LHR and British Airways

I always have mixed feelings about posts about possible strikes. On one hand, I suppose advance knowledge of possible irregular operations may be useful. On the other hand, the over reaction and anxiety that sometimes results is not useful.

I’ve traveled through BA strike, an Air France Strike, French train strike, and the original Brexit deadline. None of which significantly changed my travel plans in any way. Now I know some people are impacted by strikes. However, not everyone is and it is important not to stress out or change a trip in a knee jerk reaction to worry about what might happen.

I suppose I’m suggesting to keep informed but don’t worry until there is an actual problem to deal with.

Thank you Carol....my intent was/is simply to inform.

On the other hand, the over reaction and anxiety that sometimes results is not useful.

That was my first reaction - all the flights for our trip to Europe in September are on BA. But forewarned is forearmed, and I have a contingency plan in place. If we can't take our trip as planned, we will take a quick trip to San Francisco or Vancouver, instead.

Unfortunately for me I have BA tics from ORD -ATH on the 24th and it’s prolly contingent on the inbound flight from LHR. I’m also booked on an onward Olympic flight to JTR 3-4 hrs after the flight from LHR-ATH.

I’m trying to decide on my continue plan which is to cancel my BA flight....I was told I’d get my cash back minus $55 and I would get my Avios back. I can then either purchase or use miles on an AA flight to Athens and arrive early enough to take an earlier flight to JTR in time for sunset instead of mid nite as per the original plan.

I’m less concerned about the BA strike and more concerned about the HAL strike. They are totally separate actions but on the same dates.

I have read about this potential strike, and I am very concerned. We have tickets on BA into Heathrow, with another flight later that night on BA to Copenhagen, right around the potential strike dates that have been mentioned. We are taking a cruise 2 days later from Copenhagen. Truly hoping this doesn’t disrupt our trip!

In my (limited) experience, they do not cancel all the flights. It happened to us twice. I would recommend: don’t panic, research a plan B (flight options) ahead of time and have a phone # that will reach a live person. In our case, the cancelled flights were listed ahead of time and we were able to rebook on different flights. One was cancelled 24hrs ahead, but we actually ended up with a better itinerary because we knew what other flights were available.

I’m more concerned about the HAL Workers striking which can create a ground stop... security, baggage handlers and fire and rescue workers are part of this.

I’m really not a gambler with travel plans ....especially on the front end of my trip...if it were the end of my trip ....I.would.not.care.

For those who want to follow this there is a wiki thread on the British Airways forum on Flyertalk which can be very helpful.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1973603-possibility-ba-employees-going-strike-39.html

I decided to go ahead and cancel my BA flight and rebooked an AA flight NonStop to Athens arriving at noon-ish which will give me time to get an earlier flight to Santorini.

With pilots it would most likely have a great effect on the number of flights able to be operated since nearly all belong to the same union, BALPA (nearly 90% from memory).

When it is cabin crew it is usually much more spotty since there are at least two unions that they can belong to and many don't belong to any.

UPDATE:

https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/incident/strike/heathrow?dr=&dt=Book%20Flights,%20Holidays,%20City%20Breaks%20%26%20Check%20In%20Online%20%7C%20British%20Airways&scheme=&audience=travel&CUSTSEG=&GGLMember=&ban=%7C%7CP1M%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7CHOME%7C%7C%7C%7CL4%7C%7C%7C%7Canonymous-inspiration%7C%7C%7C&KMtag=c&KMver=1.0&clickpage=HOME

I agree its good to be informed and even better not to panic. We were affected by a 7-hour ground crew strike in Frankfurt where we were to connect to Barcelona on our very first trip to Europe. News came via the Lufthansa app on the morning of our departure, after I had printed boarding passes the night before. Lufthansa was very efficient about re-booking us on a different route, albeit a day later. It was difficult to change online or by phone, so we went directly - and early- to the airport to talk to a face. He was most helpful and we were glad to take care of it early. Many folks arrived to check-in, only to find out about the delay at that time. The airline paid for our hotel and meals and a missed timed museum admission. I'm guessing that BA would handle a strike situation similarly and forewarned is forearmed.

This is not BA.... it is Heathrow Employees Union..... affects all airlines.

yeah, i got the same alert on my phone from Heathrow's app.