British Airways updates its guidelines on getting Avios and tier points for strike-affected flights

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• Paul says:

  14 Sep14 September 06:30

  There were media reports yesterday that staff travel had been withdrawn for 3 years from everyone who went on strike!

  Given that many flight crew commute from all of Europe and further afield, the loss of that benefit, if true, will be significant.

  • Nick says:

    14 Sep14 September 07:27

    They suspended striking cabin crew travel perks indefinitely, so pilots have actually been treated better here. These perks are non-contractual anyway so BA can do what it likes. Still, that no doubt at least partly explains why so many pilots did actually report for work during last week’s strike, I imagine I wouldn’t be too happy giving it up either.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 11:24

      Perhaps they’ll have to get a Ryanair flight to get to work then.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 11:38

      The perks are long standing custom and practice. How many cases have been won by City bankers whose bonuses were not guaranteed by their contracts, that got their regular level of bonus paid when the banks tried to stop paying?

      All British Airways has done is reveal how nasty they are to work for now. If they will try this with the pilots then think how badly they must be treating more junior staff.

      This puts the pilots on notice they must censure any new agreement includes existing benefits more explicutly just to avoid wasting time beating BA in court on this.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        14 Sep14 September 11:49

        Let’s be honest peeks long standing or not are given through good faith. They keep turning up for work they get their perks.

        You can’t not have it two ways. You can’t threaten to work to rule or go on strike then moan that your employer has withdrawn their benefits over and above your terms or taken reciprocal action to cause disruption to as you are to them.

        As soon as a strike was called it was never going to be amicable.

        • Mikeact says:

          14 Sep14 September 21:57

          For God’s sake, if they want a share of the so called ,good times, then go and buy a chunk of shares…easy and painless.

      • Aston100 says:

        14 Sep14 September 15:47

        Boohoo my heart bleeds for those poor pilots and their measly six figure salaries…

        In reality these greedy pilots have just made things worse for workers who are genuinely in need of union protection. Myself and pretty much everyone I know no longer have sympathy for unions.

        • Fc99 says:

          14 Sep14 September 16:42

          They’re not all on six figure salaries

        • TripRep says:

          14 Sep14 September 17:08

          I’ve no problems with the commander of my aircraft being paid in the region of 6 figures. I want someone who’s at the top of their game for such a demanding skilled job.

        • Ian Worthington says:

          14 Sep14 September 19:04

          It is a distressing attitude, of predominantly though perhaps not exclusively, the English, that anyone who works hard and studies hard and demonstrates they are sufficiently skilled to carry out a responsible job needs to be belittled for commanding a commensurate salary.

          BA pilots are not typically from upper class families who have paid for them to go to Eton and Oxford and regard anyone who studies as a “girly swot”. These types, worthy of belittling, instead enter politics or well paid city jobs where they earn far in excess of 6 figures.

  • duck ling says:

    14 Sep14 September 09:10

    The pilots will be able to apply to their line manger to have staff travel reinstated soley for the purpose of commuting on one route.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 11:43

      Oh, so they can get to work for, Brutish Airways? Whilst losing all other longstandung benefits? BA wont win this and is just embittering a battle that had a good chance if being settled quickly with mutually respectful behaviour.

      • Rob says:

        14 Sep14 September 12:18

        You should see the BALPA letter. Allegedly BA continued to roster pilots after the cancellations – ie pilots were told they were flying flights which no longer existed. It seems a large number of pilots were given the same flight, eg 10 captains put onto the same San Francisco flight, so all could be docked 5 days pay which is the trip length.

        • Doug M says:

          14 Sep14 September 12:44

          I said elsewhere I have sympathy with the pilots. But once you strike across spaced out days, you’re deliberately maximising chaos from minimum strike days, day before and after impacted by plane locations. Once you done this the gloves are off and I’d expect nothing less from BA than maximising the pain you cause the pilots. Trying to limit the pilots pain is not BA’s role in this. There’s a reason people take sides, it’s a battle of wills and of financial muscle. If this hardens the pilots position then BA are making a mistake, but it’s a very long time since workers really went all in on strikes, maybe Tube drivers aside.

        • Lady London says:

          14 Sep14 September 19:53

          Surely that’s fraud by British Airways ? Easy enough to prove. As it presumably was fraud in the course of attempting to victimise employees exercising their legal right to strike? There must be an offence BA can be charged with somewhere in their actions against those employees participating in the union action. With a bit of luck

          No wonder the pilots were pushed to strike if this is the sort of thing BA will do – bully boy tactics. Where’s the mutual respect and finding a compromise?

