Strike announced in Italy for whole day including plane/train/highway

[leelaw]

All,

Please help me with some advice!!

I have a cruise booked from Rome (I live in uk), on the last day of the cruise I have a transfer to Rome airport booked but it looks like there is a all day strike announced – its the same time date virtually as last year.

The flight I have booked, is a BA AVIOS flight, I called BA and they said they cant do anything until its officially cancelled.

Of course, I am worried how I’m going to get home.

Th BA website says that when a flight is cancelled that you should go to the airport but I will be there due to that’s where the transit is dropping us off. I just dont know what to do, I will get to the airport at 09:00 for a 15:00 flight as it is.

Has anyone had any experience if what happens in this scenario? Surely someone else has had flights with BA cancelled during a national strike that could advise me?

TIA!

[SamG]

BA will cancel the flight but for a strike they usually wait until the last minute

You’ll then be able to book on the next available flight via manage my booking login or BA may automatically rebook you

You won’t be due any compensation but BA has to look after you so you should book a hotel (up to £200pn is the unofficial figure, if it’s more for some reason then take screenshots showing that was all that was available on hotels.com or similar) and also have meals (no alcohol) and send in the receipts for reimbursement via the website

If BA can’t get you home reasonably quickly but there is another airline running who could get you home much sooner you should call BA and ask them to reroute you. They’ll probably say no (if it is Easyjet or Ryanair or Wizzair they physically can’t) then you should have them note this refusal and buy the new ticket and send the receipt for rerouting reimbursement.

It is important to note you can’t have a refund if you do this as well, you just need to leave the BA ticket

Make sure you’re going to have roaming available and download Skype so you can call via the ships WiFi if required

[VickyTM]

I just had a BA flight cancelled this evening and they re-routed me on Austrian Airlines – so they will do it if you press it. That being said, if it’s a strike at the airport, (I got caught up in that last year) it’s doubtful anyone will get you home. So yes, prepare for a plan B asap

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

When is this actually for?

BA won’t do anything until it’s been confirmed and any changes you make in advance of that are voluntary and attract change fees and require avios availability.

[SamG]

VickyTM wrote:

I just had a BA flight cancelled this evening and they re-routed me on Austrian Airlines – so they will do it if you press it. That being said, if it’s a strike at the airport, (I got caught up in that last year) it’s doubtful anyone will get you home. So yes, prepare for a plan B asap

Yes they’ll reroute onto another carrier they have an agreement with if a flight is cancelled within 24hrs of departure. The problem in Europe is they don’t have agreements with any low cost carriers and also if flights are cancelled for a strike it is usually +24hrs so they won’t do it. Neither of which impact your UK261 / EU261 rights if you’ve given them the opportunity to reroute you and they didn’t come up with something reasonable, you just have to exercise them yourself and get reimbursed.