Booking flights with BA

All the best, and let's hope the outcome is acceptable to all concerned.
I always fly BA, given the choice. We are hoping to fly to southern Africa again this year, so our fingers are crossed for you.

Tony

Hic

Matt,

Good luck. How will it affect code share flights with Quantas? My mother in law is due to fly on the 7th! You guys could be doing me a favour.

Regards

Milan

What going by Quantas - I once waited 43 hours at Heathrow for a Quantas flight to take off

Matt,

I am booked to fly AUH-LHR with BA on the 03rd (to collect my 555!)What is your suggestion?

Thanks
David

Sorry! Thats the 03rd February!!

Tony, Milan & David
First may I stress that there is still hope that "last gasp" negotiations may save the day. I certainly hope so.
However, I was at 2 meetings/briefings yesterday with some fairly senior management. They said that although the 1st strike date isn't until 29th Jan, they (ba management that is) will have to stop negotiations as from 24th or 25th of Jan in order to concentrate fully on implementing their contingency plans for our customers. They do not want to inform staff yet what those plans consist of, but they have had substantial time to arrange such things as chartering in other planes, swapping flights around etc etc. The website BA.com is effectively now "blocked out", so that senior managers can manipulate future allocation of any available seats. I STRESS that these are not yet confirmed plans, & all yet may be resolved. Despite what some of the media are saying, intensive talks are continuing late into the night, every day.
Tony. When are you flying to S.A.? If its in the near future, say before end of Feb, flights may be compromised. AFter March or so, whatever the outcome, things should be fairly normal, unless BA goes broke.
Milan, codeshare flights with QA on the 7th Feb.
This is a little way in the future, & things can change so much day-by-day, its difficult to predict with any accuracy. If it were me, I would ask the travel agent to confirm that she is flying on a Qantas flight,plane (& therefore crew) to be sure. If its BA 009, BA015 to Sydney, it could be affected.
If its BA7372 or 7312 or 7306, thats operated by Qantas & SHOULD be ok. I would still contact the travel agent, or BA.com to confirm this, just in case I've made a boo-boo.
David, as for your flight, its cancelled. Forget it. Serves you right for getting a 555, you lucky sod! No seriously, the 3rd of Feb is touch & go. Its a few days after the first round of dates, & just before the start of the 2nd, & the success of this flight may well depend on the outcome of the strike, the success of the contingency plans & also the ongoing talks between now & the 3rd.
As much as I hate doing this, I would have to recommend looking at swapping on to an alternative carrier,eg Emirates.
Once again, I hope that all this comes to nothing, & you can all accuse me of "scare-mongering". There is a chance that the present talks can save this all from happening. But do keep in touch with your travel agent, BA.com or whoever you bought your ticket with.
I hope that helps a bit, sorry I can't be more specific.
Matt.

Thanks Matt,

Good luck with the talks.

Milan

Good luck Matt,

Flew on BA73 yesterday and the crew were all against taking action. They also said that staff travel for BA personnel was being suspended.
Given the helpfulness of cabin crew generally it seems a shame they are hung up between what seems to me to be belligerent unions and ham fisted management.

Hope a solution turns up soon.

David

I always fly BA if I can but I have to think that given recent history (not necessarily their fault) goodwill may be running out in some quarters. This strike will do them no favours.

As for the strike itself, I have no sympathy. Fair enough that colds etc. and things that are exacerbated by altitude should be accepted as a reason for not being able to work as opposed to being counted as sick days. But claiming that you cannot work in your job with an ingrown toenail is just skiving. If the CC take the more esoteric absence excuses off the table maybe the two sides can reach an agreement.

Just to note that pilots cannot fly under some of the same circumstances by law (I have a pilot's license). Those laws do not cover ingrown toenails! If they can turn up for duty then so can the CC.

Duncan

P.S. Just booked a couple of BA flights this morning.

