Question Re: BA and GB Airways flights

[jack_essex]

Hi, I hope someone can help me with this.

I have a quick question, appologies if it sounds stupid. If you book a flight through the BA website and the flight is operated by GB Airways. In the event of any strike action by British Airways if it were to happen, would the GB Airways flights be affected? On the website it simply says 'Operated by GB Airways'.

Thanks for your help

[howflytrg]

depends what part of BA is on strike. If it is ground crew/ staff then most probably you will be affected. If cc or flight deck, then maybe not as GB airways cresareemployed by GB airways and not BA. Or so I understand.

[jack_essex]

Thanks for your help,

I am nearly ready to book some flights to Tenerife. And it is the same price to fly with GB Airways (BA) as it is with Thomson, both from LGW.

[cjhants]

jack,
have flown this route with GB many times. a good service which seems to always run on or close to schedule (in my experience anyway). leather seats are comfy, and cabin service is good.
BTW ground handling is now done by aviance, not BA at LGW.

[flybywire]

Jack, you should be fine. Both BA mainline Pilots and Cabin Crew are at risk of striking at the moment, but they do not operate GB flights/planes.
You will be fine, although it's likely that BA will source some crew/aircraft from GB to operate some of the possibly cancelled BA flights if a strike should go ahead.

[TopBunk]

Jack

My take on it is that you should be fine. At LGW, GB are handled by Aviance, so check in and baggage handling will work. Catering is not BA, neither are Flight/Cabin Crew.

At present BASSA is balloting BA mainlline Cabin Crew for a strike mandate, whether this is given remains to be seen, we will know in Mid January. There are no plans at present to ballot BA pilots for industrial action.

Any BA shutdown due to IA is VERY unlikely to see GB or Bmed operating any mainline BA services, they (BA/Bmed) would protect their own network first, and secondly the number of mainline services they could operate would be such a small percentage as to make it pointless, and more importantly the cash cow in BA is the longhaul Atlantic route network which they couldn't serve anyway.

[flybywire]

Ehm.....check-in at LGW for GB flights is actually done by BA, the product is the same as BA, however the strike would only involve BA cabin crew and maybe, in the future, BA pilots, so Jack should be absolutely fine.

[TopBunk]

FBW

Thank you for correcting me re check in at LGW for GB flights - I thought that they had recently changed handing agent.

Being pedantic here, however, 'the strike' would only be by BA Cabin Crew.

If BA Flight Crew were to strike it would be totally separate and not be a joint action, although there may be common issues. There are no current plans for a strike ballot by BA Flight Crew.

I know a lot of this is not of any relevance to Jack or others, but just to keep the record straight.

[flybywire]

Being pedantic here, however, 'the strike' would only be by BA Cabin Crew.

If BA Flight Crew were to strike it would be totally separate and not be a joint action, although there may be common issues. There are no current plans for a strike ballot by BA Flight Crew.

I know a lot of this is not of any relevance to Jack or others, but just to keep the record straight.

Absolutely! I agree with what you said, I just didn't feel like going into a deep explanation of the possible strike situation in BA, it is not a secret that pilots would be "prepared to strike" if BALPA and BA don't come to an agreement and so far there are not many good news (see rumour&news thread) but thanks for doing it for me :)

[jack_essex]

Thank you for all your help. I booked our 6 tickets directly with the BA website yesterday.