[SimonS1]

Confirmed as 9th, 10th and 27th Sept.

Stand by for mass cancellations and denial of any EC261 compensation claims.

All going pear shaped at Waterside Towers these days. Cue another appearance by that veteran crisis manager ‘Alex-in-a-flak-jacket’.

[Stowage222]

Yes Simon, it looks like The Cruzifier is batting down the hatches for a fight. I’d still be surprised that a deal isn’t reached beforehand as this is managerial suicide in terms of cost financially and reputationally in this important centenary year.

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=954432]Yes Simon, it looks like The Cruzifier is batting down the hatches for a fight. I’d still be surprised that a deal isn’t reached beforehand as this is managerial suicide in terms of cost financially and reputationally in this important centenary year.[/quote]

To be honest AC reminds me of the manager of my local corner shop – fairly insipid and just acting to orders.

According to BASSA the gap between the positions is about £5m, and the cost of a day’s strike is £40m. That may or may not be true but if Willie Walsh is spoiling for a strike then nothing will stop him. In fact it’s almost exactly 10 years since pilots took a 2.6% pay cut to help BA shore up its finances but now ow of course the airline is making records profits and that is all airbrushed.

Even the chaps on duty on Flyertalk are having trouble polishing this turd to make BA look good.

[Gold-2K]

Yup I’ve just had an email saying my flight to JFK on 8th has been cancelled. No personal contact to a GGL for life member, just a standard “dear customer” and go to “Manage my booking” and sort it yourself.

Thanks for nothing!

And just noticed I’m also booked to travel with them on 27th September also. I guess It will be too much to expect the “priority” line to help me with that minor inconvenience also?

[openfly]

There won’t be any strikes!

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=954455]There won’t be any strikes![/quote]

Maybe, but that is unlikely to help the tens of thousands of travellers who have already had flights cancelled. Many of whom are being rebooked for days later.

[capetonianm]

Isn’t Alex doing well!

Time to dust off that hi-viz jacket, amigo!

[frustratedflyer]

So I got my email this morning telling me my return flight had been cancelled. Had 2 calls to BA which were cut off as I connected after 25mins. Then struggled to get connected and then eventually got put through after an hour to be told that some people including me had received emails in error and my flight was actually running! That’s 2.5 hours of my life that I won’t get back.

Just wonder how many other people have been sent incorrect emails and put unneeded strain on BAs Tel lines?

Manage my booking still shows my flight as cancelled so things do seem in meltdown!

1 user thanked author for this post.

AFlyingDutchman

[Cedric_Statherby]

So, sighs of relief in many households, and anguish and anxiety in others.

But why should BA’s pilots, or indeed anyone working in public transport, have the right to put passengers through this lottery? Why does society still tolerate the mayhem and chaos transport strikes inflict on the lives of people totally unconnected with the dispute? Why are the two sides in any dispute – in this case BA and its pilots – immune from being made to compensate people for the full loses they suffer? Travel companies refund only the fare, which is often merely a fraction of the true costs people incur, while unions pay nothing at all for the inconvenience and worse they cause to thousands of people.

There will always be labour disputes. But a civilised society should by the 21st century have found a better, more equitable and less damaging way of solving them than this casual disruption of innocent people’s lives.

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PeterCoultas, DerekVH, Seat62k, FaroFlyer, AFlyingDutchman, BA789, Jacob, MartynSinclair, GivingupBA, ImissConcorde

[Otte]

With today’s greedy inhumane management of certain companies,the ONLY way to get some justice is to strike.
Airlines/Airports strikes are usually high profile,with huge chaos,therefore the culprits are with their back to wall.
If they were decent leaders and managers,strikes would not happen.

Unfortunately if you are a cleaner somewhere,abused by your employer,you can strike all you want,no one will give a damn.

So I’m glad BA is having to deal with this head ache.Not sure though if the pilots are right or wrong with their demands,but TG they can put pressure on BA through public inconvenience and loss of revenues.

Do you really think they would listen to any of their employees,if a strike was not an option?

Mix fleets are a perfect example for their greedy ridiculous handling of young people.
Demanding the world from them,and paying them peanuts .That phenomenon should worry all of us,and try we all should try and look at it beyond our journey’s disturbance.

Flew them lately in Club Long haul,and they have much to explain re their service failures.However my thousands of pounds are in their pocket by now ,so who cares.

