If BASSA were to win its impending court case against BA and succeed in its estimable attempt to have such travel determined as contractual, won't that unleash a really squiggly can of worms for the poor crews which have used such travel benefits.
Surely HMRC would be tempted to tax previous staff travel retroactively in the hands of the employee in whose contractual employment the benefit had legally been deemed to have fallen. The potential rewards for the nation's coffers would be huge, the issue too profitable to be ignored and the case work largely done. No doubt some negotiations could be entered into individually or collectively on the part of the crew union and HMRC but travel records are by law required to be kept for six years in order to facilitate retrospective tax assessment debts by the employer and employees and any UK tax case determined by law usually tends to the unequivocal.