British Airways Strike!

[david'sgirl 134]

Has anyone else just had their christmas and new year plans ruined by the greedy *!@%! at British Strikeways? I was due to fly with them on christmas eve. I can't get any information cos the phonelines tell you they are very busy and to try again later and cut you off! Nice! Thanks!

I really hope they decide which flights will be affected well in advance of the holiday so we can rebook.

If the cabin crew hope to garner any sympathy at all, I would say stranding customers at Christmas is not the way to do it. I've read both sides and all I see is a bunch of selfish whiny flying waiters and waitresses. They lost any respect I had for them and I would bet I'm not alone.

[CaMic 0]

Rob and Jill though II spent an AWFUL lot of time checking out prices for different dates and on different sites beforehand then direct to each airline's websites too. I'll search umpteen times to see the difference in price one day will make on either end of the trip. If you are booking a return flight and can wait until into the second week in January to come home, you can still get flights the same price that I paid via Continental directly or kayak.co.uk n those ones are out of Edinburgh (but I still plugged Fayettville Northwest Arkansas in as the destination). I also did a check for other dates and got a price of £3014 (around $5000???). Apart from the current BA strike thing, the airlines are banking on ppl needing to return to work straight after new year, so that first week in January is always about double the price in my experience.

If you need to book a flight keep searching and try to be flexible on the dates.

Lioncub4 I'm sure booking continental/BOS will be fine it seemed to be Halifax's 'safe seal' or 'secure seal' that caused the problem whilst at the same time continental's website said it was undergoing maintenance and may be slow. I had to try booking 3 or 4 times and got different errors each time but in the end it said my flights were reserved, it was only after Halifax removed the security hold from my payment that my reservation 'disappeared'. If in doubt, ring the reservation line. You have to wait until after the 17th to book anything though right? However, I did that reservation on SATURDAY and it held until today so maybe you could reserve it and not actually pay until the 17th?? I was logged in on my Onepass account at the time and I don't know if that affected it any. 2.30 am and I'm rambling, lol, couldnt sleep so I got back up and this is the result.

[CaMic 0]

Has anyone else just had their christmas and new year plans ruined by the greedy *!@%! at British Strikeways? I was due to fly with them on christmas eve. I can't get any information cos the phonelines tell you they are very busy and to try again later and cut you off! Nice! Thanks!

I really hope they decide which flights will be affected well in advance of the holiday so we can rebook.

If the cabin crew hope to garner any sympathy at all, I would say stranding customers at Christmas is not the way to do it. I've read both sides and all I see is a bunch of selfish whiny flying waiters and waitresses. They lost any respect I had for them and I would bet I'm not alone.

not when the news specifically highlighted that other airlines already implement the changes BA want to make and that BA cabin crew are the highest paid in the UK, earning 2x what Virgin Airlines staff do!! I sure hope you get something sorted, maybe I just had a fluke with continental holding the reservation for 3 days but it could be worth a look.

[david'sgirl 134]

Rob and Jill though II spent an AWFUL lot of time checking out prices for different dates and on different sites beforehand then direct to each airline's websites too. I'll search umpteen times to see the difference in price one day will make on either end of the trip. If you are booking a return flight and can wait until into the second week in January to come home, you can still get flights the same price that I paid via Continental directly or kayak.co.uk n those ones are out of Edinburgh (but I still plugged Fayettville Northwest Arkansas in as the destination). I also did a check for other dates and got a price of £3014 (around $5000???). Apart from the current BA strike thing, the airlines are banking on ppl needing to return to work straight after new year, so that first week in January is always about double the price in my experience.

If you need to book a flight keep searching and try to be flexible on the dates.

Lioncub4 I'm sure booking continental/BOS will be fine it seemed to be Halifax's 'safe seal' or 'secure seal' that caused the problem whilst at the same time continental's website said it was undergoing maintenance and may be slow. I had to try booking 3 or 4 times and got different errors each time but in the end it said my flights were reserved, it was only after Halifax removed the security hold from my payment that my reservation 'disappeared'. If in doubt, ring the reservation line. You have to wait until after the 17th to book anything though right? However, I did that reservation on SATURDAY and it held until today so maybe you could reserve it and not actually pay until the 17th?? I was logged in on my Onepass account at the time and I don't know if that affected it any. 2.30 am and I'm rambling, lol, couldnt sleep so I got back up and this is the result.

