Airline customers are venting their frustration with Heathrow after the airport ‘refused’ to reveal which of their flights are among the 172 tipped to be cancelled due to next week’s strikes.
Heathrow Airport cancelled the Monday and Tuesday flights amid plans for industrial action by thousands of workers after members of the Unite union overwhelmingly rejected the airport’s 7.3% pay increase offer.
The airport is advising the affected passengers to contact their airlines, but passengers have lashed out at Heathrow online, demanding to know if their flights are among those that have been cancelled due to the strikes.
Shabrul Uddin wrote to the airport saying: ‘When do we find out what outbound flights are cancelled for Monday 5th? As usual information is scarce!!’
A Heathrow spokesperson replied: ‘Hi Shabs, we completely understand how frustrating this situation is for our passengers. We would like to advise you to please stay in contact with your airline for up to date flight information. Thank you.’
The airport is advising the 88,000 affected passengers to contact their airlines, but passengers have lashed out at Heathrow online, demanding to know if their flights are among those that have been cancelled due to the strikes (file image)
Twitter user Chloe Donovan contacted the airport saying: ‘You can’t just put out a statement that 177 flights are cancelled and then not announce which ones’
Shabrul responded: ‘Very little information coming out from @British_Airways unfortunately.’
The Heathrow social media team replied: ‘This is a very busy time for ourselves and our airline colleagues so we appreciate the patience given to us from our passengers.
‘We would recommend sending them a direct message on Facebook or Twitter if you are unable to reach them via phone. Thank you for your time today.’
Twitter user Chloe Donovan contacted the airport saying: ‘Are you going to release a list of the flights that are cancelled? Or will I just have to wait and see on Monday when I get to the airport?
‘You can’t just put out a statement that 177 flights are cancelled and then not announce which ones.’
Heathrow’s social media team responded: ‘Hi Chloe, your airline is best placed to inform their own passengers of any changes to the status of their flights.
Security is also expected to take longer than usual and passengers are being advised to prepare (pictured: Heathrow)
Shabrul Uddin wrote to the airport saying: ‘When do we find out what outbound flights are cancelled for Monday 5th? As usual information is scarce!!’
‘Please do remain in contact with them and they will be able to provide you with more information regarding this and any changes. Thank you.’
Another user, Nishan Fernando, said: ‘Any list of which flights are cancelled of the predicted 172 flights affected.’
A Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘Hi Nishan, unfortunately we do not. Please do contact your airline and they should be able to assist you further with your query and status of your flight. Thank you.’
Andy Fleming wrote to the airline asking if there was a list of cancelled flights for Monday, and a spokesperson replied, again recommending he gets in touch with his airline.
One social media user asked ‘Where is the list of 172 flights that are affected?’ to which a Heathrow spokesperson replied: ‘We appreciate that this is an uncertain time for many of our passengers and would like to advise you to please stay in touch with your airline for the latest flight information. Thank you.’
Passengers are being advised to contact their airlines to seek the most up-to-date information
Andy Fleming wrote to the airline asking if there was a list of cancelled flights for Monday, and a spokesperson replied, recommending he gets in touch with his airline
Mehmet Kadioglu asked why Heathrow did not publish the cancellations, to which a spokesperson replied: ‘We apologise for the inconvenience caused. If you would like a flight status update for your individual flight, we would strongly advise getting in direct contact with your airline.’
The Heathrow social media spokesperson linked to their website which contained ‘all the information we have available’.
The website explains that Unite plans to take industrial action on Monday and Tuesday, but reassures customers the airport will continue to operate ‘as we put contingency plans in place’.
A Heathrow spokesperson said that they are working with airlines to ‘consolidate and reduce the number of flights operating during the strike period’, but ‘unfortunately, this does mean that some passengers will be moved onto different flights by their airlines’.
The spokesperson then seemingly hits out at the strikers, adding: ‘This is a difficult time for Heathrow, our airline partners, and above all our passengers, as the proposed strike action has been unreasonably designed to impact passengers taking well-deserved holidays.
