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British Airways pilots strike – what you need to know for Monday, Tuesday and 27th September

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Pilot unit BALPA is staging a number of strikes throughout September.  BALPA represents about 90% of British Airways pilots.

The strike dates are Monday 9th, Tuesday 10th and Friday 27th September.

You can find the latest information on this special strike page of ba.com.

Note that flights from London City Airport are not impacted, except for the New York service which is operated by Gatwick flight crew.

BA 747 retirement

Monday 9th / Tuesday 10th – what is cancelled?

Everything, basically.

Only ONE British Airways flight was operating from Terminal 5 on Monday 9th September.  This was a Tokyo service and was retained due to the Rugby World Cup.  The only other flights operating were to Cairo (operated by Air Belgium at the moment due to a shortage of BA aircraft) and the Iberia flights to Madrid.

From Gatwick, the only flight was a New York JFK service which is currently operated by Evelop Airlines on behalf of BA, again due to a shortage of BA aircraft.

All passengers were contacted over two weeks in advance of travel.  Despite some initial hiccups (which forced The Civil Aviation Authority to publish this statement) British Airways was eventually very proactive in moving passengers to other airlines with over 50 carriers involved.

What about Wednesday 11th?

A normal schedule will operate, although some services are likely to be cancelled due to planes and staff being in the wrong place.  There is no space at Heathrow to store the entire British Airways fleet, and so aircraft have had to be parked at other airports across the world.

What about Friday 27th?

Cancellations have not yet been done for the strike on 27th September.

The cut-off date for British Airways is 13th September, which is the last date they can cancel your flight without offering compensation on top of a reroute.  Note that some flights on 28th and potentially also 26th will also be cancelled for operational reasons.

What can I claim if I am stranded abroad?

For people stranded abroad, British Airways has confirmed that the standard £200 per night per room hotel allowance will be available.  This can be exceeded but only if you have strong evidence that no rooms are available for that price.  You cannot remain in a £500 beach resort and reclaim that if there is an airport hotel available for under £200.

Other subsistence costs (food, taxis etc) can also be claimed.

You are not technically liable for additional costs incurred in the UK before or after travel due to date changes, but it is worth submitting receipts to BA anyway.

Will I receive Avios and tier points for cancelled flights?

Yes.  If you accepted a refund or were moved to a non-oneworld airline, you can ask BA to credit you with the Avios and tier points you would otherwise have earned.

Don’t forget to sign up to earn points from the airline you were moved to, if it is not a BA partner!  Nothing stops you earning twice.

Could the strikes be called off?

BALPA has offered to reopen talks with British Airways, but the airline has stated that no new offer is available.  The airline appears to have decided to push on with strikes rather than accept the pilot demands for profit sharing.

Can more strikes be called?

Yes, but 14 days notice must be given.  Your trip is safe once you are inside the 14 day period.

(And, to be honest, a lot of people have been getting some good results in terms of alternative carriers!  Being moved from British Airways onto Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines etc etc – if you are travelling in Business Class – would be a good result.)

BALPA’s strike ballot, held earlier this summer, is valid until January.  This allows BALPA to continue calling strikes throughout the Autumn without requiring a further member vote.

For the latest information, check out ba.com here.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (417)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • James says:
    27 Aug27 August 12:25

    Just had an email that confirms a domestic flight on 10th that was definitely cancelled and refunded and I have rebooked separately from LCY instead of LHR. Is this just a glitch, it doesn’t appear in MMB

    • Lady London says:
      27 Aug27 August 14:12

      It’ll be a glitsch. Flights I have cancelled before have persisted in being shown in MMB for periods of up to months, before. But rest assured if you cancelled it, it’s cancelled and if you turned up for it there would be no booking for you. Eventually the IT will catch up.

  • Russ says:
    27 Aug27 August 13:51

    Grrr…BA website in ‘back shortly’ mode.

  • Lady London says:
    27 Aug27 August 14:19

    needs a login… can you provide?

    I expect British Airways’s lawyers told them to get the mention of ability to rebook on non-OneWorld flights up quickly. Good.

  • Richard says:
    27 Aug27 August 14:51

    I have a 12th Sept CW 241 flight and received the cancelled then not cancelled emails. It’s now showing as red in manage my booking and BA are only selling fully flex tickets. I spoke to BA Sat and they wouldn’t re-book me another flight without paying change fees etc as it’s not cancelled.

    Is my only option to wait it out and see if it’s cancelled? As concerned by the time it is cancelled all the other decent options (Iberia via Madrid / Air France via Paris) will be fully booked.