If they treat their pilots and f/a like they treat their premium customers,then a strike is well justified.
But ofcourse it won’t take place.Pilots are the very last group of employees any airline wants to mess with.

[SimonS1]

The reverse argument is that a civilised society is one where employees as well as employers have rights. There are plenty of countries where there are no protections and employees live in fear for their jobs.

Plus aren’t their two sides to every dispute? Remember when BA was making losses, the pilots took a pay cut (recommended by the unions) to help the airline’s finances. Now of course the airline is making record profits and no-one remembers that. However this is the race to the bottom and WW is determined to lead the way.

Of course in days gone by, a decision on which flights to cancel would have been left to nearer the time when the likely impact/participation was clearer (bearing in mind there are still 2 weeks left for negotiation/arbitration). Of course we all know the reason that BA immediate cancelled dozens of flights is that by giving 14 days notice it removes any requirement to pay compensation under EC261. Note the statement on BA website:

[quote]“cancellations were made as soon as we received dates from BALPA. As this was 14 days before the strike action starts EU261 compensation is not payable.”[/quote]

Nothing like getting the first blow in….I doubt Michael O’Leary would have done a better job.

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GivingupBA, Swissdiver

[capetonianm]

Interesting comment from BBC website : https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49458342

Abby Deem, 32, from Cambridge said her honeymoon plans had been “ruined” after her business class flight to Mauritius on 9 September was cancelled.

“We’ve been looking forward to this flight for a year,” she said.

“Neither of us have ever had the luxury to travel business class, and after the wedding it seemed the perfect way to start our honeymoon.”

They have now booked economy flights with Emirates and they estimate it will cost them an extra £500.

If Emirates economy, even if booked only a couple of weeks ahead, is £500 more expensive than BA business class, imagine how cheap BA must have been.
Truly you get what you pay for.

[TiredOldHack2]

[quote quote=954467]some people including me had received emails in error and my flight was actually running![/quote]

My daughter work for Club Med and has spent most of the day sorting out the latest BA screw-up, including, yes, people who had been told their flights were cancelled when they weren’t.

My experience (I’m BA Gold, by the way):

Flying out to AMS on 31 August, then in CW to JNB via LHR for a very, very nice holiday. Couple of nights in decent hotels, three nights in a safari lodge, four in another, then home on 10 September, arrive LHR 11 September, hop back over to AMS, day and a night there, back and all over on 12 September.

10 September flight has been killed. I received the email while I was, in a supreme irony, in the BA lounge in ORD last night.

Quandary – do I take the risk of flying out and hoping the strike will not happen, do I cancel everything, or do I try and arrange different flights. Unsurprisingly, everything is booked and it looks like the earliest flights we can out of JNB, in J or F, are from 14 September.

CluB Med daughter gets on the case and announces she can get three seats in J our of JNB on the September 11. I note that BA says if manage to rebook on a later flight, they’ll pay whatever the extra cost is.

The three one-way flights are £9,983. It’s worth pointing out that the original return flights from AMS, with car hire thrown in, were 5,459 euros.

Well, BA says it’ll pay the extra, so I waved the Amex and grabbed them.It means our AMS connection and stay blows out, and I booked the hotel as non-refundable (of course!) but we can live with that and claim off the insurance.

I assume that if the strike doesn’t happen, then we revert to the original.

If anyone from BA is reading this, I promise you this: if there is even the slightest attempt to avoid recompensing me for this colossal spend, I will open the gates of Hell.

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=954485]The reverse argument is that a civilised society is one where employees as well as employers have rights.[/quote]

I agree with this statement 100%, but I do not agree with labour being withdrawn and the unintended consequences (or intended consequences perhaps) having such an effect on the travelling public.

As Cedric suggests there must be another civilised way for employees to retain their contractual rights, employers to have the ability to run their business and the travelling public be able to expect, not to be inconvenienced.

[Swissdiver]

[quote quote=954495]

SimonS1 wrote:

The reverse argument is that a civilised society is one where employees as well as employers have rights.

I agree with this statement 100%, but I do not agree with labour being withdrawn and the unintended consequences (or intended consequences perhaps) having such an effect on the travelling public.

As Cedric suggests there must be another civilised way for employees to retain their contractual rights, employers to have the ability to run their business and the travelling public be able to expect, not to be inconvenienced.[/quote]

Not with WW and his pet, AC. It’s hardball negotiating at the cost of the clients, something neither of them give a rat’s ass (pardon my French). Now I am not taking a side here, but it takes two to tango.

[Author]

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