UPDATE: British Airways loses at the Court of Appeal, pilot strikes can go ahead

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• Js says:

  31 Jul31 July 14:16

  I am struggling to get a copy of the judgement from either last week or this week. does anyone know where I can get this?

• 4hawks says:

  31 Jul31 July 14:32

  I imagine for maximum publicity Balpa may call the first strike for 25th August.. Happy 100th Birthday BA!

  • Kipto says:

    31 Jul31 July 15:23

    Any update on the strikes by security staff at Heathrow on 5th and 6th August ?

• Stu says:

  31 Jul31 July 15:55

  As with Kipto, it seems to have all gone quiet with regards to 5/6 July Unite strikes. Has anyone any information? They were supposed to be voting on an improved offer with the ballot closing last Friday afternoon.

  • marcw says:

    31 Jul31 July 17:07

    A quick check at the Heathrow website. “Unite are currently consulting their members on our revised offer, and whilst we continue to put contingency measures in place, we can provide no further update on if this will affect passenger journeys until after the ballot results are announced by Unite, which is likely to be around 2nd August. We apologise for the uncertainty this will cause.”

    heathrow.com/more/help-with-this-website/faqs/industrial-action

• Adam says:

  31 Jul31 July 18:28

  Dress Code

  Would wearing flip flops, jeans and a t shirt be frowned upon when entering a British Airways lounge or flying Club World?

  It’s summer, so want to dress casual, but don’t want to be refused entry.

  • Shoestring says:

    31 Jul31 July 18:33

    jeans & a T-shirt are OK, obvs looking clean & newish

    • Adam says:

      31 Jul31 July 18:38

      Shorts? 😉

      Never understood these dress codes. My behaviour remains the same whether I am wearing a suit, or shorts and flip flops!

      • Shoestring says:

        31 Jul31 July 18:45

        nothing wrong with good clean shorts

        rubbish flip flops – nah, don’t do that, it’s completely unacceptable

        • Adam says:

          31 Jul31 July 18:49

          Personal opinion or a BA enforced rule?

        • Shoestring says:

          31 Jul31 July 18:50

          enforced in places like Australia

          BA, UK – they probably don’t care if it all looks clean

        • Shoestring says:

          31 Jul31 July 18:57

          in many UK lounges you wouldn’t get in wearing an ‘in yer face’ T-shirt or ripped jeans

          personally, I think aggressive tattooage should mean no room at the lounge/ inn, nothing wrong with a small heart hidden under your bikini bottom I suppose but I certainly would never have employed anybody showing tattoos on visible office skin (at interview)

        • Shoestring says:

          31 Jul31 July 19:42

          unless they were a Maori

        • Nick says:

          31 Jul31 July 21:34

          Only a total and utter idiot would ever get on an aircraft in flip flops (or any other non-sensible shoes). The biggest injuries in the Vegas incident (when people had to run out of a burning plane) were burnt feet because the tarmac was 40 degrees.
          It doesn’t happen often, but a second’s thought as to how you’d survive a major event might very well save your life one day.

        • Shoestring says:

          31 Jul31 July 21:38

          I’m not surprised the Aussies – who are obvs some of the world’s best arbiters of good taste – is that right? – have banned flip flops, or as they call them, g-slips I think.

          Even they can see that flip flops are ‘non-pareils’, not allowed, completely unacceptable in a lounge as I say in plain English.

        • Bagoly says:

          1 Aug1 August 05:41

          You have already fallen foul of the JRM banned words list!
          🙂

        • RussellH says:

          1 Aug1 August 13:56

          English ‘Flip-Flops’ = Aussie ‘Thongs’ = enormous potential for embarassment.

          I used to have a small scrapbook of adverts from newspapers from during my time in the USA, all depicting people making V-signs (NOT the Churchillian version) at the reader.
          Also a number of headlines from the sports pages of New York City papers, reporting on a local team usually known as the ‘Nicks’ or ‘Knicks’ – often along the lines of 50 Thousand watch Knicks fall.
          Conjures up all sorts of images.

  • Andrew says:

    31 Jul31 July 19:39

    When you see how bad the BA business lounge is, you’ll wonder why you dressed up – imagine McDonalds only none of the tables have been cleared and the food isn’t as good.

  • Graeme says:

    31 Jul31 July 23:14

    I’ve done it and not felt any issues.

  • Gringo says:

    1 Aug1 August 14:27

    I was in the LHR GC lounge and flew CW this week in shorts, shirt & sandals, no issues at all

  • Stoneman says:

    1 Aug1 August 17:54

    You can dress casually without looking akin to someone laying about on the poolside.

• Invicta says:

  31 Jul31 July 18:35

  Does anyone know how this may affect Iberia schedules? Is there any chance BA pulls in Iberia pilots and reduces service on Iberia or are the pilots under separate entities and not trained on BA planes? Hopefully BA resolves the strike beforehand anyway!!

  • marcw says:

    31 Jul31 July 18:38

    Iberia is a completely different company to BA. They may however, substitute BA services between MAD and LHR, our arrange bigger planes on their rotations.

    But IB pilots are not affected at all by this.

