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??

[TizerorFizz]

@LaSevillana
Our Sept trip is a companion voucher. We were pleased to be able to use it. Just avoid school holidays!

[Caps0218]

I don’t think it’s as bad as people make out….I think 90% of passengers are ok.
We had our inbound cancelled, but just moved it another flight on the same day.
We flew out on Monday with a 40 minute delay.
We did the Verifly app, checked in online and printed our boarding passes.
we paid £36 for AirPortr to pick up our bags the day before and check them in for us, I was worried about long check in queues.
Security in T5 was about an hour.
we arrived at our destination with both our bags.
we are a family of 3, child is 4.

[TizerorFizz]

@Caps0218
When we were there it was not even 5% of flights. All were short haul and half were internal uk flights. Of course BA has now cancelled and amalgamated flights in advance so let’s hope the remaining flights go smoothly. So many people really do need their planned holiday.,

[BunsyGirl]

Although I travelled to to two destinations in April with BA without any issues, I am now more than a little worried about our August trip to Tenerife. At the moment, BA are not flying to Tenerife from Heathrow on the day and time that we have booked…so either they are going to start that route in the next few weeks or are going to cancel our flights. It’s a BA holiday so I am presuming they will cancel the whole thing! There is a flight from Gatwick on the day we are due to travel but there are no flights at all on the day day we are due to come back! Arghh!!!

[TizerorFizz]

@BunsyGirl
That could be an amalgamated flight. Worrying though.

[TizerorFizz]

There are flights from Heathrow in August but they go via Madrid. I would prefer direct from Gatwick. Can you book seats yet?

[BunsyGirl]

@TizerorFizz I can if I pay to book them! There’s no way I am going to accept an indirect flight via Madrid. Frustrating as I booked last November and the hotel looks amazing. We will go somewhere else if BA cancel on us.

[TizerorFizz]

They might not cancel. They might redirect you to Gatwick. Better than non direct.

[BunsyGirl]

@TizerorFizz happy to go from Gatwick but there doesn’t seem to be a direct flight back from Tenerife on the day we return.

[berksandbeyond]

Credit where it's due had a good experience from Gatwick with BA this week. Did twilight check in and then stayed in hotel on site. From hotel room to lounge, via premium security, in 10 minutes.

Suitcase even made it back with us and came through quickly - although there was a mound of luggage left lying to one side from a previous flight!