I do hope it doesn't go ahead. The management & non-cabin crew staff of BA don't seem to deserve the trouble it could cause.

The BA Chief Exec has a statement on the BA website. I think he got all his ideas from this thread - they were here first!

Pretty much the same on the ZRH-GVA route. But LX offers the added incentive of a free chocolate (which I avoid..)

On BA you get a Breakaway choccie bar, please get your facts straight

Nudge nudge wink wink - know what you mean!

Now that would be real cabin service.
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The U.K. in the perception of people here was always leading the field as "nation of strikers", so that France only had the 2nd rank

The trades unions actually hit exactly at a time of recovery of the civil aviation industry, so that the competitors of BA will be the winners

The operational HQ will be in London, as well as the operational management. More interesting will be the name. While AirFranceKLM is halfway acceptable, a name "British Airways Iberia" or "British Iberia" would be outright weird.

Thank goodness I booked the train. Agree that it really seems they're cutting off their nose to spite their face.

I am BA Cabin Crew. I obviously can't say too much, but the strike, (should it go ahead) is not about money at all and never has been.
Willie Walsh's PR machine is spinning so many lies to you the travelling public that it makes our blood boil watching the news.
Our union has to be very cautious as to what it puts out. I would dearly love to give you the full story. My Son and his girlfriend are due to fly here during this time and my family are supposed to be flying to Geneva on the 27th so It is affecting our christmas too, along with thousands of cabin crew and their families.
We have offered the company millions of pounds worth of savings by working harder, EVEN longer hours than we do now less crew etc. etc. etc. The company have turned down every offer we have put to them. Believe me this is Willie Walsh on an ego trip. We do not earn anything like the figures thrown around on the news.

I sincerely hope that someone from our management will see sense and that we can call it off. The majority was 9 to 1 so the strength of feeling says it all. We certainly would not feel this way if it was trivial.

I hope you will all get the full story in the coming weeks. We are of course ready for the onslaught in the meantime. The public never give their support on anything that will inconvenience them obviously, and until they are affected by something similar, simply would not understand, unless they saw the bigger picture.

The reasons why we are in this mess are
1 The opening of T5. horrendous debacle, thanks to Willie Walsh it cost us millions! Did you see his side kicks running away from the press questions during news bulletins? Cringe Cringe.
2 Price fixing, Willie Walsh said he knew nothing, HELLO, isn't he the CEO? hundreds of millions pounds in fines!
3 Price hedging on fuel, again cost us millions
The list goes on, we are the lowest earners in the company,considering the hours we put in, but our friend Willie is in for a several million pound pay off if he gets his way with this lot, do you wonder why he is so determined?

How about "Briberia"?

"Briberia - we fly you there! Mañana!"

I think your version is also a little one sided, ok your base salary may not be too great, but factor in the allowances, the lay off days the other perks and you don't do too badly. I have a close relative is a senior cabin crew position in BA and they do very nicely indeed from BA (long haul).

And compare your salary to the likes or ryan air, easy jet etc (for short haul) and your paid considerably more.

Hi Corrie, nice to hear another side of the story.

Silly question maybe, but is there any chance the strike (if there is one) will go on longer than expected, or is it over on Jan 2nd no matter what?

I panicked after reading this thread, went out and bought a (refundable) ticket with another airline... then came back, read the news story - and found out that the strike is scheduled to end several days before my BA flight anyway. Wondering now if I should refund the other ticket or hang on to it just in case.

Maybe BA should hire temps to fill in like Royal Mail did

Royal Mail are / where in a much stronger position, for 99% of the population there is no alternative to RM, you post a letter and it goes RM.

BA is in a totally different position, there are plenty of airlines just waiting to pick off BA's customers, and you can bet once BA has messed them around they wont fly with them ever again (like me)

I worked for BA on the ground in LHR and around the world for 13+ years.

I truly hope the strike won't happen.

But, BA CEO Willie Walsh is after a fight - he's done it at Aer Lingus and IMO he wants a "paradigm shift" in Cabin Crew conditions at BA.
Moving BA Cabin Crew from being a Career to fixed term contracts, minimising night-stops downroute, reducing allowances etc.

corrieorrie makes some very good points - T5 was a debacle (hand in hand with BAA), the fuel hedging was a joke and the price fixing truly ugly.

My fear is that Walsh is in no mood to negociate and his mid-level managers fresh from the floor of Sainsburys (don't laugh, it's true) are lined up behind him.

It could get very very ugly...and there might be NO winners in the long-term.

The number of times I've said "never again" with BA

Hi bigblue2
Firstly, we are not and have no desire to be a low cost airline such as the ones you mention. We are still a full service airline and should be compared to Emirates and Singapore airlines rather than those airlines who do not provide our type of service and do not fly long haul.

Willie Walsh came from Aer Lingus and is doing his best to downgrade us to that standard. There is nothing wrong with these airlines, I travel with them a lot but, not everyone, including our premier passengers want to fly low cost all the time. We are passionate about British Airways. We , as Crew cannot bear to see the way the cuts are affecting YOU, our customers.
The major reason why we feel so strongly and united has yet to be told by the management to the public. Our union are playing very safely and it also has not been mentioned by them either ,yet. I can tell you, it is horrendous and will change the airline dramatically for the worse.
To give you an idea of the tricks they are playing. An interview has just taken place on BBC supposedly with a member of crew. In fact it was a manager in our uniform. It is unbelievable! We are under contract NOT to talk to the media.
As for those of you worried about your flights. On behalf of us all, we sincerely hope you can still enjoy your travel over the christmas period. I can't see how on earth this can be allowed to happen. The board will surely step in. I have full fare tickets for family, but I am not doing anything for the moment. The last threatened strike was called off at the last minute. I hope the same will happen this time. If it does, then I will deal with it then.
I am not going to get in to our salary, all I will say is, the public see our work as being all about perks, allowances, 5 star hotels etc. It hasn't been that way for a long time, do you really think ANY large company these days pays their employees for all fun and little work? we work to our maximum hours which is 62 hours a week.

Our long haul crews have the minimum rest downroute (most of the time) that can be Singapore , return home minimum rest and off to Vancouver with a completely opposite time zone. I can tell you , It's a killer.

And therein lies the problem, premium airlines don't make any money, the vast majority of people don't want to pay 3,4+ times the price of an economy ticket to get some 'free' food and drink. Companies are not paying for staff to fly business or 1st anymore. BA has to adapt or die.

Also compare BA's first and business to your rival offerings, the rivals win hands down, Give me Virgin 1st class over BA any day of the week.

Hi JKUser,
Working on an aircraft and taking care of passengers is not quite as simple as delivering post.
Crew are given a license to fly AFTER completing a 6 -8 week training course, which covers aviation medicine, (childbirth, heart attacks, strokes, Epilepsy, diabetes, recusitation etc. etc.) Emergency procedures, ie, planned emergency, un-planned emergency, ditching etc. Pilot incapacitation, fire etc. use of all emergency equipment on board and exactly where it is stowed, disruptive passengers and how to restrain them. This is only a tiny example of our training.
The license expires when you do not fly for more than 90 days, so it is impossible to have trained crew on standby ready to take over.

Of course my point entirely, Willie Walsh has imposed so many cuts on us that our product is not competitive any more. We were a world leader for goodness sake.

As for Virgin, watch this space, they are in big trouble!
Yes we must change, I agree. My question to you would be, when you go on holiday, do you always want to stay in a travel lodge or Formula 1 Hotel? No, I thought not.
I don't want to always fly Low cost. BA club and first is fantastic -at the moment!