[travelleryogi]

Hello guys…. i am new to this forum, but what I have seen here is that contributors in this forum have lost the idea of main subject. Some replies are personal, and some are emotional. That’s human… and it is possible.

In the same manner stated above, cabin crew of BA and Unite also lost the main idea of forming the union. I think the union was formed to protect employees interest, but it seems like they are damaging travellers interest more.

The employment contracts of British Airways when compared to other airlines like Emirates or Singapore are completely different. EK or SQ staff cannot think of industrial action, bcoz they know the consequences after that.

Whereas, BA cabin crew (a majority of them) are permanent staff. They are protected by numerous UK and European union laws. So, here is a case of too much democracy in a country and in a company…. which has got its own downfalls.

So bottomline…….Amend your UK employment laws which will not hold customers to ransom. Cover industries like transport, catering, postal, telecom, healtcare …… etc under a new law called “ESA”.
This will be termed as ESSENTIAL SERVICES ACT…. People who are working under these sectors should not threaten a strike in the future.

I know it is difficult, but I see no way out. Over to you people…. please dont pounce on me… it is only a discussion forum…. and please remember to have a merry christmas and happy new year.

[MichaelFlueck]

Get real.. !! Again I think there is something with the brian from that Island. Has the Cabin Crew from BA not yet heard about the global crises we are all in? We are happy to keep our jobs, we are working overtime to keep our jobs. We will get no race in 2010 and they will do a strike! I love to fly BA because of there beds in Business, but the cabin crew, are not the best in Europe, not the most helpfull but the best paid and the will get an increase of 2 – 7 % for 2010 and are unhappy!! They have to work while they are in the air for 10 hours.. sorry everybody has to work while they are paid.. we get nothing for free.. they can work with one F/A less on international flights and still will not be overworked, but maybe the Service Director may start to do something for his money? He get’s over £ 60’000 a year and is not worth the money the most of the time. So I have no understanding of what’s happen here.. !!!

[Binman62]

This year alone CX LH SQ and QF all of which are good but not as good as BA. I realise this is a perosnal view.

The issue I was adressing however was that the talk of never flying with them again. It is heard time and time again but people do and will. If BA handle the recovery right people will again and in a very short time this issue will be forgotten.

[excessbaggage]

Binman62 – i partly agree with you. People will of course continue to travel with BA – in many cases they have no choice as their company travel policy determines it. And the fact is that BA flies to most of the places we need to go to from the UK, and particularly from London.

However i do feel that the reputation of the carrier is gradually being eroded, and i’m not sure it will ever fully recover, certainly not to the extent of being “The World’s Favourite Airline” ever again.

I would still far rather fly with BA than Ryanair, but the margin of difference is closing – no food on short haul flights, paying for advance seating, etc. How long will it be before BA takes on more of the low cost carrier philosophies like charging for food on board or insisting on online check-in only?

In years gone by i would have been proud to have associated BA with Great Britain – how many foreigners now look at the carrier and wish they had a similar airline – not many i’ll bet.

[RonaldoJ21]

Well I am afraid I am on the side of sanity. This is suicide for the airline. On a long haul flight recently two the Cabin Crew told me they were bored as after serving the meal there was little to do for the next 8 hours until breakfast. Like many, I am off to Virgin.
The Cabin crew are greedy and selfish – wrecking the holidays of so many when they have the best pay and conditions of any airline.

[David]

What the strike threat is in practice doing, is giving the passenger the opportunity (need) to sample other product as well. Will most return to BA again (to some degree)? Probably. Will passengers suddenly find him/herself with other viable options (having tasted the competition)? Certainly.

In my personal case I (sensing the winter of discontent), chose to move exclusively away from BA for a 3 month period (November, December and January). I have long since requalified for Gold status and was generally interested (forced) to try other carriers. Over this 3 month period I will have used the Business Class products of Thai, Finnair, Qatar Airways, Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, El Al and SAS. Normally this travel would have all been on BA. Will I go back to BA? Yes. Will I in the future however sample other products as well? Yes.

One of the worse acts a for-profit concern can do is to introduce its customers to the competition. They may just like what they find.

[NTarrant]

Perhaps with the announcement of FlyGlobespan going under, the crews might wake up to what could be the same end for them. The crews are loosing support, even if they had much, from the public due to the timing. As usual the unions try to be political and spoil any case they may or may not have had.

I am sure that there are many Globspan crews wishing they had the jobs the BA crews do.

[beethoven]

What rubbish. Defending the cabin crew, you are obviously one of them. Take our case. We were to have our Grandmother and two Aunts from the US for Xmas, we have planned it for years ! Now the BA staff have ruined it all for us, thank you so much I will NEVER forget or forgive you for this. You are the highest paid cabin crew in Great Britiain & probably Europe, what a greedy money grabbing bunch. Poor BA, how is it supposed to recover from this ? How is MY FAMILY suppoosed to recover from this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GTR_Skyline]

Binman – my apologies – didn’t mean to be rude on my reply…..as per the other comments on this thread, the BA Cabin Crew think they are somewhat special when in the current climate we are all working very hard to pay our bills and survive. I have seen colleagues around me made redundant and I’ve been on a pay freeze for the last 2 years…and I work for a FTSE 10 company….

As the last post says, poor BA – in the good days, the food was great, you were proud to board the flight in a far away land to return home, you would look forward to those lovely smoothies and bacon sarnies on the red eye from Chicago.

The BA Cabin crew have ruined all of this and ruined BA overall – I feel sorry for the other hard working team at BA….

BA will really struggle to recover from this incident – even if the strikes are averted, the long term damage is done….

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Fast Forward to 2010. I am looking to book a summer holiday. I search various travel-price-comparison-websites. BA comes out with a good price, at convenient times I wish to fly. I book, saving myself ££, fogetting the misery of christmas strikes 09 – delighted to have saved money for my summer holiday! We all love happily ever after.

BA will no doubt loose many customers over this misery, but, the majority of people will soon forget and happily book a cheap deal again next year.

[GTR_Skyline]

ComeFlywithMe – good for you….lets just hope there aren’t further strikes when you’re time to travel arrives in 2010

[Binman62]

I need to be clear that I am not connected to BA in any way other than a passenger.

I have no sympathy with the crew or their position.

If I had faced this situation last Christmas, given my personal circumstances at that time, I would have been incandescent with rage and so I have real empathy with everyone who may have their Christmas disrupted.

The fact remains that when the dust settles on this, BA will win back customers from around the globe.

As for countries not wanting BA…try these

Greece / Italy / Belgium / I would argue France along with most of western europe with the exception of LH KL SK / all of the USA!! / The whole of Africa / I could go on….

The reality is BA are a world class airline, with a solid product base and there are in reality very few carriers in this premier league.

This action is damaging, I agree it is a further errosion of its reputation, but not fatal, even if it does happen and that is far from certain…even now.

[Binman62]

So the ballot was illegal……..looks like the judge saved Christmas.

[boxingclever]

This is good news !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8418805.stm

[Cantona07]

Well what a suprise, the strike is all off, the unions got what they deserved, ..nothing, total dimwits.

Unite must think we all live in 1970’s what a joke they look like, I hope they get rolled over again, what a bunch of total 70’s misfits

[Author]

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