BA Unofficial Strike ( Merged)
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Wherever i lay my hat, that's my home...
Age: 44
Posts: 173
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Revman,
I was not doubting your figures, just trying to say I only have one source... (bit of a topic, single source... Sorry! Crap joke)
I am sure on a global level LSG would eventually be able to supply, as you rightly say the supply for LH/AF is already there. My question is aimed at LHR. You could sell the business of GG to LSG if it went bust, but the workers would be the same people. If the solution is to change personel, how do you go about this at LHR, surely in a sale of business the people and hence the unions would still be in place?
Could LSG supply BA from Germany, I imagine it would take up an awful lot of cargo space.
If GG were let to go to the wall, the equipment capacity is obviously there. Then you have the question of training new employees to use the equipment and prepare the meals.
Personally I can't see any caterers being able to help out an operation the size of BA from inside the UK, in the short term.
Although off on a tangent, I love the BBC website, quoting someone as saying that BA should have planned for this... LOL! Is that like saying car manufacturers should pay for an AA van to drive behind each of us in case we breakdown?
I was not doubting your figures, just trying to say I only have one source... (bit of a topic, single source... Sorry! Crap joke)
I am sure on a global level LSG would eventually be able to supply, as you rightly say the supply for LH/AF is already there. My question is aimed at LHR. You could sell the business of GG to LSG if it went bust, but the workers would be the same people. If the solution is to change personel, how do you go about this at LHR, surely in a sale of business the people and hence the unions would still be in place?
Could LSG supply BA from Germany, I imagine it would take up an awful lot of cargo space.
If GG were let to go to the wall, the equipment capacity is obviously there. Then you have the question of training new employees to use the equipment and prepare the meals.
Personally I can't see any caterers being able to help out an operation the size of BA from inside the UK, in the short term.
Although off on a tangent, I love the BBC website, quoting someone as saying that BA should have planned for this... LOL! Is that like saying car manufacturers should pay for an AA van to drive behind each of us in case we breakdown?
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Around
Age: 56
Posts: 572
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Spleen Venting
As one of the many thousands of passengers affected by this travesty, pleas allow me to vent the spleen.
I am so sick and bloody tired of BA and Heathrow that I will do my utmost to never, ever, again take my business to that horrific pillar of ineptitude.
I was stranded in JFK, and was appaled by the lack of help provided. As a business class passenger, with pressing business to attend, whos company has spent the better part of 4000 Euros to bring me from JFK to BAH via LHR, the service provided utterly sucked. I appreciate that in this situation, there is much confusion going on. But the utter indifference and ineptituded displayed the BA staff in Kennedy was tantamount to criminal negligence.
The strike by the whinging idiots in LHR cost me two days business here in BAH, and has meant that more than 20 people have had to reschedule their itinirary. It has cost the company uncounted thousands of Euros in hotel rebookings, and I'm stood here looking like an idiot in front of a lot of people, all because a bunch of stupid morons decided to have a couple of days off.
Well, I've had it. Sad thing is, that there are more than likely thousands of dedicated BA employees who will now have to suffer. Not from my actions, I'm not that stupid, but from the thousands of passengers who feel the same as me - we will take our business elsewhere.
For what it's worth, the company I work for has now put BA on the very bottom of the list of carries used. I do belive we have, or rather had, a very large corporate account with Birdseed.
BA = No Way!
You may thank your moronic collegues on the ground.
I am so sick and bloody tired of BA and Heathrow that I will do my utmost to never, ever, again take my business to that horrific pillar of ineptitude.
I was stranded in JFK, and was appaled by the lack of help provided. As a business class passenger, with pressing business to attend, whos company has spent the better part of 4000 Euros to bring me from JFK to BAH via LHR, the service provided utterly sucked. I appreciate that in this situation, there is much confusion going on. But the utter indifference and ineptituded displayed the BA staff in Kennedy was tantamount to criminal negligence.
The strike by the whinging idiots in LHR cost me two days business here in BAH, and has meant that more than 20 people have had to reschedule their itinirary. It has cost the company uncounted thousands of Euros in hotel rebookings, and I'm stood here looking like an idiot in front of a lot of people, all because a bunch of stupid morons decided to have a couple of days off.
Well, I've had it. Sad thing is, that there are more than likely thousands of dedicated BA employees who will now have to suffer. Not from my actions, I'm not that stupid, but from the thousands of passengers who feel the same as me - we will take our business elsewhere.
For what it's worth, the company I work for has now put BA on the very bottom of the list of carries used. I do belive we have, or rather had, a very large corporate account with Birdseed.
BA = No Way!
You may thank your moronic collegues on the ground.
