It's a bit like the Royal Mail - the first time they went on strike over modernisation, Amazon promptly switched their normal deliveries to a competitor.

So then the strike a bit more to see who else they can lose, thinking it somehow "hurts" management.

You have to despair; unions came about to protect workers from injustices and abuse by management and I know my own grandfather would never have got a payout for his work-related injury without them.

Now, though, they just seem to be there to help flush another firm down the toilet through ridiculous demands, such as the postal union wanting "cast-iron guarantees of no job losses".

On the bright side, you've got a water tight excuse for not visiting the Outlaws this Chrimbo

Or you could take the scenic route by TGV and then Eurostar, but if the French start to strike then its bad luck

just about every other company in the world has laid off staff and had to cut costs, yet the union at BA think they are someone exempt? even after losing nearly 300m in the first half at the year? madness

You've got Brit expats in France, Netherlands, Belgium etc.. all eyeing up that same option.

Swiss is probably cheaper than BA. I know they are usually cheaper than Iberia. I stopped flying Iberia years ago as they are simply not reliable. Seems same goes for BA.

Ok... I hardly flew to the UK and could from my experience not make out a difference between BA and Swiss in terms of price. BA seemed more often delayed, but I blamed that on the not-so-efficient airports.

Wife is booked on BA LHR to GVA on the 31st! Awesome!

Since this is breaking news you still have a small window of opportunity to book an alternative... but as others have said, be quick before all hope is lost.

I can also see the french port workers etc deciding to hold a strike around the same time, just to completely screw everything up.

I recon all the other airlines will have suddenly doubled there prices (at least) in the last 1/2 hour.

Looking into options now; easyJet is looking good but there are so many flights from LHR to GVA even with a strike it may not be a hassle.

easyJet certainly haven't

I hope this does not affect the Eurotunnel too

I have just checked

http://www.aerlingus.com/cgi-bin/obe...line/index.jsp

And suprisingly they haven't up'ed the fares (yet) and still have availability from LGW to Zurich over the BA strike period.

Those are Ryanair tactics; Such a shame they're no longer in Switzerland to capitalise on the misery

My flight is on the 23rd... man!

bah.....Fly tommorrow back beginning of Jan...o dear.

I'll get to Britain okay, flying out on Wednesday but the return part on 30/12 is worrying me.

However, the BA website says they'll re-do timetables and let customers know ASAP how they're working round this. Although my kneejerk reaction on hearing the news was 'rebook with Air France', I'm going to wait and see on this one. I don't blame BA for it happening and would be glad if they take the opportunity to put it right.

Am I right in thinking they just can't fly without a legal minimum of cabin crew, that it's safety as much as whether passengers get a drink and a biccie in-flight?

'Cos I could do the arm movements for the pre-flight safety announcement if they could provide a recorded soundtrack

The strike isn't a foregone conclusion. Given that this would bring BA to its knees it might write off the unions demands against the expected loss in revenue (£300m) an xmas strike would cause.