be even better.

This is clearly now turning into a bigger issue, and something like the excellent NGCW aircraft/route matrix may be in order?

florida2000

This whole LGW thing is turning into a real mess.

I already have had to change ABZ-LGW business flights for next year due to the ABZ-LGW route cancellation.

For our family holiday later next year, I've changed from ABZ so now doing EDI-LGW-MCO (an inconvenience but to me better than transferring LHR-LGW). I had thought my big worry was now whether BA will decide to cancel the EDI-LGW route. Now it appears I have also to worry that they will cancel the LGW-MCO flight given BugAlugs experience for their Jan MCO flight.

I am now in the position of having the BA flights booked (costing a fair amount for Club for family of 4) but do not have the confidence in BA in order for me to book accommodation, attraction tickets, car hire etc. I just do not want these concerns and at this rate BA are fast losing their attraction - which is a real pity.

The problem BA have is that this has an impact of their other routes as people lose confidence. For example, I am looking at booking J class flights to Doha and am now looking closely at QR instead.

AJLondon

I've done that route twice recently in the last two months, and thankfully it was BA operated each time! Infact I remember seeing a dreaded "Gatwick cancellations" announcement on BA.com on one of the days I was travelling this route! Clicking on that link with some trepidation, I found that the affected flights that day were "just" MAD, NCE, AMS and JER IIRC.

Dave_C

That's re-assuring to hear at least, and also vaguely positive about the SZG route's profitability. If they are willing to cancel an AMS or MAD over and above a SZG (I suppose the others are multi-daily and served from LHR too), that bodes well.

AJLondon

Yup, given that there is no other non-stop option that would get one even close to SZG from LGW, I would hope it would be far down the cancellation pecking order.

The "best" re-routing scenario to get to SZG, would probably be to get to LHR and then fly BA to MUC + cab/train to SZG. Or as a second best option with BA to FRA/VIE and then fly OS to SZG...

P.S.: Loads on each of my weekday (Wed/Thu) outbounds were about 110-120 each.

BugAlugs

And a return call and everyone correctly booked. Almost shock ! Oddly my 2-4-1 booking appears to be in D class now, might even score some free miles

PresRDC

I currently have an award seat in CE from LGW to PSA in early April. I'll be flying into LHR from MRU the night before and need to be in Florence that night for a wedding. PSA is so much more convenient to Florence than FCO or MXP, so my inclination is to hope for the best (even a substitution for a charter flight wouldn't be the end of the world). Do you think I shoudl switch it to FCO or MXP ex-LHR while I still have the opportunity (i.e. award seats are available?

spanishflea

There are 4 PSA flights a day in April so assuming more than one of them fit OK with your schedule I'd leave it at that.

But that said, I would sincerely hope this will all be done and dusted by April anyway. I hope so!

bernardd

A 900 hour limit has been mentioned a few times, and I wonder if anyone knows how this is calculated? Is it a rolling 900 hours flying (or duty hours)since the anniversary date? Is it a situation where a lot of crew will come back in hours in, say, January, but the problem will re-appear next autumn?

spanishflea

Well I used to think it was a calendar year as that's how the Ryanair situation seemed to be resolved last year.

But apprently that is not the case and it is a rolling year. I don't understand why it has only happened at the end of the year if that's right though?

lgw29

yes 900 hours is a rolling year. this has been going on a about 3 to 4 months with the crews hours and with the rest of the crew working harder tocover the gaps where crew are grounded over the 900 hours they are soon getting to the limit too

bernardd

When does the rolling 900 start counting for each crew member? Is it when they start flying? In which case all the crew members have different dates and presumably some that were out of hours 3 or 4 months ago are now back in to some extent?

If I understand this correctly, someone ought to be able to figure out the total number of crew hours required for the annual schedule and make sure they have (requirement + slack) / 900 crew? Then intelligent rostering will spread the hours over a year to make sure nobody maxes out after 7 or 8 months. Presumably the total crew works more hours in the Summer which is partly what causes the problem at the end of the year, if you don't plan ahead.

Is the problem therefore that the LGW crew is actually too small to cover the annual hours required?