My hubby is booked for Dec 24th and I am so worried that BA plans not to "cancel" until it is too late to get anything else. I was so happy and excited until we found out about the strike. I hope we all find alternative flights and can be with our familes for the holidays.

[CaMic 0]

Rob and Jill though II spent an AWFUL lot of time checking out prices for different dates and on different sites beforehand then direct to each airline's websites too. I'll search umpteen times to see the difference in price one day will make on either end of the trip. If you are booking a return flight and can wait until into the second week in January to come home, you can still get flights the same price that I paid via Continental directly or kayak.co.uk n those ones are out of Edinburgh (but I still plugged Fayettville Northwest Arkansas in as the destination). I also did a check for other dates and got a price of £3014 (around $5000???). Apart from the current BA strike thing, the airlines are banking on ppl needing to return to work straight after new year, so that first week in January is always about double the price in my experience.

If you need to book a flight keep searching and try to be flexible on the dates.

Lioncub4 I'm sure booking continental/BOS will be fine it seemed to be Halifax's 'safe seal' or 'secure seal' that caused the problem whilst at the same time continental's website said it was undergoing maintenance and may be slow. I had to try booking 3 or 4 times and got different errors each time but in the end it said my flights were reserved, it was only after Halifax removed the security hold from my payment that my reservation 'disappeared'. If in doubt, ring the reservation line. You have to wait until after the 17th to book anything though right? However, I did that reservation on SATURDAY and it held until today so maybe you could reserve it and not actually pay until the 17th?? I was logged in on my Onepass account at the time and I don't know if that affected it any. 2.30 am and I'm rambling, lol, couldnt sleep so I got back up and this is the result.

My hubby is booked for Dec 24th and I am so worried that BA plans not to "cancel" until it is too late to get anything else. I was so happy and excited until we found out about the strike. I hope we all find alternative flights and can be with our familes for the holidays.

I think the BA bosses are going to want to do some damage control and FAST otherwise the public will lose faith in them full stop and they'll go under. Having flights cancelled is stressful at the best of times and seriously bad PR, to do it at christmas must be their worst nightmare so I hope that spurs them into doing the very best they can for those affected. I really am so sorry for everyone affected and feel lousey that "I'm alright Jack"and you're not - though I've had a really horrendous cpl weeks in other ways.

[Jewel-8 21]

I put a harsh comment on my Facebook about it.. "Maybe we should boycott British Airways so that the 92.5 percent of their union that had voted to strike over the holidays can continue to be hit by layoffs. They should feel lucky to even have jobs at all. Half of the people on my friends list, as well as myself, could be laid off any time now. SCR** greedy unionized b*(@&%@*." - edited only slightly

My sister who was VP of the local CWA union will have something to say about it for sure. My view is that if that job was so horrible than why do all of my friends that have done it loved it? I am all about unions for people that work dangerous jobs such as as the railroad, on high rises, and especially at the oil refineries. Asking people if they would like peanuts does not seem like a very dangerous job to me. Especially with all the security we have now. If there was no security and hijacking still happened then I would understand.

I hope the other companies see the potential in this strike and begin offering more flights. It sounds like BA crew will be more likely to be laid off now that noone can trust them to show up for their jobs. Letting people down over the holidays will not go well.

