georgestr

I'll be flying to the UK on BA from the 13th to the 22nd. What happens if they happen to strike on the 22nd. Will BA be picking up the tab for these extra days in London, or is it likely that they will reaccomidate me on a same-day flight (Uggh, it would likely be American then).

Anyone know how this works?

arpiuk

do you guys know if the Plat Amex insurance would cover such strikes? I have a cheapo to BUD, but I have to get there on the 18th (next Tuesday). If BA were to offer me a day that is too late for me, would AMEX pay for a ticket on a different carrier, which will be much more expensive as it's last minute, etc....

Has anyone been in a situation like this?

Dr Groggy

I've not tested it myself but the small print says they will cover you (for the whole trip) if the outbound is affected by the strike. No mention of other segments so if the strike begins after you've flown your outbound then there would be no cover.

PresRDC

If this were to happen, you should consider yourself lucky to get on any flight. There will be thousands of pax scrambling for any available seat and they will, you can be assured, be very scare.

My sister was stuck in Cape Town during the first days of the catering strike a few years ago. Her flight to LHR was canceled. We bought her a one way ticket on South African to get her back to New York. It was a walk-up ticket and full fare Y. Cost was about US$3700. BA reimbursed us in full a few months later. She was on a discount Y class ticket bought through AA.

I just put a Delta award on hold to get me to PSA for my cousin's wedding. If a strike occurs when I am traveling, I'll do what we did with my sister -- Buy whatever ticket I need in the same class of service on which I was ticketed on BA (in my case, First Class) and seek compensation from BA. If tghey were willing to offer it for a strike from involving a third party company (albeit one of their subcontractors), the case to offer it when it is their own employees is that much stronger.

Dr Groggy

In addition you need to have booked before the strikes were announced (which clearly you have).

Just adding some background info to the above:

https://www.iplatinum.americanexpres...ryBenefits.pdf

Callum_1

I'm flying out to MRU tomorrow, and due to fly back on the 17th. If a strike date is announced on Monday, and it's 7 days out (being the 17th) I'm shafted - flying on ID100 fares standby!!! yikes!

Frequentflyer99

Can anyone confirm that this will not affect GB Airways flights ? According to the GB Airways website :-

21st February 2008

GB Airways NOT AFFECTED if strike action is taken
British Airways has today received confirmation from the British Airline Pilots Union (BALPA) that members it represents at the airline have balloted in favour of taking industrial action over the airline’s plans to set up a new subsidiary, OpenSkies, flying between Europe and the USA.

If the proposed strike action by British Airways pilots goes ahead, GB Airways flights WILL NOT be affected and will operate as normal.

Is this in fact correct ???

brentford77

Well I for one have every sympathy with the airline here. Just who the heck do Balpa think they are? Wake up and smell the coffee!!!

The continued degredation of BA - think diposal of connect, GB, BMed - is because yes, you guessed it, BA is a monolith with a cost base and unsustainable perks such as the pension scheme that simply aren't competitive today. Balpa needs to realise that things ARE going to change for BA pilots (and other staff for that matter). That will either happen with a reasoned approach from the union toward issues like open skies, or it will happen because eventually BA will go the way of Eastern, Pan Am etc.

The head in sand militant approach will probably win them concessions in the short term, but longer term, their stance is like digging their own grave.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

My vote goes to the pilots and staff ^ (and I do have flights which may be affected if the action goes ahead).

I'm sure the pension scheme liabilities would be looking a bit better if BA hadn't accrued almost GPB270 million in fines for price fixing.

Regards

lme ff

malcolmcampbell

We are off to Barbados in F on Thursday 13th so we should get away ok. Coming back to GLA via Gatwick on the 26th so there is a risk of being stuck in Barbados. On reading the EC regs it appears that BA will provide meals and hotel if necesary and a re-routing under comparable travel conditions to the final destination at the earliest opportunity.

Is my interpretation correct? - this certainly didn't happen at LHR during the gate gourmet walk out a couple of years ago when the BA staff disappeared and we were left to sort things out ourselves.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi malcomcampbell,

I think when Gate gourmet happend, a lot of people had to pay for hotel rooms and reclaim the money from BA later . ( I think some people also paid for alternative flights as they could not get through to BA)

I may have a risk of being stuck in muscat if there is a strike around 23rd/24th March.

Regards

TBS

Skimo

Three pages and 38 posts before this informative thread got angry. Impressive!. Could I respectfully direct your rant here? -> http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=781657

malcolmcampbell

Good luck - at least there are worse places to be stuck than Muscat and Barbados

Carlton

On a purely selfish note, if they called a strike on Monday 17th (which is what I understand from here, is the earliest they can), when do they actually stop flying? For example would long haul leaving on the 16th and arriving to LHR around 5am be affected? As much as I love SIN, five weeks away is enough!!

C.

Cluster One

Surely that only expedites a restart for outbound passengers, but leaves inbound passengers stranded for an extra day?
For the high frequence TATL services would it not help to leave aircraft and crews in position?

Regards

(Self + 5 family to MIA 20 March)