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      31 Jul31 July 18:44

      If a strike goes ahead and I am “impacted” as I believe modern parlance has it, I’m on a BA flight using Avios but booked via Iberia. In which case I guess I’m best off asking IB to re route me rather than waiting on BA?

      • Shoestring says:

        31 Jul31 July 18:47

        operating airline is always responsible

        always

        • Yorkieflyer says:

          31 Jul31 July 18:59

          Yup, I know that but IB likely have more options on my route on IB metal via BCN or MAD and I might have a slight possibility of getting through to IB on the phone I’d have thought? I suspect BA will simply automatically rebook on their metal days later…

        • Shoestring says:

          31 Jul31 July 19:04

          I guess you got 2 guns slung around the hips and you can choose both

        • Marcw says:

          31 Jul31 July 22:33

          Not if cancellation is announced with time. Only when cancellation is within 24 h of departure then it’s the operating airline you hsve to deal with. But otherwise, Always contact your ticketing airline or agent.

      • Marcw says:

        31 Jul31 July 22:30

        Yes, you have to deal with the ticketing airlines or agent. If you booked via IB then you need to contact them for rerouting. Operating airline is ONLY in charge when ticket is under airport control, usually 24 h before scheduled flight departure.

• Steven says:

  31 Jul31 July 19:52

  Our family is flying on BA for our summer hols. Outbound flight date is now safe – return date could be affected by a strike. I’ve been trying to get BA to tell me whether if a strike is announced that would affect the return date, whether they would still honour my outbound ticket. So far they seem unable to answer. Anyone got any ideas of what would happen?

  • Shoestring says:

    31 Jul31 July 19:57

    This is a joke, right? Nobody could be that stupid.

    • Steven says:

      31 Jul31 July 20:17

      OK, maybe I’m stupid, but BA are proving unable to answer this question at the moment.

      • Shoestring says:

        31 Jul31 July 20:36

        If you’re for real and BJ isn’t trying to trick me, then your safe outbound flight is definitely safe and you can fly out, BA are highly unlikely to cancel outbound flights because they think the return flight might be affected by the strike.

        • BJ says:

          31 Jul31 July 21:14

          And here was me sitting at home minding my own business researching SUV and wondering why my ears were burning 🙂

        • MD says:

          31 Jul31 July 22:16

          Lol. I think Harry has been in the gin this evening.

        • toomanylogins says:

          1 Aug1 August 12:21

          In this case (outbound flight is fine, but return is cancelled due to strike) what is BA’s responsibility to you to get you home? Eg , if I can fly to France, but can’t fly home is it reasonable to expect BA to cover the costs of trains back to the UK?

        • Shoestring says:

          1 Aug1 August 12:49

          under EC261, BA must get you home in a timely way – that is pretty tricky when virtually all planes in August are going to be booked out (or close)

          so by train sounds like a reasonable option

          you’d have to talk to them and find out what the alternatives are, then weigh up the reasonableness of the various options open to you

          eg if BA said the earliest they could get you home was in 4 days’ time – but there was a train next day – you could (possibly) force the issue by buying yourself train tickets and claiming it back from BA later, if necessary taking it to MCOL

          guiding principles: talk to BA, document everything, be reasonable, keep receipts, be aware of your duty of care entitlement, be aware of your other EC261 rights

        • Shoestring says:

          1 Aug1 August 12:51

          and don’t forget Section 75 protection if you paid by credit card (not charge card) – this protection is absolutely excellent as a form of travel insurance if your flight gets cancelled

        • toomanylogins says:

          1 Aug1 August 13:34

          Thanks Shoestring – that’s really useful information.

          My flights were avios reward saver bookings with the fees paid on my BAPP – does that count as a credit card payment for these flights?

        • Shoestring says:

          1 Aug1 August 16:57

          it should do as the BAPP is a credit card

          there is a £100 minimum rule applied to total purchase value, however, only £1 needs to be paid on the credit card for the credit card co to have to accept S75 responsibility

          your total purchase will be well over £100, despite having paid for much of it on points – just look at the cash equivalent cost of buying the same tickets (at the same time).

          it is your basket of tickets total paid in the 1 transaction that counts as over £100, so individual tickets could be (say) £60 but as long as you paid in 1 transaction, you’re covered by S75

• uk1 says:

  31 Jul31 July 20:53

  Hi …. on a different topic ….. looking for some help. When I try to book 2 Club LHR>VIE returns the cash element is £2. If I use an Amex 241 the miles halve but the cash goes up to £100. Any ideas why?

  Thanks.

  • Shoestring says:

    31 Jul31 July 20:57

    because you’re comparing 2 completely different ways of buying the same journey

    they are what they are

  • Rob says:

    31 Jul31 July 21:07

    The new ‘£1 tax’ fares do not apply to 241 bookings.

    • uk1 says:

      31 Jul31 July 21:12

      Thanks Rob! I’m not keeping up as well as I should …. 🙂

• uk1 says:

  31 Jul31 July 21:16

  …… when using miles instead of cash for seat reservations … are they refunded if the booking is cancelled or is it lost ie the same as cash. Thanks.

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