BA strike

[SandraBulmer]

I know there are a few members here who work with airlines and maybe others with insurance or just personal experience. Would appreciate advice.

Flying tomorrow with BA so should get there OK. But due to fly back on 30 December. Just want to be clear on what BA's responsibilities are. At the moment, guidance is that they will contact us nearer the time so we have provided local tel no and email. Have contacted insurance company and they say we should be covered under cancellation/curtailment/abandonment which would enable us to book other flights if BA unable to fly us, but we should first seek full refund from BA and written confirmation that flight did not operate.

Any more advice? No need to tell me not to use BA again, that's a no-brainer!

Cheers, Sandra.

[fiona]

Hi Sandra,

We have one daughter returning from Orlando on 29th and the other arriving that day, so we share your concerns! From what we can establish so far, if you are flying into Gatwick you are likely to be less affected than anyone flying into Heathrow. That is not to say that Gatwick will not be affected, but to be honest until nearer the time it is difficult to say, alot can happen during this time!

The advice given by your insurance company is correct. BA are offering full refund or change of flights if you want to go down that route.

Not sure it is fair to blame the airline, their staff are well paid and in the current economy with many people taking pay cuts and / or losing their jobs the staff are not gaining much sympathy from the public with their intransigent attitude to cutting hours and salaries.

I think at the moment we just have to wait and see how everything pans out, I am sure negotiations are on-going.

[Sniff]

It sounds today like the airline and the unions have agreed to go back to the table, so maybe this will be averted...let's hope so. However in situations like this much damage is already done to reputations, regardless of whether the strike happens or not.

Regarding your insurance, just check the small print, as there was some discussion on another forum about some policies excluding cancellations due to industrial action.

Also bear in mind that any refund from BA will be for the value of your original tickets. It's unlikely that this amount will cover the purchase of new tickets, especially at such short notice. They also are unlikely to cover additional costs caused by any delay or rescheduling/rerouting. Hopefully your insurance would cover this.

Good luck, I hope it doesn't spoil your holiday.

[DaveL]

BA have stated that try to move people on the other carriers if they are abroad when the strike starts.

At the stage you do not want to cancel as you only get back what you paid. Current reports are showing that other carriers with free seats have increased prices between 20% and 70% after the strike vote was announced.

Dave

[Katys Grandad]

What intrigues me about this situation where your outbound flight is outside the strike period but your return is potentially within it, is what the position of the aircraft and crew will be?

Will a crew member who intends to strike really turn up for Christmas period outbound flight where the return won't be flying or is it BA's intention that the aircraft will return without paying passengers just to get an about-to-strike crew home?

[Sniff]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Father
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by fiona

Not sure it is fair to blame the airline, their staff are well paid and in the current economy with many people taking pay cuts and / or losing their jobs the staff are not gaining much sympathy from the public with their intransigent attitude to cutting hours and salaries.
[/quote]

Would it be okay for someone to ask owners to lower the rental prices on their villas citing the current economy?

I think not but it's great how we can all nominate others who should accept lower incomes and accuse them of intransigence when they don't just suck it up.


[/quote]
Why shouldn't people ask? - everyone is suffering these days and there's nothing wrong with trying to save money if you can.

As for the BA crew, Fiona is absolutely correct I think...the cabin crew are not gaining much sympathy with the public. Whatever your feelings on how badly treated (or not) the BA cabin crew are, planning to strike for 12 days over one of the busiest (and therefore most profitable) periods for all airlines does seem excessive.

I hope both sides can start to see common sense soon, because the current entrenched positions being taken by both sides can only hurt the carrier in the long term.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

That would be absolutely fine - that's what the Delete key on the villa owner's keyboard was made for [msnwink].
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Father
Would it be okay for someone to ask owners to lower the rental prices on their villas citing the current economy?
[/quote]

[steph_goodrum]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Father
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by fiona
Not sure it is fair to blame the airline, their staff are well paid and in the current economy with many people taking pay cuts and / or losing their jobs the staff are not gaining much sympathy from the public with their intransigent attitude to cutting hours and salaries. [/quote]Would it be okay for someone to ask owners to lower the rental prices on their villas citing the current economy?

I think not but it's great how we can all nominate others who should accept lower incomes and accuse them of intransigence when they don't just suck it up.[/quote]Anyone can always ask but at the end of the day, will Disney give you a discount because fewer people are travelling? No they will raise the price and and the cost of car parking for those that will pay the asking price because they know their operating costs and if they aren't met then they won't be in business and villa owners are no different and realistically should take the same approach.

At the end of the day don't forget a holiday in Florida is a luxury item and not a basic right or necessity like food, shelter etc. and just like every other luxury item if you can't afford it you go without.

That's not to say we don't all like a bargain but as we all know from sales not all bargains are all they are cracked up to be. Hence announcements like yesterdays of Globespan, they have been taking bookings knowing they may not be able to fulfil them in an effort to keep afloat which hasn't worked and will leave many people wondering if they will be able to have a holiday.

[Sniff]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Anyone can always ask but at the end of the day, will Disney give you a discount because fewer people are travelling? No they will raise the price and and the cost of car parking for those that will pay the asking price because they know their operating costs and if they aren't met then they won't be in business and villa owners are no different and realistically should take the same approach.[/quote]Overall Disney are making a profit but many areas of the company are not. EuroDisney for example lost 63m € in the year ended Sept, but there's no talk of it closing, and in fact they are offering 30% off vacations over the Christmas period.

BA are estimated to be losing close to £2m a day even without the proposed strike. These kinds of numbers are reflected throughout the industry, apart from a few notable exceptions such as Easy Jet (and even their profit didn't come from passenger bookings).

Many businesses will take a temporary loss in order to stay in business for the longer term. If the losses are sustained over a long period then clearly it's not economically viable, but to say that business only function when income is higher than their operating costs is just not true.

[blott]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Sniff
Many businesses will take a temporary loss in order to stay in business for the longer term. If the losses are sustained over a long period then clearly it's not economically viable, but to say that business only function when income is higher than their operating costs is just not true.
[/quote]Making a loss is something anyone, competent or incompetent, can do but isn't 'in business' though is it? It's actually 'on the way to out of business'.

You only have to look at Globespan to realise that and I have Scottish guests telling me that their prices were more expensive than other carriers so I gather they weren't exactly doing things on the cheap anyway.

To function on cheaper prices in the short to medium term means being able to sustain the business on greater internal funding - in other words, it depends on how much money you happen to have spare to prop up the business. If a business doesn't have internal funding or is unable to find this, then it will shortly be 'out of business'.

BA is not changing its prices to 'cheap' or even 'cheaper' and neither are any other of the airlines who are putting up their prices and are hoping they can mop up any desperate passengers. So the other airlines are 'in business' and not 'on the way to out of business'.

Anyway, this is now going completely off topic as BA isn't (currently at least so far as we're informed) going out of business, just having a strike.