HEATHROW STRIKE UPDATE: British Airways and Virgin Atlantic emergency measures

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• David S says:

  3 Aug3 August 09:35

  What is the impact for these dates and for any potential BA strike if you had used a 2-4-1 voucher that was close to its expiry date ?

  • Polly says:

    4 Aug4 August 08:19

    You should be treated same as any other pax t and c.

• Barry says:

  3 Aug3 August 10:04

  O/T as no bits today.
  I have a BA 241 that I want to book for Thu 6th August 2020 to HKG.
  When will is the earliest that I can this flight and which number is the best to call? Thanks!

  • Anna says:

    3 Aug3 August 10:31

    You are best off booking the outbound leg online as soon as it becomes available (though you may be in competition with other people trying to do the same). This will be around 1 am AROUND August 17th (2020 being a leap year seems to have thrown the award release system out a bit). But you can confirm this by checking the latest available date available as of today, and counting forward to calculate when seats for 6/8/20 will be released.
    It’s the inbound leg which requires a phone call if you’re using a 2 4 1.

• Nigel says:

  3 Aug3 August 10:24

  Sounds like everyone is blaming BA for this potential mess and at the same time the HFP post doesn’t make it clear that this is not a BA strike. Its not BA’s fault, this is a Heathrow Airport staff strike.

  • Anna says:

    3 Aug3 August 10:38

    I don’t think that’s the case at all; it’s just that anyone flying on an affected BA flight is largely dependent on BA to sort it out. Heathrow airport isn’t going to be rebooking anyone.

  • Marcw says:

    3 Aug3 August 11:26

    At the end of the day it will affect BAs operations, and consequently, BAs passengers. Also remember it’s the airline who collects the passenger service charge… So it’s easier to make a direct link with airlines than with the airport.

    • Kipto says:

      3 Aug3 August 11:41

      I take it the talks last night between unite and Heathrow airport with Acas involvement were unsuccessful. Are there plans for any more talks over the weekend ?

      • marcw says:

        3 Aug3 August 12:21

        I believe that at this point, the strike will go ahead. Depending on how chaotic it’ll be, there will (or not) be strikes later this month.

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Aug3 August 12:32

          there’s a cut-off point tomorrow about 5pm – when BA & others publish the cancelled planes – where even if the strike gets called off last minute, you’ll get pretty much the same disruption

          so we have so,mewhat more than 24hrs to wait & see

          tbh I can’t see why HAL doesn’t settle, the strike demands are not much different to the cost of strike 5/6th Aug, factor in 23/24th Aug and you’d be pretty stupid not to settle if you were just thinking about costs

          and there could obvs be further strikes over the next few months

        • zumodenaranja says:

          4 Aug4 August 11:05

          >> tbh I can’t see why HAL doesn’t settle, the strike demands are not much different to the cost of strike 5/6th Aug

          This may be true, but you need to remember that strike costs are a one-off wheras salary increases are for ever (i.e. a year-on-year cost) not to mention that giving in too easily emboldens the other other side to ask for even more next year…

      • Simon says:

        3 Aug3 August 12:33

        It says on the BBC

        Talks between union leaders and Heathrow management at the conciliation service Acas, aimed at averting the strike action, lasted until late on Friday and resumed on Saturday.

        • Kipto says:

          3 Aug3 August 12:37

          Thanks. Fingers crossed.

• Nick says:

  3 Aug3 August 11:44

  It’ll be busy on Wed but it won’t be too bad and shouldn’t affect you any more than a normal summer day. That’s because while there will be passengers who rebooked onto Wed flights, there’s no capacity to fly any more flights, so the terminal throughput is unlikely to increase any more than usual during August.

• Shoestring says:

  3 Aug3 August 12:00

  good tip, not around to check it out 🙂

  • Shoestring says:

    3 Aug3 August 12:06

    fees table doesn’t open on my PC, usually the ‘add credit’ fees come in at 2% then you also pay another fee to withdraw at ATM, check it out for yourself

• T says:

  3 Aug3 August 12:57

  OT: BA Amex related – got osst the spend for the companion voucher – when and how will I receive it?
  Trying to see when I will be able to cancel/downgrade the card.

  • NigelthePensioner says:

    3 Aug3 August 13:25

    Your next BA AmEx card statement confirms your voucher and it will appear as an option in your BAEC account when booking a flight and you choose “pay with Avois”. Note that part cash part Avois is not an option. The only cash is for the taxes etc which have to be paid by each person and are about the same for Club or First.

• Chelsea says:

  3 Aug3 August 13:07

  Thank you for the only helpful article I’ve found on this – every other news site has kept it incredibly vague!!

• Yorkieflyer says:

  3 Aug3 August 14:14

  Absolutely appalling behaviour by BA in not publishing the list of flights that will be cancelled until Sunday and refusing to allow customers to cancel either. How are we to plan our travel? It just shows the contempt they hold their passengers in

  • Shoestring says:

    3 Aug3 August 21:28

    there’s no list to publish at the moment

    sure, BA know which flights will get cancelled if the strike goes ahead but I suggest it is actually better for all concerned to wait until 5pm Sunday when the list goes firm as opposed to supposition/ likelihood right now

    for those of a nervous disposition – BA is already allowing SH passengers to switch flight dates/ times free of charge (and we can read into that the fact that most LH flights won’t be cancelled, which is normally the case anyway)

    I personally can’t see how BA can be faulted on the way they are dealing with somebody else’s possible strike

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