N4790P
<<Mr Born, 34, is also the sole director of Versa Logistics, a company set up earlier this year to bring in lowerpaid workers from Eastern Europe if there was a walkout.>>
I trust the posters who were making comments about ‘rich Asians’ and ‘better ‘than being in Karachi’ etc… are taking note.
Beginning to have a lot more than just some sympathy with GG workers.
Still NONE with ILLEGAL action by BA strikers though. Their action harms everyone.
I trust the posters who were making comments about ‘rich Asians’ and ‘better ‘than being in Karachi’ etc… are taking note.
Beginning to have a lot more than just some sympathy with GG workers.
Still NONE with ILLEGAL action by BA strikers though. Their action harms everyone.
Join Date: Dec 1998
Posts: 143
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The most disturbing thing that I have read on this thread is the mention of the 'staff being herded into a warehouse and prevented from leaving by police, so that redundancy notices could be handed out'. If in fact that is the case, then we have what can be described as nothing short of a 'mass kidnapping'. I could imagine my reaction if I was forcibly prevented from leaving against my own free will. I wish there was more info on this event, because there is something extremely troubling about it. If this fact is true, then I hope the union or the affected workers goes to the press, and lays charges against the company AND the police. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the BA strikers, but I do have sympathy for the GG workers, who seem to have been used and abused.....
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: uk
Posts: 43
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
BA staff fail to volunteer to help pax
BA so-called customer service staff (agents, pilots, crews etc) as well as managers are failing to respond to calls to help pax. Tasks include assisting pax with info and handing out food vouchers for BA's non-catered flights, yet staff are failing to respond. And yet on forums such as these you read people shouting how great BA team spirit is. Mmm....
Any pilots/crew dared to lower themselves and help the people who pay their wages?
Any pilots/crew dared to lower themselves and help the people who pay their wages?
purr777
I arrived LHR ex India AM the 11th, due to operate to the Far East evening of the 12th (that's an unfinanced back to back that the BA Cabin Crew Can't/won't do........) and yes I did volunteer - did you?..or wouldn't BASSA give you the time off you cheekey monkey...Gues you must be a BASSA Rep pee+++ off by your membership and clutching at straws.,...why else would you be stirring up anti BA comments?
I arrived LHR ex India AM the 11th, due to operate to the Far East evening of the 12th (that's an unfinanced back to back that the BA Cabin Crew Can't/won't do........) and yes I did volunteer - did you?..or wouldn't BASSA give you the time off you cheekey monkey...Gues you must be a BASSA Rep pee+++ off by your membership and clutching at straws.,...why else would you be stirring up anti BA comments?
Last edited by wiggy; 14th Aug 2005 at 18:43.
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 109
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Baron Rouge
I think your rambling remarks say more than I ever could. This country does nothing but support the less well off and give all manner of ethnic groups the right to free speach and freedom to make what they want in life. And look where it has got us!
I think your rambling remarks say more than I ever could. This country does nothing but support the less well off and give all manner of ethnic groups the right to free speach and freedom to make what they want in life. And look where it has got us!
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: France
Age: 73
Posts: 228
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
eal401
Very nice post, when cornered and your nose in it, you can only resort to insults.
I would not mind telling anybody that loosing 2 days is nothing compared with loosing your job... Those people withsome heart would easily understand, probably not the ones like you who think it is right for management to treat workers like slaves.
You are typical of the selfish well off who think they are owed everything. I don't salute you.
Very nice post, when cornered and your nose in it, you can only resort to insults.
I would not mind telling anybody that loosing 2 days is nothing compared with loosing your job... Those people withsome heart would easily understand, probably not the ones like you who think it is right for management to treat workers like slaves.
You are typical of the selfish well off who think they are owed everything. I don't salute you.
Join Date: May 2002
Location: LGW - Hub of the Universe!
Posts: 978
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
BA staff fail to volunteer to help pax
BA so-called customer service staff (agents, pilots, crews etc) as well as managers are failing to respond to calls to help pax. Tasks include assisting pax with info and handing out food vouchers for BA's non-catered flights, yet staff are failing to respond. And yet on forums such as these you read people shouting how great BA team spirit is. Mmm....
Any pilots/crew dared to lower themselves and help the people who pay their wages?
BA so-called customer service staff (agents, pilots, crews etc) as well as managers are failing to respond to calls to help pax. Tasks include assisting pax with info and handing out food vouchers for BA's non-catered flights, yet staff are failing to respond. And yet on forums such as these you read people shouting how great BA team spirit is. Mmm....
Any pilots/crew dared to lower themselves and help the people who pay their wages?
As far as our normal front-line terminal staff are concerned, our numbers have been drastically cut (remember the delays last year?!?) 5/8ths would be rostered to work anyway which leaves 1/8th on night duty and 1/4 on rostered days off or working overtime. Very few, under these circumstances, would be available for voluntary duty.
