Does anybody have any words of wisdom about what to expect come Jan 29 if the strike does go forth (chaos, yes, but other than than )

My 75 year old father is scheduled to return home from London -- LGW-ATL on the 29th. I told him that if he is delayed a couple of days better London than lots of places I can mention. But I do worry about him spending 18 hours a day at LGW trying to get a flight home.

He going over for a specific event (leaving Wed) and BA (according to him) won't let him cancel, only reschedule his trip (which does him no good ).

I've survived much labor action here in the US over the years, but have no idea what to expect w.r.t. the UK. Will (can?) BA try to operate? Do they have mutual support agreements with other airlines? If flights are canceled will they try to schedule him on other airlines? Just OneWorld partners? Or does he just wait until they are flying again?

Thanks in advance.

Check the British Airways boards for volumes of discussion on this topic, but the consensus seems to be -- book away from the strike-target dates if at all possible; BA is not going to rebook people on strike-hit flights until things actually hit the fan; BA is famous for raging, atomic airport meltdowns owing to weather or staff issues, and this is shaping up as another such case.

Get your dad out of this now, by changing dates or airlines, while you can.

BearX220, BA are letting you rebook - but not cancel. Unfortunately now, a lot of the alternative dates are now booked solid, and getting through to the line which is dealing with this has been very difficult However, it may be worthwhile for the OP's father to try and secure something post strike, which would at least remove the uncertainty of having to hang around the airport on strike days?

As to how bad - we don't know. It really depends on how many crew do strike - given the 96% vote in favour on an 80% turnout, it's not looking good. There is one crew union not affected, but they are very much smaller than BASSA...

I would keep monitoring the BA threads - but until the strike hits, we won't know how bad it's going to be.

Thanks for the pointers. I figured as this was not related to BA Executive Club it better posted here

BA did say they would hold a seat for him on the Sunday (Jan28 ) flight until Thursday, when he must choose.

Being in ATL he mostly flies DL -- but BA was $50 cheaper. I guess he's gotten his monies worth in added excitement

I don't know if this would help, in fact it probably wont, but I will share anyways.

I had a full fare J ticket booked in between the dates of the strike.

I called and cancelled that ticket and rebooked on American. American's fare was higher, but I called and they found me a different fare that worked out to be about the same. Not sure if that would work for you (I do have status with AA, don't know if that had something to do with it). It may be worth a try.

Thanks. Its an el-cheapo ticket and my Dad has no status with anybody (he could have been silver on DL if he'd done a MR for the last couple thousand miles)

From reading the BA forum it sounds like he got a good agent to "double book" him on Sun and Mon.

It's not a big deal in the scheme of things -- a four day trip is reduced to three and I miss an extra day of hanging out with my dad drinking beer. The joys of travel

There is a very large, fast-moving thread on the BA labor issues in our British Airways forum
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=647764

Accordingly I'll close this here and recommend you join the cited thread for the most up-to-date info. Ocn Vw 1K, CoMod, TravelBuzz