Heathrow strike when I'm flying in August. Time to start panicking??

Tunstallstoven

Do you think that makes it more likely that the strike will happen? Or are they just trying their best to be flexible?

I wonder what would happen if you change your date and then the strike is called off? Perhaps I'll call BA and ask them...

With it being so late in the day and still no news, what do more experienced folk think as to whether it will go ahead or not? I've been refreshing the Heathrow strike FAQ every five minutes all day!!!

Alan_Bowen

We simply do not know the state of talks between the airport and Unite. The difficulty is the practical issue that many flights will be busy or full already and changing flights may not be that easy. The talks are continuing and I doubt the airport wants a strike in the middle of the summer as the press would be all over them. Against that, their regular business travellers are probably absent at the moment which makes the airport as a whole slightly less busy than usual. If I were a betting man, and I am not, I suspect the strike will be suspended at the last moment, but then I am not travelling next week!

jackieblack

The Guardian and Daily Mail appear to be reporting that talks have broken down, but how reliable they are is... ? :cool:

Tunstallstoven

Yeah, I've just seen that too... Surely they wouldn't make it up would they??? I don't really follow the press so I've no idea how reliable or not it is. Interestingly it's only just started showing but Google says it was posted 4 hours ago...

Nothing on the Heathrow site still...

jackieblack

Further updates:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/9641896/heathrow-airport-august-strikes-update/

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/indication-from-heathrow-airport-pay-offer-ballot-suggests-overwhelming-rejection-union-says-a4204506.html

Tunstallstoven

So it seems there might be some hope but it's not looking too good. And I guess there's just no way of telling what way it will go...

I've tried calling BA for clarity on a number of issues but I had to hang up after being on hold for over half an hour. To be expected I suppose.

Think I'll start another thread with my questions in case anyone here might be able to help (if I ask them here they might be a bit buried now the thread is growing)... If that's the wrong thing to do, apologies in advance and please merge my other thread with this, or ask me to do it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76109053#Comment_76109053

lisyloo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49212984

worldtraveller

HEATHROW AIRPORT - FAQ's about industrial action

https://www.heathrow.com/more/help-with-this-website/faqs/industrial-action

Tunstallstoven

https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/9647085/heathrow-strike-passengers-airport-refuses-to-say-which-flights-cancelled/

So apparently they haven't announced which flights are affected/cancelled.

I went onto the BA site just now to see what other flights there are from Heathrow to Prague on my day of travel (6th) and noticed that my flight is not on there any more (07:30). So I'm thinking it's either sold out or on the way out!

Nervous times

mtc95

Seagull27 wrote: »

...
I've tried calling BA for clarity on a number of issues but I had to hang up after being on hold for over half an hour. To be expected I suppose.
...

That's what annoys me when they say "contact your airline for more information" when they must surely know that it's virtually impossible to get through to airlines at times like this.


As I understand it, it was Heathrow themselves that decided to pre-emptively cancel some flights. Why could they not just simply publish the list of flights affected so that people would know where they stand?