BA Strike Latest: Passenger Rights During the British Airways Strike

The BBC have put together a good summary of your rights if you are going to be a passenger on British Airways on the announced cabin crew strikes.

If you haven’t heard yet, there will be two separate strikes. The first next weekend for 3 days and then the next weekend for 4 days.

Here are the exact BA Strike Dates:

20, 21 and 22 March 2010
27, 28, 29 and 30 March 2010

Here’s a pretty good summary from the BBC of British Airway’s strike plans and how they will affect you if you have flights scheduled during the strike:

I’ve got a flight booked with BA, what should I do?

BA has said that in the event of a strike it will “do everything we can to protect your travel plans as far as possible”.

The seriousness of the disruption will depend on how many staff decide not to turn up to work on the strike days.
BA says it plans to operate some flights during a strike:

• London City Airport: All flights from London City airport, including long-haul services to New York
• Gatwick: Flights outside Europe (BA 2000 – BA 2299) will operate normally but some short-haul flights will be cancelled
• Heathrow: Plans to operate “substantial part” of long-haul and short-haul schedule. Some flights will operate normally, some will fly with a “different style” of cabin service, but others will be cancelled

The airline says: “We will aim to give more details four or five days before the strike is due to begin when we will announce our revised flying programme.”

British Airways says it will inform affected customers directly by e-mail or text by using the contact details provided at the time of booking. So it is asking passengers to make sure these details are correct and up-to-date.
At the moment, passengers whose flights are scheduled between 19 March and 31 March 2010 can:

• Rebook onto another BA flight to the same destination within 355 days of the original date of travel
• Cancel the booking and get a refund.

Full details will be put on the BA website.

In general, customers are extremely unlikely to have any extra claim for compensation, because the cancellation is not “within the airline’s control”.

Stay tuned to Anglotopia for the latest British Airways strike updates.