......So, let's get the BA thing back in perspective, shall we?
Oh, and one more thing, I'm certain we have had Flying Nigels helping the troops - we usually do have their support in a crisis! (These are the same Nigels who will always ask if any airline staff are trying to get home and will stick BA flying or cabin staff on the jump seat to get other airlines' staff on a cushioned one! I can honestly say BA pilots are the best in the world when it comes to trying their hardest to get stranded staff home!!!)
The go the extra mile for you guys who then hurl stones at them - not cricket at all!!! Bad Form!!!
Last edited by bealine; 14th Aug 2005 at 21:21.
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: London & Edinburgh
Age: 38
Posts: 646
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Quick question - I know flights ex LHR are with "limited catering", but I have a mate flying Dulles to LHR on Wed ... are flights into on limited catering too?
Thanks in advance,
Jordan
Thanks in advance,
Jordan
An interesting question to my mind is how long BA management can allow the lack of catering to continue? OK, so moving to another supplier may well lead to GG going bust, and so the baggage handlers etc walk out again. But BA can't carry on with no catering. Especially since the first pax they'll lose will be first and business, where the profits come from......
Of course, if they took all the spare managers and trained them ("It's part of management training that you understand the work done by bus drivers, baggage handlers and so on, so we're going to train you how to do those jobs - this will make you a better manager") you might be able to both make them useful and avoid some of the annual problems.
BA just don't deserve to have employees on wild cat strikes.
Of course, if they took all the spare managers and trained them ("It's part of management training that you understand the work done by bus drivers, baggage handlers and so on, so we're going to train you how to do those jobs - this will make you a better manager") you might be able to both make them useful and avoid some of the annual problems.
BA just don't deserve to have employees on wild cat strikes.
From The Times 15/08/05
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...735673,00.html
Empty seats anger stranded BA flyers
By Helen Nugent and Joanna Bale
BRITISH Airways faced a fresh row last night over flying with empty seats while refusing to take passengers still stranded at Heathrow airport by last week’s wildcat strike.
Customers who had been stranded for 72 hours after a walkout by baggage handlers reacted with disbelief when they learnt that they could have been spared another night of sleeping rough.
BA’s rivals leapt upon the latest disclosure as a further public relations disaster for the company after the walkout last Thursday, which delayed more than 100,000 passengers and cost an estimated £40 million.
Around 600 frustrated travellers were still waiting for their flights last night and BA admitted that the backlog would take until tomorrow to clear.
However, the airline refused to say how many flights had departed with empty seats in first and business class because of its refusal to offer an upgrade to marooned economy-class customers.
Passengers advised by their travel agents to request an upgrade were told that the airline’s policy was to keep economy ticket-holders in economy class despite the long delays, The Times has learnt.
A spokeswoman for BA admitted: “Some flights have gone out with empty seats as our policy has been to keep people in the same class as their tickets. However, we have upgraded some people on a discretionary, case-by-case basis.”
She refused to reveal how many economy passengers were upgraded and how many empty seats in other classes were left unfilled. Customer groups criticised BA’s attitude.
Ann Hervey, of Holiday Which? said: “These people have had a hideous experience and as a matter of policy you would want BA to do whatever was possible. It is a matter of good customer care. You would expect them to do everything in their power to get passengers to destinations as quickly as possible.
“However, deciding who gets the better seats could be difficult as they risk everyone demanding an upgrade by way of compensation.”
Rival airlines also expressed disbelief and said that their own approach would have been different. A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said: “Our priority would be to get passengers to destinations as quickly as possible and to give them the best possible experience after the distress of being delayed for so long.”
A spokesman for American Airlines said: “We would do everything possible to get passengers away if seats were free in the aircraft.” Sebouh Nahabedian, a financial analyst from New York, and Ara Asatoorian, a transportation consultant from Los Angeles, said that they were astounded when a BA manager told them they could only have seats in economy class, no matter what seats were free in business class.
There were supposed to fly to Armenia from Heathrow on Thursday but were told by BA that they could not leave until Sunday. But when they rang their travel agent in the US, they discovered that business class seats had been available on Saturday’s flight.
Mr Asatoorian said: “We rang BA and asked if we could be upgraded but the guy would not do it because we had economy tickets. We asked if showing up at the airport and waiting to see if the business seats were claimed would help but he told us that if that were the case then those seats would fly empty. The guy said nothing would help. That was just the cherry on top of the whole situation. This trip has cost us each $3,000 [£1,600] and we have missed three days of our conference. The business class thing was unbelievable. The guy just would not budge.”
Helen Shepherd, 41, was flying back to Cape Town last night. The housewife said: “I think it’s disgraceful that BA didn’t upgrade economy.”