Duncan,
I fully agree that many loyal customers must well be at the end of their tether with BA's recent problems. To be fair, some are out of BA's control, ie terrorist events & adverse weather, but too many are self-inflicted.
You say you have NO sympathy with the strike, but do agree that (at least some) of the elements such as flying with colds should not be counted as sick days.
I assume you are referring to FCO's when you are talking of pilots flying under the same laws. That is the basis for the list of discountable reasons for c.crew, but pilots can still fly planes with facial disfigurements,surgery scars, etc, but c. crew shouldn't.
As far as ingrown toenails are concerned, pilots sit down a lot, crew can be on their feet for many hours at a time, & in formal shoes, not mocassins or slippers (as some USA airlines can wear whilst on board!!). I am told that this is painful.

Anyway, the sickness policy is all but signed off now,including a mutually agreed list of conditions. Its just a matter of crossing the i's & dotting the t's.
Unfortunately, there are other issues where a significant breakthrough has yet to be achieved, but hey, here's hoping.
Thanks for sticking with BA with your latest flights. I sincerely hope BA resolve this mess ASAP. It does nothing but massively inconvenience our customers, cost the company far too much money, & throws a bad light on my working colleagues & I. Nobody comes out of this with any glory, The argument is that it should never have got this far in the first place.
matt.

OK Matt, I have some sympathy. But surely a more amenable approach to thorny issue of toenails would to be to ask for a concession to wearing alternative footwear if you were afflicted rather than asking for a paid day off. I doubt if postmen get such holidays! The current stance is not one likely to garner much support at large.

Duncan

Maybe the alternative footwear approach is one of the concessions that was agreed to negotiate this problem out! Not a bad idea, actually.
It is however, a sad, but expected reality that serious issues have been trivialised by the media to the degree that a proportion of intelligent people think that the strike is all about "ingrown toenails". There really is so much more to it than this.
I did not start this post to garner support, but merely to minimise disruption to any fellow Naim enthusiasts where possible. I believe the tone of my posts have upheld that priority.
The vast majority of media reports come via the BA press office, & so it is logical to assume that they are not entirely neutral, & will highlight relatively trivial issues such as toenails to throw a negative light on crew.
The crew knew in advance that we would probably lose the PR war, due to having a significantly smaller PR budget than the company.So be it.
Still hoping for a negotiated resolution.
matt.

quote:

It is however, a sad, but expected reality that serious issues have been trivialised by the media to the degree that a proportion of intelligent people think that the strike is all about "ingrown toenails". There really is so much more to it than this.

Indeed. But when such oddities as this issue are put onto the table your union do not help themselves or their members. Tell them (they work for you!) to cut out the crap and deal with the important issues such as pensions, etc..

Duncan

Duncan
The "crap" appears to have been dealt with. At the moment, the important issues are being dealt with as we speak (type?), hence the relative media blackout. I hope I am not being nieve in taking this silence as a good sign.
matt.

As a matter of principle I avoid flying BA whenever possible, and almost all of the people I know who fly regularly do the same. The reason for this is the fact that they have a habit of losing baggage and the snotty and high-handed manner of many of the BA staff, particularly the check-in staff and those dealing with queries.
BA may have decided that they are the worlds favourite airline but I've found that pretty much every other airline is better. The only one I found that was worse was the Virgin Sabena partnership - Sabena themselves were fine. This latest strike certainly hasn't helped their cause. The sooner they are replaced by Easyjet on their routes the better as far as I'm concerned. At least their people treat you better

Not my experience at all with BA, interesting that midlanders take offence at the Checkin Staff.

I'm not a midlander and neither are any of the other people I know who avoid BA

quote:

Originally posted by jcs_smith:
The only one I found that was worse was the Virgin Sabena partnership - Sabena themselves were fine.

Only flew Sabena twice before they went bust. Not a good experience as they really lived up to their name "Such A Bad Experience Never Again".

BA always worked pretty well, indeed I had one of their gold cards, that was up until they abandoned the Belfast/Heathrow route. Rendered them pretty much obsolete for me.

Regards,

Willy.

I flew Sabena once a week for nearly 2 years. Never had any problems