BA strike: Your stories

BBC readers describe how they have been affected by the first day of a three-day strike by BA cabin crew over job cuts.

BA says contingency plans for the strike have gone "extremely well" - claiming more than 65% of passengers would reach their destinations. But the Unite union, which represents crew members, says only a third of BA's normal flights took off.

I am stuck in Houston because of the strike. I am here on business and was meant to go home on Sunday 21 March, but had an email last Wednesday telling me the flight was cancelled.

Normally when this happens they include a link for you to follow, to rebook. I didn't get that this time, which was frustrating.

I fly a lot and one of the BA executive club people usually ring to help you reschedule. But it was a long time before I heard from them, which again was frustrating.

I've rebooked a flight home for 24 March. The alternatives with other airlines would have cost three times as much.

I think my sympathy lies with BA staff. [BA Chief Executive] Mr Walsh appears to be on a crusade against the union, very much in the same way Mrs Thatcher was.

A lot of staff have been there 20 years, so to ask them to take a reduction in terms, well, it could have been done in a better way. BA need a CEO who can carry the company forward without his confrontational style.

My BA flight from Mexico City to London today, Saturday went exactly to plan. No big story!

I would have liked to have changed my flight to go via Tampa, Florida for a meeting, but other airlines are using this strike to increase their air fares.

One carrier wanted to charge me £4,000 for an upper class fare from Miami to London - when it is normally £2,000. So BA cabin crew have guaranteed other airlines make more money.

I am a very frequent international flyer - I cross the Atlantic at least twice a month - so it is my air fares that pay their salaries, and the company is losing money.

Why on earth would they choose to hurt the few people like me left still flying thousands of miles a month to keep them in jobs?

People who fly once or twice a year can get upset with BA and not fly with them again. But when you have built up a big loyalty in a frequent flyer programme, that is a harder habit to break.

BA is such a substantial airline and has so many routes I need, I am bound to fly with them again.

Charles Boyle and his fiancee could miss their own wedding

I don't know if I'll make it to my wedding at this point.

My fiancee and I are due to be married in Edinburgh on April 2nd. The strike has had a huge impact on our plans.

Our flight to the UK was booked on the 23rd. We thought we wouldn't be affected - but today I received an e-mail saying the flight was cancelled. Eventually we managed to arrange another - but it is "subject to cancellation". I am afraid we will miss our wedding. But to book with another carrier will cost us £7,000.

Then we have our wedding guests.

My fiancee is from Hawaii originally and her friends are travelling from there. She lives in San Francisco and we have friends travelling from here. Her mother is coming from Las Vegas. My best man is coming from Barcelona. Everyone is supposed to be flying into Heathrow with BA. Many of the flights fall in the second strike window.

Then from London, we are all supposed to be flying up to Edinburgh, for our wedding in the Royal Botanic Gardens. All of these flights fall within the second strike window.

I am most upset by this, as of course is my wife-to-be. It looks like the strike action will cost us our honeymoon - as I will have to foot the bill for rebooking everyone's flights and hotels. The costs are climbing up and many of our Hawaiian friends will not be coming now. They can't afford to go all that way with the risk of being stranded.

But we are doing what we can, to try and get married.

My brother-in-law is glad to hear that BA says that they are experiencing "little disruption". He and his wife were booked to fly to Europe on Tuesday March 23rd. He could get no information from them on Friday. Today (Saturday) he has been informed that his flight has been cancelled, forcing him to try to make other arrangements at very short notice. This affects other flight connections, rental car bookings, hotel bookings, meetings etc which is a considerable disruption for them both. He is too busy trying to salvage his holiday to contact you. We quite understand why air travel is down for the second year in a row for the first time since the war and that air traffic has declined approximately 7.5% last year. BA and the union better get their act together if they want to survive in the real world.
J. Newell, Toronto, Canada

Unite strike, my flight cancels, and now I have rebooked my 12 hour flight to South Africa with Air France but can only fly economy (flights full) and leaving home 12 hours earlier, adding several hours to my journey... and I miss my board meeting, pay much more (short notice), and throw my England v France tickets away. I will avoid BA for good now. The staff are sending this business out of business, hurting their customers and they want sympathy?
Peter, Glos, UK

This morning I boarded a flight home from Israel. There was no disruption and it would have been impossible to tell there was a strike going on. The crew were brilliant. They were at all times calm and friendly despite the strain they must be under. It would be terrible if BA were to go under as I trust them on safety and efficiency and they make the tedious business of flying as pleasurable as they can.
Ruth Nathan, UK

I have to fly a lot for work and my flight to Italy tomorrow has been cancelled. I'm now going there via different airline and train, which is inconvenient, but OK. What worries me more is that the guys on strike can't see that times are tough in most industries, and they're still working for the company with the best employment conditions in the UK. People who have to fly in the near future will look to other airlines rather than BA right now, because we don't know whether we can rely on actually going anywhere with it.
Regggie, UK

I'm due to fly to Tampa in Florida from Gatwick on Thursday 25th. It's a business trip and it's imperative I get there. I'll be flying back on Sunday 28th. So far they have said all along that long haul flights out of Gatwick will be unaffected and that no refunds are available on these flights. If it gets to Thursday for the outward flight and things suddenly change and there is a cancellation I cannot tell you how badly that will affect the purpose of my business trip! I've checked back up flights daily but due to not being allowed to cancel and be refunded on my Gatwick flight I've had to stand fast in the sheer hope that nothing goes wrong on Thursday! This is such an unbelievable situation. I realise companies need to listen to the needs of their employees however employees should also be sympathetic to the company they work for, it's a two way relationship, not a grounds for militant debauchery.
Oliver Jetson, United Kingdom

We are booked on a flight next Sat that will likely be cancelled as the same route this week has been cancelled. We, as a family have saved for 18 months for this holiday to America and have bookings in the USA on which we will lose £500 if we do not get there. This will be a big downer on the family and we certainly can't afford to lose £500.
Paul, Colchester, Essex

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