[gmjdmj 2]

After 7 months of waiting to be together and having gone through this process like everyone on here...David was and hopefully will arrive on the 31st of Dec on BA. He called me this morning to tell me about the strike and I was so upset and still am. I cannot believe that once again we are having to wait on someone else to decide our fate and still don't know when this issue will be resolved. Right now, our choice is to wait it out or book another flight and loose the money which we really can't afford to do. I called BA tonight and waited for 45 minutes to speak to someone and they are not even sure if the strike will happen but said that in the next couple of days, it will be resolved. They did say that they could push his flight back to the 4th of January, of course that is the day we are to meet with the minister about the wedding. My concern like everyone else is that if we do wait it out and don't try to book another ticket then when they do decide to cancel the flight, there won't be any available. I have planned a welcome home party for him on the 2nd along with other appointments in reference to our wedding and having to push his flight date book would ruin all of that. I was told not to plan anything until the visa was in his hand and I didn't and now...I am not sure that I can still plan anything...I never dreamed that after all of this, we would have to deal with an airline strike as well... I just hope that get this ####### resolved soon so that we can all go back to planning our futures instead of once again waiting on someone else to tell us when we can.

[DisneyLovers 18]

My parents are due to board their plane to LAX in 3 and a half hours, they know their outbound trip to stay for the holidays with us is set to go as scheduled but they may end up staying with us into the new year if their flight on the 29th gets canceled.. good thing my dad owns his business and doesn't open back up until the 2nd which he can leave his manager to do and that we have enough space to accommodate them for longer if need be, I'm sure my Mum is hoping that their home bound flight gets pushed back so she can go to Disneyland for a few more days. but hopefully they wont get too affected going home. the past few times we've flown the cabin crew seemed like butlins party reps more than cabin crew, Im not saying it's not a taxing tiring job but they always have seemed to enjoy what they do when we've flown.. no wonder if they're getting 2x what virgin staff get

[Mintchip 0]

Don't we all have enough stress in our lives without airline strikes??? Most of the time, I take Aer Lingus because it is almost always the cheapest way to fly. British Air is a nicer experience when there aren't any issues, but you do pay for that by a couple of hundred dollars at least.

Best of luck to all of you trying to get together in light of this current problem.

[scotinmass 588]

I had flown a few times from Edinburgh to Heathrow on BA and thought they were excellent and when I finally booked with them earlier this year all the way to Boston I was looking forward to it. But what a disappointment. The plane was old and vibrated on take off so much that I thought it would shake apart. There was absolutely no entertainment at all. No tv. Nothing. The staff on the flight there were ok and it wasn't too much of an ordeal. The return flight was staffed by the crew from hell! They were awful and didn't serve drinks with the meal and when i complained I got the sarcastic treatment! I vowed then never to fly transatlantic with them again. But when i was booking my flights for christmas they were by far the chaepest and had times that suited me so I went for it. Obviously they were cheap cos everyone else was avoiding them cos of the potential strike. Silly me! I have my interview in London on the 25th Jan and my wife is flying over and we are meeting at heathrow. The only way we could both arrive and leave from the same terminal at the same time was for both of us to fly with BA so I booked them for that too. After that I am done with them. I hope they go under. I hope that Branson takes them over and signs the cabin crew back on at half their wages. BA tried to shut down Virgin Atlantic when they started 25 years ago. Wouldn't it be nice if Virgin had the last laugh! I have flown Virgin too and those guys do a better job for half the money!

Do I sound bitter? I hope so cos I am!

[Big Papa Zone 93]

SCR** greedy unionized b*(@&%@*." -

And there, my friend, you have it - nail on head. Unions: the scourge of the modern workplace. Oh, Maggie, how I wish you were still in power.

[scotinmass 588]

SCR** greedy unionized b*(@&%@*." -

And there, my friend, you have it - nail on head. Unions: the scourge of the modern workplace. Oh, Maggie, how I wish you were still in power.

I wouldn't go as far as that!

[david'sgirl 134]

SCR** greedy unionized b*(@&%@*." -

And there, my friend, you have it - nail on head. Unions: the scourge of the modern workplace. Oh, Maggie, how I wish you were still in power.

I wouldn't go as far as that!

Aw honey I thought you missed her! ya right.lol

I really hope this gets sorted out. It isnt looking good at all.

[Gemmie 142]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/...ed-invalid.html

Looks like the ban has been cancelled??

[CaMic 0]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/...ed-invalid.html

Looks like the ban has been cancelled??

yeah - ilegal ballot, won't help the employees long term, mean sob's won't be getting any sympathy if the company fails.

So pleased ppls christmas flights will be okay, not so good for the poor flyglobespan customers though.