Honestly
It pains me to write this, as I have stated in the past my family's connections with BEA/BA are long and I wouldn't hesitate to use BA on short/Medium Haul services. I too worked at a foreign outstation for BA in the "glory days" and have them to thank for my resulting career in aviation. As a director of a medium sized aviation company (turnover approx GBP15M total air travel spend GBP800K) we no longer use Ryanair because of their stance on industrial relations and we no longer use BA Long Haul because of the service received in Club World or First. To say Virgin is not comparable to BA is to the uninitiated air traveller compete tosh - again it pains me to say it but a straw poll in my office here revealed 80% preferred Virgin's offereing on comparable flights (across 3 classes). Today I have approved 3 Upper Class tickets to Hong Kong, 2 Upper Class tickets to LAX and 2 Emirates First Class tickets to SYD all for travel within the next 4 Weeks and total cost approx GBP45K until some kind of resolution to this dispute is reached no BA flights will be booked at all. What the CC on this forum do not seem to recognise is that this kind of action alienates them from popular support. To say that the dispute is no-one else's business other than the management and unions is also disingenuous, it is very easy to forget that people outside the industry only see the bad press and will blame the strikers for ruining their holiday, business plans etc - look at the ridiculous reactions of some of the interviewees over the fog at Christmas blaming the airlines for the fog and expecting them to use Godlike powers. If this vision of BA continues then I'm afraid I fear the worst but it won't be WW and the top guys that suffer it'll be the people at the coal face. I fully support the workers rights to colectivise and agree that everyone should strive for the best they can get in terms or remuneration and also position but the workers must also recognise their responsibilities to the company they work for and the climate that the company has to survive in.