    • Jill (Kinkell) says:
      27 Aug27 August 17:44

      I have a 241 F flight on the 12th. It’s in red on MMB. I, too, had the cancelled/not cancelled emails . Spoke to CS and told allOK. Even have an updated booking receipt dated 24 August as Confirmed. So, I am sitting it out and not worrying.

  • Graeme says:
    27 Aug27 August 15:49

    If I accept an earlier flight, am I right in saying duty of care doesn’t apply and any extra hotels are at my (or travel insurance?) Costs?

    TIA

    • Graeme says:
      27 Aug27 August 15:51

      Sorry, should add in I am talking about the outbound. I.e. originallu booked on 9th, accept earlier flight on 7th for example.

      2 extra nights hotel at destination.

    • Rob says:
      27 Aug27 August 16:23

      Not if your original flight was cancelled. If you are moving it as a precaution then you get nothing.

      • Graeme says:
        27 Aug27 August 19:13

        Thanks Rob. Just being very organised and looking at options if my October flights are cancelled and what would suit us best. See if I need to take advantage of IHG PB or whether BA would be paying.

        Would hope strikes sorted by then however but IHG PB booked for night before just in case.

  • alan young says:
    27 Aug27 August 16:46

    My Pula flights have been cancelled & now we are going two days earlier with BA but only as far as Zagreb, the best they can offer. Whilst they have confirmed that they will pay £200 a night for the two extra nights they haven’t confirmed they will pay the extra costs for flights from ZAR to PUY which was my original destination. How do I stand on getting the extra costs back approx. £160 for 2 pax?

    • Shoestring says:
      27 Aug27 August 18:45

      get a bus or taxi instead

    • Lady London says:
      7 Sep7 September 12:06

      They have to pay. There is no doubt.

      I am wondering why should passengers have to pay out then claim back which adds risk and process time, in cases like this where it’s clear BA is liable. Not everyone can afford to “lend” BA hundreds of pounds that they take months to pay out after further ‘work’ by the passenger to recover their money.

      BA may say ‘oh we dont have a relationship with that little airline that goes from Zagreb to Pula’ or ‘that airline (like easy or Ryanair) isnt on GDS system so we cant book thé replacement ticket’. That’s rubbish. BA can connect to the internet and book and pay for my ticket (or my train) just as well as I can.

      I think this is a bit of a scan and where internet means of booking are available especially for the flights that are needed as replacement flights for BA’s cancelled flights, BA should be booking them and paying for them upfront.

  • Adam says:
    7 Sep7 September 06:37

    Is there anywhere where I can check flight status for 27th? BA have proactively moved me to a flight on 29th, but I’m interested to see if and when my original flight gets cancelled. The BA flight status tool doesn’t go out that far.

    • Sasha says:
      8 Sep8 September 08:06

      Have BA confirmed they will pay the cost of your accommodation for the extra two nights?

      • Shoestring says:
        8 Sep8 September 08:22

        They don’t need to – duty of care is a right in law. BA are happy to pay £200/ night (though the law does not specify a limit and would simply expect you to act reasonably)

    • Lady London says:
      8 Sep8 September 19:22

      You will be able to be pretty sure your flight on 27th is taking place, by no later than 2359 on 13th. The one thing British Airways does seem to be doing very efficiently so far on this strike, is avoiding compensation for cancelled flights due to you under EU261. To avoid paying you this compensation cash amount, BA has to tell you your flight is cancelled 14 days ahead. So they will want to tell you before 14th September.

      So you will know this week.

      If your flight does get cancelled at any time after 13th September, expect BA to say “It was an Act of God” or the airline equivalent “bad weather”.

      I can’t help you in verifying if it would have been an Act of God if your flight will be cancelled. But if its cancelled and they say it was due to bad weather then you can challenge this and demand compo if you can find out that other airlines’ planes flew the same route at pretty much the same time, and were not cancelled due to ” weather “.

  • BJ says:
    7 Sep7 September 07:44

    Lost track of this dispute and don’t really know for sure where the blame rests for it getting to this stage, I suspect both to some degree but mostly with BA. Not surprisingly BA handling of it from the customer perspective has been contemptuous and shambolic, and if they have dealt with BALPA in the same way then everybody can draw their own conclusions. At the end of the day BA cannot afford to be sacking their pilots so, as hard as it might be for passengers in the short term, the best result here would probably just be for BALPA to escalate their action massively to force BAs hand and get things back to normal as soon as possible. Really sorry for anyone travelling with them in near future and all the misery it is causing.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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