Under article eight of the European passenger rights regulation, passengers are entitled to re-routing under comparable transport conditions to their final destination at the earliest opportunity if flights are cancelled. However, it was unclear last night whether passengers would be entitled to challenge BA’s refusal to upgrade them.
A BA spokesman said last night that it was back to 95 per cent of its scheduled service at Heathrow.
“Everybody who was on a cancelled flight now has a reconfirmed ticket. If they’re not going out today, they will be going out in the next day or two,” he said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...735673,00.html
Empty seats anger stranded BA flyers
By Helen Nugent and Joanna Bale
BRITISH Airways faced a fresh row last night over flying with empty seats while refusing to take passengers still stranded at Heathrow airport by last week’s wildcat strike.
Customers who had been stranded for 72 hours after a walkout by baggage handlers reacted with disbelief when they learnt that they could have been spared another night of sleeping rough.
BA’s rivals leapt upon the latest disclosure as a further public relations disaster for the company after the walkout last Thursday, which delayed more than 100,000 passengers and cost an estimated £40 million.
Around 600 frustrated travellers were still waiting for their flights last night and BA admitted that the backlog would take until tomorrow to clear.
However, the airline refused to say how many flights had departed with empty seats in first and business class because of its refusal to offer an upgrade to marooned economy-class customers.
Passengers advised by their travel agents to request an upgrade were told that the airline’s policy was to keep economy ticket-holders in economy class despite the long delays, The Times has learnt.
A spokeswoman for BA admitted: “Some flights have gone out with empty seats as our policy has been to keep people in the same class as their tickets. However, we have upgraded some people on a discretionary, case-by-case basis.”
She refused to reveal how many economy passengers were upgraded and how many empty seats in other classes were left unfilled. Customer groups criticised BA’s attitude.
Ann Hervey, of Holiday Which? said: “These people have had a hideous experience and as a matter of policy you would want BA to do whatever was possible. It is a matter of good customer care. You would expect them to do everything in their power to get passengers to destinations as quickly as possible.
“However, deciding who gets the better seats could be difficult as they risk everyone demanding an upgrade by way of compensation.”
Rival airlines also expressed disbelief and said that their own approach would have been different. A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said: “Our priority would be to get passengers to destinations as quickly as possible and to give them the best possible experience after the distress of being delayed for so long.”
A spokesman for American Airlines said: “We would do everything possible to get passengers away if seats were free in the aircraft.” Sebouh Nahabedian, a financial analyst from New York, and Ara Asatoorian, a transportation consultant from Los Angeles, said that they were astounded when a BA manager told them they could only have seats in economy class, no matter what seats were free in business class.
There were supposed to fly to Armenia from Heathrow on Thursday but were told by BA that they could not leave until Sunday. But when they rang their travel agent in the US, they discovered that business class seats had been available on Saturday’s flight.
Mr Asatoorian said: “We rang BA and asked if we could be upgraded but the guy would not do it because we had economy tickets. We asked if showing up at the airport and waiting to see if the business seats were claimed would help but he told us that if that were the case then those seats would fly empty. The guy said nothing would help. That was just the cherry on top of the whole situation. This trip has cost us each $3,000 [£1,600] and we have missed three days of our conference. The business class thing was unbelievable. The guy just would not budge.”
Helen Shepherd, 41, was flying back to Cape Town last night. The housewife said: “I think it’s disgraceful that BA didn’t upgrade economy.”
Under article eight of the European passenger rights regulation, passengers are entitled to re-routing under comparable transport conditions to their final destination at the earliest opportunity if flights are cancelled. However, it was unclear last night whether passengers would be entitled to challenge BA’s refusal to upgrade them.
A BA spokesman said last night that it was back to 95 per cent of its scheduled service at Heathrow.
“Everybody who was on a cancelled flight now has a reconfirmed ticket. If they’re not going out today, they will be going out in the next day or two,” he said.
Hmm..so if I understand correctly, BA will upgrade one of its own baggage loaders into Club class to get him off on his holidays the if flight is full down the back but won't upgrade into such otherwise empty seats any fare paying pax who have been marooned for days by flights cancelled due to such BA staff walking off the job. Brill PR as ever! It's not even as if the normal excuse of "not enough Club catering" holds when there isn't any..!!
Incidentally, I have every sympathy for the folks at GG and their right to action but this thread is supposedly about the wildcat strike by BA's own staff when the rest of us might have expected something a bit more loyal to their company,colleagues and customers. Two very different issues.
Incidentally, I have every sympathy for the folks at GG and their right to action but this thread is supposedly about the wildcat strike by BA's own staff when the rest of us might have expected something a bit more loyal to their company,colleagues and customers. Two very different issues.