‘We apologise for any disruption to your journey, and appreciate your patience during this time.’
Security is also expected to take longer than usual and passengers are being advised to prepare.
Wedding in tatters, Disneyland trip up in air and anniversary wrecked: The REAL victims of BA strike chaos speak of desperate wait to hear if their long-held plans will be destroyed
- BA pilot’s union Balpa are still locked in talks with the company over pay rises
- Meanwhile families planning trips abroad wait to hear if holidays will be ruined
- For some, weddings, anniversaries and trips planned for years are in jeopardy
- ** Are you in the same position? Email connor.boyd@mailonline.co.uk **
British Airways passengers have told of how weddings, anniversary trips and holidays planned for years could be ruined by pilots’ strike plans.
Four thousand plane captains could walk out in mid-August after the Court of Appeal rejected BA’s application for an injunction to prevent strike action.
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) has rejected an above-inflation pay deal worth 11.5 per cent over three years, even though it has been accepted by unions representing other BA staff.
MailOnline has been inundated with heartbreaking stories of how the strike action will destroy families’ carefully laid plans for trips abroad.
Ed Healy, 31, is planning to marry his fiancee Kate Garmon-Jones, 29, in Ibiza on August 23, but around 40 of their 69 wedding guests have booked to fly with BA.
The couple fear many of their closest family and friends could miss their big day due to BA’s inability to make a deal with its pilots.
Ed Healy and his fiancee Kate Garmon-Jones are planning to marry in Ibiza later this month. But their hopes for the perfect wedding have been hit because 40 of their 69 wedding guests are planning to fly with BA
Mr Healy, from Carshalton, Surrey, said: ‘It’s very stressful reading all the coverage and just waiting on when they announce the strikes.
‘We booked the wedding two years ago, so we have now been planning for two years. We are checking the news every 30 minutes.’
Jackie and Carl Arkley, from Devon, were hoping to fly to Mexico later this month to celebrate Carl’s 60th birthday and their 40th wedding anniversary.
Mrs Ackley said: ‘We are so upset at the thought of being unable to take our BA package holiday.
‘The wait is absolutely agonising and I hope they just hurry up and tell us if we are flying or not because it’s making us both feel ill.
‘We booked this nearly a year ago and can’t believe we are in the dark about whether our planned departure on the 21st August will go ahead.’
Meanwhile, the Goodall family from Peterborough, were is planning to head off to Walt Disney World in Florida on August 20
Michelle and Ben Goodall and their Ashton and Scarlett have been saving for years to go to Disney World in Florida, but fear they’re plans could be ruined by the BA strike
Mrs Goodall, 41, told MailOnline: ‘It’s so frustrating as this is the first time any of us will have been to Disney and my children, mostly my daughter, was so looking forward to it.
‘It is also my son’s 15th birthday whilst we are out there so, to think that this may not happen now, has been so stressful.
‘We saved for years for this holiday and would lose our park tickets for Disney and Universal if the strikes go ahead.
‘BA have been useless at reassuring customers, sending the same generic response not actually answering people’s questions.
‘Both sides blaming the other when the real victims in this are the hard working families who have saved all year and worked so hard to afford the luxury of holidaying in school holidays.’
Jackie and Carl Arkley (left), from Devon, were hoping to got to Mexico later this month to celebrate Carl’s 60th birthday and their 40th wedding anniversary, while Sarah-Jane Campbell Smith is due to fly with her fiancé, James Waterhouse (right, together) from Manchester to JFK
BA captains are paid an average of £167,000, including a flying allowance, which means the offered 11.5 per cent increase would be worth more than £20,000 over three years for senior pilots.
Some are paid more than £200,000 and the average for all pilots is believed to be just under £90,000.
Has the BA strike hit your travel plans?
Email MailOnline at connor.boyd@mailonline.co.uk
Up to 145,000 passengers a day could be affected if there is no breakthrough in talks being held at Acas, in a move which could cost the company £40million a day.
The pilots, who took a pay cut when the company faced financial difficulties in recent years, say they are looking for a larger share of the profits now the company is in better financial shape. BA made almost £2 billion last year.
