A strike was planned by Unite members of British Airways Mixed fleet crew over pay for 25 and 26 December which was subsequently cancelled. Unite, claims that the average pay including allowances is £16,000 a year. This figure is disputed by BA, which says crew would usually earn at least £21,000 a year with bonuses, on a basic salary of £12,000.
It is rumoured from several sources, including Flyertalk, that the Unite members have rejected the revised pay deal that was negotiated at ACAS recently and will strike on 11th January 2017. This is unconfirmed but it is coincidentally the date that the BA short haul service in economy takes a major turn for the worse. On this date they remove of all free food and drink in economy. Club Europe service remains the same with a revamp of the food due shortly. If you booked your ticket prior to the buy on board announcement, you should contact BA customer service here as they are offering 1000 Avios compensation.
It is not known what the impact of the strike will be but on the previous strike dates BA intended to operate all longhaul, LGW and LCY services, but for some LHR shorthaul routes a rebooking/refund policy was on offer. These were Aberdeen, Basle, Belfast, Bergen, Bilbao, Bologna, Budapest, Dusseldorf, Gibraltar, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Kiev, Krakow, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Manchester, Marseille, Oslo, Paris Orly, Pisa, Prague, Stavanger, St Petersburg, Stuttgart, Vienna, Venice, Warsaw and Zagreb.
Bearing in mind that the previous dates were over Christmas where a revised short haul schedule is in place, I would not assume that if your route isn’t featured that you will be OK until you have it confirmed. However LCY and LGW will be unaffected and BA are likely to prioritise long haul over short haul.
I will bring further news as soon as it is available.
