MSE News: British Airways cabin crew to strike - your rights

feesh

At risk of bringing this topic back onto a more helpful track, please can anyone tell me what happens if you have paid for your flight with Airmiles and it gets cancelled?

Minxy_Bella

feesh wrote: »

At risk of bringing this topic back onto a more helpful track, please can anyone tell me what happens if you have paid for your flight with Airmiles and it gets cancelled?

Yes, I would like to know that too as I'm supposed to be going to Paris in April using tickets that have been 'bought' with airmiles

richardw

My guess is they may offer you to change the flights or refund the miles to your account.

Shain

feesh wrote: »

At risk of bringing this topic back onto a more helpful track, please can anyone tell me what happens if you have paid for your flight with Airmiles and it gets cancelled?

Not sure what happens if BA cancel your flight, rather than vice versa, but...

We had booked our flights to Canada in April with part miles (bought largely with Tesco Clubcard points) and part cash and we decided last week to cancel the flights and rebook with another airline because of the likelihood of a strike and our need for certainty (traveling with a toddler!). We got a full refund of the cash (eventually, after initially getting a much smaller amount back because of an admin problem) onto the credit card and taxes, etc, LESS AN ADMIN CHARGE, which was £15 per person if you cancel on-line, £30 per person if you do it over the phone. If you try to cancel on-line and can't because the website's not responding properly, tell them that on the phone and they should just charge £15. We also got all our airmiles back and they will last forever as long as there's some activity on the account each year (eg buy some miles, make a booking, etc).

BTW, we were warned that the WORST situation to be in if you needed to cancel in advance is to have bought an economy ticket and upgraded using BA airmiles - we were told NOTHING would be refunded.

Hope that helps anyone deciding what to do if they haven't already booked, or if they have and are considering upgrading...

Happy travels...

malkie76

BTW, we were warned that the WORST situation to be in if you needed to cancel in advance is to have bought an economy ticket and upgraded using BA airmiles - we were told NOTHING would be refunded.

That's incorrect information. Firstly, please remember that Airmiles, and BA Miles are two entirely separate things.

If you book a flight and upgrade with BA Miles (called an MFU), and it gets cancelled, then you are entitled to rebook within 1 year at no cost, or receive a full refund of money spent and BA Miles to your account.

kerri_gt

Frankly I think the cabin crews are doing themselves no favours by striking, BA are losing revnue and profits by people booking with alternative airlines...and lower revenue = yep....job losses. I work in a private company and if we decided to go on strike I am sure we'd be shown the door pretty quickly.

I can understand that staff want to air grievences, but striking over things like pay freezes, which many of us are having to deal with, imo is just self harming.

There are plenty of people out of work at the moment and, like the post office staff who were striking at christmas, I am fed up of people complaining about working conditions when there are plenty of other people who would willingly take on their jobs in order to pay the bills.

Yes I can understand that BA staff might have grievences to air, but by striking and disrupting flights etc, they are also disrupting customers trying to fly - possibly for business etc, which can have a detremental effect on other businesses and their revenue - imo that's just selfish

MissBehaving

Hi Guys
We are due to fly to South Africa on the 24th March returning mid April.
Our flights were booked in April 2009 so it was LOOOOONG before any strike was announced.
The travel insurance that I THOUGHT I had is actually only for Europe and expires on 30th March anyway.
My question is:
Does anyone know which Travel Insurance company is likely to cover us should the flights be cancelled? I have read somewhere that different insurances companies 'interpret' the 'notification of strike' differently.

Also - are we in a position to ask BAA to put us on another airline should our flights be those affected? ie: Can we ask to be put onto SAA or Virgin?

Any help is greatly appreciated...

Thanks

malkie76

No new insurance policy will cover you - the intention to strike has already been announced, so no insurance company will take the risk on a new policy.

If your flights are cancelled you'll get an entire refund from BA or rebooking at no cost sometime in the future. If you've got further elements booked you may be on risky grounds as it's not their fault BA goes on strike, and they won't offer refunds (car booking, hotels etc).

I'm not sure why you think BAA would book you on another carrier. Was that a typo, and you mean BA ? Either way, BA won't rebook you on another carrier either. You could book a fully-flex return with another carrier and then cancel if your BA flight goes ahead.