BA chaos + now threat of summer strikes

[peoniesarejustperfect]

Anyone fancy joining me for a bit of a moan?

Due to fly with BA twice this summer - once next week long haul and then in August for our family holiday which is booked separately to the holiday bit.

I can't get over what is happening at airports at the moment. I understand all the reasons, just so surprised that they don't know in advance what problems they are going to have in forth coming week. Lots of cancellations, lost luggage, texting people at the gate. Whist def a first world problem, it sounds miserable. And now BA announce that they are balloting for strike action. For some reason it takes them 22 days to do this.

We've been talking about what to do with our August family holiday - that would be the one that would really disappoint us. Whether we should cancel our BA flights and book with another airline, just cross our fingers & hope or cancel it all and book something a bit more reliable. Like so many people we are desperate to get away.

What's everyone else thinking??

That is such a shame - bad luck. Did they offer you alternate flights? That's the first cancellation I've heard of or August. On the plus side it's plenty of notice and I hope you don't have to wait too long for your refund.

A full refund as it was a package -hotel and flights. Offered £100, each off another holiday if we book by next Thursday. I want the refund before I book again.

These are the dates / airlines / countries to watch if you're worried about being impacted by strikes:

thepointsguy.co.uk/news/summer-strikes-travel-disruptions-2022-dates/?utm_source=TPG%20UK%20Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4544966&utm_usr=6ec9eb6fa41e4f3835954f3d871884f10345b727ce88ef823869f8c2c0c634dd&utm_msg=a91cc0588ae841c5909d69599da794a6&utm_date=2022-06-25

@generalh totally agree about getting your refund first, but annoying if they drag their heels in that. Comforting to have a package.

@HundredMilesAnHour thank you so much - I’ve done exactly what they said and bookmarked it. Really hope BA announce their strike dates soon. Reading their bottom line, our summer holiday is becoming less appealing by the day. I really like The Pounts Guy - they have a v good guide to Avios and different credit cards etc.

We’re travelling BA long haul next week and returning mid July so watching for strike dates with trepidation.

That luggage pick up service looked so fab until finding out it doesn’t extend to our area in the Midlands. Damn. Would’ve loved to have missed check in queue.

Yes, they sent me an email the next day with 4 options to choose from. I've accepted a letter flight. Bit annoyed about it as we will be stuck at Heathrow (with two teens) for 8 hours after landing from Vancouver so we will be exhausted after an overnight flight. I can't sleep at all on planes - even long haul - so I'm doomed. Not sure about the teens as they've never been further than Malta! I might buy some eye masks. And, ear plugs!

Accepted a later flight!

Aer Lingus cancelled a load of flights at short notice today. Our flight to Belfast (from Heathrow) was put back from this afternoon until tomorrow night .
We were in the queue to speak to someone and it was full of Americans trying to get to Dublin and Shannon airports to get connecting flights. There seemed to be a lot of missing luggage as well.
We didn't get the text about the change until we were already through security.

We’re flying to belfast this weekend with Aer lingus & I’m not looking forward to the chaos 🙈
Weve also got an afternoon flight it’s outrageous that you wasn’t told of the changes until you’d gone through security .

I've had two short haul BA flights over summer cancelled. One was easy enough to change to another time. The other one means that our outbound flight now doesn't work logistically but BA say it's my choice to change the outbound so I still have to pay hundreds in change fees.

Ugh I am relieved I didn't book any flights this summer. Instead going on a short cruise to Bruge and Amsterdam.
We had been hoping to go to Spain last year but looks like it will be next summer post A level celebration rather than post GCSE!
By the way I always fly Virgin to the States find the planes better than BA.

Heathrow was madness this morning, we went early to see if we got get on and earlier flight, thankfully we managed to get on the 11.10 one instead of 7.40 tonight.

What terminal Coco?

Madness in terms of checking in queues?

Terminal 2, there was only one door open to get in and there was literally hundreds of people in queues trying to check their bags in.
We weren't checking bags on and it still took over an hour to get through security.

Okay many thanks. We’re flying T5 tomorrow with an extremely anxious child and if she’s kept waiting for hours, it’s going to be 100x worse. Dreading it.

Ds flew BA to Berlin two weeks ago, his outbound flight was fine but he got an email 3 days in to his holiday stating that his return flight had been moved by 5 hours. This meant that he would have been stranded in London for 24 hours due to rail strikes or had to come home by coach. He decided to come home a day early by travelling by train to Brussels & then getting Eurostar to London. It Was a good job he did because when he checked the flight he should have returned on was cancelled.

My friend just booked again for Murcia. Much cheaper as we had a £100 discount and going a day later than the other holiday. Still with Easyjet. I hopenitngies ahead but at least we know will get it all back as it is a package again with Easyjet.

Sitting in Heathrow T3 departures now waiting for a BA flight - security took about 5 mins and check in lines were normal/average, no delayed flights on the board (yet). Longest queue so far has been Pret to get a coffee!

My parents flew into T5 a few days ago and said the only things they noticed out of the ordinary were huge queues for flight transfers, and a sea of luggage in a holding pen between the baggage belts that had obviously arrived late/not been picked up. I think if you can try not to check anything in, that will minimise issues.

I'm travelling BA again in August and hoping it's not disrupted...

@Xiaoxiong that sounds reassuring apart from the sea of luggage! We’re going for 3 weeks and couldn’t get by without check in luggage, but I’m steeling myself for late luggage. It’ll be such a hassle as we’re going somewhere remote.

We got back last night from 2 weeks away. Going out we had a text the night before that our first flight was delayed by over an hour and a half which gave us 45 minutes to our connecting flight. Managed to get transferred to an earlier flight, though that meant sleeping at Nairobi Airport overnight. Good job we did as that flight was delayed another 2 hours. Security queues were minimal but that was at 6am.
Arrived back at T2 and passport queue was fine but baggage collection was a nightmare. Piles of bags round every belt from flights that arrived days before - looked at some tags and they were arrivals on 25th and 26th. Nothing was being done with them. People waiting 2 hours for baggage. We waited 90 minutes and there were people who were there 45 minutes before us still waiting.

Omg 😱 we’re flying from terminal 2 on Saturday short haul , I’m dreading it .I’m sorry to hear about the tiring stressful time that you had but Thankyou for the update

Thank you for all the updates. @DrBlackbird I hope you manage to get away today without too many hassles - and that your luggage follows you!

I think I will be wearing many layers when (and if) I get to go on holiday in August.

We've decided we couldn't take the risk and cancelled - driving somewhere instead.

I don’t blame you prettylittlecryer , holidays are for relaxation it’s all too stressful