          What on earth are the pilots asking for that:s so difficult for BA?

        • Shoestring says:

          14 Sep14 September 19:57

          7.5% of overall reported profit (your guess is as good as mine what they actually mean) – divided unequally over all 45,000 employees

        • Lady London says:

          14 Sep14 September 20:08

          Not an expert but would have thought something close to 3% could eventually be settled on.

          I can see why BA doesn’t want to do it though – and I bet IAG won’t countenance it.

          Wonder what BA’s alternative proposal is then, to provide some objectively measurable, limited level of participation in good results of the company as well as up to medium-high participation in any bad results.

        • Shoestring says:

          14 Sep14 September 20:22

          or just improve everybody’s potential annual bonus – financial targets met, KPIs achieved

          not exactly rocket science, that’s how companies incentivize performance and pay out more in good years

• Roger says:

  14 Sep14 September 06:38

  OT but BA related

  On any Iberia booking when I change my FF no. from Iberia to BA, I no longer see the booking appearing in my Iberia online account.

  Any way around this?
  On Manage My booking it results in error and does not display the booking

  • Shoestring says:

    14 Sep14 September 06:57

    change it to BAEC on the Finnair MMB page

    • Roger says:

      14 Sep14 September 07:23

      Already done that i.e. changing desired FF number.
      The trouble is on Iberia.com the booking vanishes following FF change.

      • Shoestring says:

        14 Sep14 September 07:33

        I changed all our IB flights (the IB90K offer) to BAEC FF nos on the Finnair MMB site and they were/ are still visible on the IB My Flights page

        • Roger says:

          14 Sep14 September 07:43

          Must be some temporary error then.
          All flights are available in Iberia App but not on Iberia Website.

• BSI1978 says:

  14 Sep14 September 06:52

  “some of the alleged actions appear to have inflamed passions further”… I think that’s being kind in the extreme Rob!

  Unreal tactics from BA, and unlike their apparent volte face with you re the tier/Avios issue, difficult to see how this isn’t a deliberate move by management with full knowledge of the consequences.

  • Doug M says:

    14 Sep14 September 09:19

    My sympathy is largely with the pilots. But once you’ve decided to strike and you’ve seen the resulting mayhem, why would you expect BA to not respond as fully as they’re able?

    • Mikeact says:

      14 Sep14 September 22:01

      Sympathy…….why ?

      • Doug M says:

        14 Sep14 September 23:14

        Because BA have made a lot of money and don’t distribute much of it to staff. The pilots have a case as I see it.

        • Lady London says:

          15 Sep15 September 10:05

          More particularly the pilots did agree to sacrifice 5000 each to the firm to help out in bad times. So not unreasonable to wish to put in place a mechanism for a limited share of externally reported profits in good times.

          Externally mesurable – e.g based on reported profits or perhaps better, on EBITDA (as generally less manipulable) – as BA has proved they can’t be trusted. Also a good counterfoil to any bonus scheme already in place as different criteria can be used to allocate within each. Plus it’s harder for BA to manipulate all of the figures at once, I suppose.

          Remembering also the 5000 sacrifice is still not repaid as promised to the pilots. That promise made when? 15 years ago at least? And BA has had good results for z number if years all this time later and their earlier promise still not kept.

      • Callum says:

        14 Sep14 September 23:21

        Because of the mismatch between company profits and staff wages?

        I wouldn’t expect many people to agree, especially on a site like this, but it should at least be a position you can comprehend!

• David says:

  14 Sep14 September 08:57

  I was rebooked onto Aer Lingus Glasgow-Dublin-Lyon in economy instead of BA Glasgow-LHR-Lyon in Business and will now only receive 40 TP instead of 80. Can I make a claim for the missing 40 ? Also missing a lounge crawl in T3 😩

  • AJA says:

    14 Sep14 September 09:22

    David, apply for Original Routing Credit. That should give you both TP and Avios per your original booking.

    Also you should get a refund for the downgrade from biz to economy.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 12:05

      Try for a lounge boucher each for future use too. As you were put in a class without lounge access.

    • Lady London says:

      16 Sep16 September 21:37

      Specifically, you are due 75% of original ticket cost back for the downgrade.