Teacher Sarah-Jane Campbell Smith, 34, is booked to jet from Manchester to New York for a trip of a lifetime honeymoon with fiance James Waterhouse, 36, but the couple fear the strike will play havoc with their plans.
British Airways pilots are set to go on a summer holiday-wrecking strike because the £20,000 pay increase they’ve been offered is ‘not enough’
They have paid £1,500 for the trip, due to take place on August 24 after their wedding later this month.
She told The Times: ‘It’s more stressful than if it were just a holiday. It’s supposed to be such a special occasion with the excitement of getting up in the morning after the wedding to whizz off to a location neither of us have ever been to.
‘We have £300 Broadway tickets paid for on the 25th and our hotel was part of the British Airways package, so we may lose that too.’
Meanwhile, restaurant chain owner and regular BA passenger Louise Robinson, 51, yesterday accused the pilots’ union of deliberately causing distress to families during the summer break. She is among tens of thousands facing the prospect of a ruined holiday.
She said: ‘It is fairly hardcore to do it like this. When you take the job you know what the pay is and if you don’t like it then you should get another job.’
Mrs Robinson said the union’s course of action is more egregious given that the 11.5 per cent pay increase it has turned down is above inflation.
‘Instead of ruining people’s hard-earned family holidays, why don’t members just realise how fortunate they are,’ she said.
‘An 11 per cent increase over three years is more than most people can dream of at the moment.’
Has the BA strike hit your travel plans? Email connor.boyd@mailonline.co.uk
…And it could get even worse as Union suggests Heathrow workers WILL walk out on Monday and Tuesday
Passengers using Heathrow Airport are set for a summer of misery after thousands of workers are said to have voted to reject a new pay deal.
Around 4,000 members of Unite, including security guards, firefighters and engineers, have been voting on a revised pay deal, with the result expected later today.
Planned strikes were suspended while the workers voted on the offer, but industrial action on dates throughout August remain, with Unite saying walkouts next Monday and Tuesday look likely to go ahead.
Heathrow passengers are set for a summer of chaos after a union representing workers at the airport indicted its members had voted to rejected a new pay deal
The union warned Heathrow against opting to pay millions of pounds in compensation to airlines for cancelled flights rather than settling the pay dispute.
Unite officer Wayne King said: ‘All the indications are pointing to an overwhelming rejection by our members of the revised offer which, in reality, offers little more than the £3.75 extra a day that the original offer did for many workers.
‘If members do reject the pay offer and Heathrow bosses dig their heels in, then there is a risk the airport is seen to prefer paying millions in compensation to airlines and needlessly causing misery for the travelling public, instead of sorting the dispute by going the extra mile and giving its workforce a decent pay rise.
‘Our low-paid members will sacrifice a day’s pay if they go on strike and are only too aware of the disruption it will cause.
‘However, they are at a point where they have had enough with being given crumbs while shareholders pocket billions in dividends and the chief executive enjoys a pay rise of over 100%.’
Talks are expected to be held immediately after the ballot result is announced.
The potential Heathrow strike is independent from possible industrial action by BA pilots, which would further hit families’ getaway plans
A Heathrow spokesman said: ‘We are disappointed that Unite has rejected the latest pay offer and will continue to seek an agreement at Acas. Unite is proceeding with its unnecessary strike action on 5th and 6th August and we regret that passengers looking to get away on well-earned breaks will be impacted by this.
‘We have activated contingency plans which will keep the airport open and safe on both strike days. We expect security queue times to be slightly longer than normal and advise passengers to check our website for detailed information on how to prepare for their flights and when to arrive at the airport.
‘As part of our plans, we are working with airlines to proactively consolidate flights and rebook passengers on to alternative services in advance. We also advise passengers to contact their airlines for the latest information, as well as follow our Twitter and Facebook accounts for further updates.’
Meanwhile, holiday firms LateRooms announced last night they have ceased trading alongside their sister company Super Break, adding further uncertainty to many planning a getaway.
