Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

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.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (417)

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

  • Joan says:
    23 Aug23 August 21:34

    So we are flying out to Almería 2 Sept and returning 9 Sept ( business class using avios ).
    We got a text 45 mins ago cancelling our return flight on 9 Sept . We tried to call BA but they just said they were busy and cut us off .
    So immediately booked a homeward flight with EasyJet ( thanks to Mark’s advice on here ) costing €309 for the two of us.
    At least we get to keep our holiday on the same dates , having booked car hire hotel cat sitter etc etc – and will have to argue with BA if we can get through to them tomorrow, to get refunded for the avios and tax on the cancelled flight , and try to get them to pay for the EasyJet flight .
    What a palaver .
    I feel so sorry for the people who have booked special long haul flights on first with 241 etc – so hard to plan and then to get it all ruined ☹️

  • Jeff says:
    23 Aug23 August 22:06

    We are booked for club world to JNB on 10th plus car hire for 3 weeks which makes it a BA holiday booking. We have booked a full itinerary in SA including hotels, safari and overnight rail journey. Flight still showing on manage my booking so keeping fingers crossed and even if the flight is cancelled hoping that they will offer an alternative with such as Qatar.

    • Shoestring says:
      23 Aug23 August 22:19

      Looks like you’ll be OK with the 10th, hope so

      Because BA Holidays bookings are not really being looked after anything like as well by BA as far as I can see, check out the BA strike information page (link in article) and go down to the bottom

      If you want to retain your non-flight arrangements (e.g. hotel) and travel on another carrier, they are saying you’ll probably have to pay more for the hotel/ car, which is extremely mean.

      • Lady London says:
        23 Aug23 August 22:45

        Hum. Aren;t British Airways holidays covered by ATOL or something similar? I don’t think they can make paying more for any arrangements stick.

  • Zed says:
    23 Aug23 August 22:19

    Go through and swapped out my BA JFK-LHR on 9th to AA. Free seat selection and 1-2-1 configuration with only an hour longer in the Lounge is reasonable. The sticking point is, I’m currently parking at T5 for my outbound BA flight and now arriving into T3 with AA. Is it worth/possible to get them to swap my BA outbound to JFK to AA also? It’s outside the strike dates but changing the 9th date means I arrive 2 hours later and at a different Terminal leading to additional parking costs. Any advice?

    • Shoestring says:
      23 Aug23 August 22:22

      DriveFly meet and greet wouldn’t charge you for 2 hrs extra (and an extra day is only £10) – plus would change terminal/s (drop off/ collection) for you free of charge.

      One of the reasons I like them!

      • Zed says:
        23 Aug23 August 23:55

        Have never used them but of the 567 reviews on Trustpilot, 70% have been rated bad or poor.

        • Shoestring says:
          24 Aug24 August 00:33

          Any general reason it’s low? Could be that they sometimes make you wait 10 mins while they fetch the car, I do find that annoying as you phone to say we’ll be there in 10 mins, they say no problem, car ready in 10 mins, sir, but it’s more like 20-25 mins after your phone call.

          Other than that they’ve been great.

  • Chris C says:
    23 Aug23 August 22:20

    Really awful timing for me as I was due to relocate to Singapore in this date. If I can get rebooked onto a QR flight, will I get the additional baggage allowance for silver member?

  • Steve H says:
    23 Aug23 August 22:43

    I have 2-4-1 business class flight booked on the 28th to Tokyo. Does anyone know what the risk is of these being cancelled? And if so when would i get notified?
    If the flight was cancelled would they rebook on a different airline/date or would there have to be avios availability for them to do so?

    • Lady London says:
      23 Aug23 August 22:51

      no, on a reroute, which is what this would be, it does not matter that your ticket was booked with avios. avios seats free are not needed to be available to move you into – you should in principle be moved into any seat at all, even a revenue seat, in the same class. Anecdotal evidence of people on avios tickets with 2-4-1’s getting bumped off flights if they get full, before cash ticket payers but has been hard to prove. Basically they will rebook you and no avios seat availability is not relevant – a seat is a seat for the airline to book you into in these circumstances.

      At least it’s not August where there really would not have been any seats of any sort for BA to rebook people into – September should be a little bit better.

  • Dale says:
    23 Aug23 August 22:57

    Rebooked my BA flight from Philadelphia to LHR on 9th quite easily for an AA flight about an hour later….but my luggage allowances have changed from 1 checked bag to hand luggage only….is this a glitch or will I need to call BA??

    • Shoestring says:
      24 Aug24 August 00:36

      common change in this scenario that you need to ge fixed by contacting BA, or you’ll get billed for excess luggage

  • Terri says:
    23 Aug23 August 22:57

    I have been caught by the strike. I chose to book with BA for the 9th Sept as its the start of a new tier point earning year. Now I find the flight is cancelled. MMB wants me to accept a flight on 7th Sept. If the tier points earnt and the cumalative BA flight expire the very next day this is not going to work. I am on a tier point run so I want everything crediting in my new earning year.

    I was wondering if anyone had any insight from past experience of involuntary changes and tier points/flights credits that move out of the earning year that they were booked in?

  • David says:
    23 Aug23 August 23:09

    When all those Avios First Class seats appeared in early June we jumped on LAX 9th-17th Sept, but were a little grumpy it was only 8 days holiday but that’s what was available. It took 3 hours to get through on phone tonight and now we fly out on 7th still in First so get 2 extra days holiday!! Never thought I’d be saying the strike made things better for us. Really hope everyone gets a good result.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!