This then, is effectively a one shot go for UNITE, if they lose this appeal there would be very little benefit to proceed further for them. BA on the other hand have everything to gain by dragging this out for as long as possible. The longer this goes on - the ST issue - the better it gets for BA. The downside is very small and the strikers who rely on their ST are being slowly drained. I am still not sure that UNITE have thought this through very well
I tend to agree with this as well, which is presumably why the full restoration of staff travel was hoped to be part of the settlement deal, as otherwise it's all too long winded. Once BA took away staff travel on a permanent or loss of seniority basis, Unite weren't left with many options to think through.