• Nikki Nicholson says:

  14 Sep14 September 09:48

  We were using air miles and a companion voucher, ba cancelled our flights, we changed it then they told us they had made a mistake, when I tried to change it back they would not release the seats in club, so we have had to come out a day later. It took us over 5 hours to get this sorted but ba’s attitude is that because it was a freebie it’s tough. I incurred £35 on my phone as I and hubby were using different numbers but that was all really. Any chance of getting anything off them.

  • Nick says:

    14 Sep14 September 11:46

    Is anyone seriously still using PAYG? Doesn’t nearly everyone have unlimited minutes nowadays?

    • Try Hard says:

      14 Sep14 September 11:53

      Nobody said PAYG but why not, people still use Sky TV, your comment is redundant!

      • Lady London says:

        15 Sep15 September 12:55

        As a matter of interest what is the list of things people are using instead if Sky TV these days?

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 12:23

      Depends where calling from. I blew 120 pounds trying to Get an award ticket changed after a reschedule in the last Day or so of BMI. Was en route and falling from Munich lounge. After that I decided maybe Skype was worth looking at after all.

    • John says:

      14 Sep14 September 13:04

      Yes, I use PAYG and pay less than £5 per year. I use multiple free data SIMs from 3 which give me 2GB per month.

    • Roy says:

      17 Sep17 September 21:38

      Just looked at WorldSim. Their call rates may be decent enough, but their data rates are pretty extortionate. e.g. in the UK they want £100/GB (quoted as £0.10/MB).

  • Lady London says:

    14 Sep14 September 12:03

    Hold on…at what point did BA tell you thé cancellation was a mistake? If thé flight wasnt cancelled then your seats should have still been there in the class that you booked. No reason for BA to change them. If they werent and thé flight was not cancelled then BA owed you either compensation for cancellation as I’m guessing by then you were les than 14 days ahead, or downgrade compensation if you were still on the flight but BA was refusing to seat you in Club.

    If you accepted a flight in Club a day later just to stay in Club then BA have got away with it and you have missed out on approx 250-600 euros compensation or 75% refund due to downgrade.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 12:10

      Above for Nikki. BA is known to pick on people using 241’s for downgrade. This is what BA did to you it seems. The flight wasnt cancelled but they gave away your seats. See above for how i think you missed out.

• Nick says:

  14 Sep14 September 11:25

  Can we please not have strikes in October and November….

  O/T – for those of us who are on IHG Accelerate two which runs till 31/10 will we get new promotion to sign up for at end October as currently if I try sign up for new IHG promotion says I’m not eligible again…

  • Andy S says:

    14 Sep14 September 11:34

    The sun ran a story yesterday that BALPA were planning 10 day strike in November! Ive not seem substantiation elsewhere so hope this is not going to be the case.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 12:15

      BALPA press released yesterday they told the the Sun no such thing.

      Wondering if BA is employing someone to spread false rumours and attempt to discredit the pilots’ union? Such people do existing.

      • Lady London says:

        14 Sep14 September 12:16

        *exist

      • Doug M says:

        14 Sep14 September 12:38

        That drives bookings away from BA, benefits pilots more than BA in terms of spreading discord.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 19:58

      Much more fun to do 5*2-day strikes, similar to the model created by the French railway unions.

• Peter K says:

  14 Sep14 September 12:09

  OT but BA related. Is it worth paying the extra Avios and/or money to fly BA Cityflyer from Manchester to Europe? As far as I can tell it’s just slightly better food and lounge access as the seats are 2×2 anyway.

  • John says:

    14 Sep14 September 13:08

    Think you need to clarify. Do you mean Club Europe on a Cityflyer flight? No, not worth it unless you need TPs. No lounge at LCY. Can’t you go via LHR? Cityflyer has food and drink in economy.

  • Anna says:

    14 Sep14 September 14:40

    As compared to what, WT? On such short flights I’d say no, the lounge at MAN is mediocre and as you say the seating is the same in both classes.

    • Peter K says:

      14 Sep14 September 15:34

      Sorry, yes, I meant Club rather than Economy and it is from Manchester as Anna says, rather than London. Thank you both for your replies, I’ll book in economy I think.

• Bob Clarke says:

  14 Sep14 September 13:25

  I have a *RED* highlighted flight on 28th September. BA said they would look at changing my flight back to UK with a TP or IB connection. I said if the strike on 27th is called off then I would want to change back to direct BA. To which BA said the charge as per ‘change of flight’ would apply in that case. Seems most disingenuous! 🙁

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