Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘british airways’

Maybe not. If you’ve got an airline ticket with British Airways this Christmas season, you may be SOL, as BA employees are threatening to strike:

“We are absolutely determined to do whatever we can to protect our customers from this appalling, unjustified decision from Unite,” BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in a statement. “We do not want to see a million Christmases ruined.”

The planned strike, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 2, follows a dispute with cabin crew over job losses and changes in work practices. BA plans to cut 1,700 jobs, freeze pay for current staff and offer lower wages for new employees.

The airline is appealing to the courts for an injunction to stop the strike, on the grounds that there were “voting irregularities” in the balloting. But if you’re one of the millions of people with a BA airline ticket for Christmas break, you’ll probably want to watch this one carefully.

One of these days, labour and management will figure out how to have it out without getting millions of bystanders trapped in the crossfire.

Update 9/17: A court injunction has been awarded to British Airways to block the strike.

The new British Airways campaign contains some words I already know and even a few that I use, some words that I didn’t know but that explain a lot, and some words that I strongly suspect might be several decades out of date. Fairly amusing, at any rate.

(Via Imshin).

I need to rant for a few moments about Air Canada.

It is utterly ridiculous to me how far downhill Air Canada has gone lately. I had the “joy” of dealing with them on my recent flight to Greece. On Friday, I flew three different airlines to get home from Santorini to Montreal. Lufthansa, with its comfortable seats, on-time departures, and courteous staff, made the experience hassle-free. Even Olympic Airways, flying aged planes still powererd by propeller, was efficient and easy to deal with.

Air Canada, on the other hand, has seats that are the most cramped of any airline I can think of. Cutbacks in staff mean that everyone is overworked and either unwilling or unable to help. Planes are almost never on time, and the endless series of “we’re sorry again for the delay, ladies and gentlemen” is almost comical. The flights I took were half-empty, while my Lufthansa and Olympic flights were all full. Another testament to the airline’s inefficiency. And while it took me all of seven minutes to check in at the Athens airport to come home, the lineups on the way out at the Air Canada counters at Dorval were so long that it was nearly impossible to wedge my way inside the airport.

When the airline unilaterally changed my ticket a week before departure and instructed me to be at the airport a half-hour early, I ended up standing in line for over an hour and a half to have my ticket reissued and nearly missed my flight. Why? Because with hundreds of people in line, there was only one friggin’ person at the counter. (Everyone else was, I imagine, on a coffee break.)

Aeroplan points are great in theory, but whenever you try to redeem them to get a free ticket, there aren’t any available. So everyone has zillions of points that are essentially worth nothing.

Noe the embattled carrier, on the verge of bankruptcy, just announced that it will be charging for meals on shorter or medium-length flights, eliminating complimentary food service in economy class.

Next thing we know, passengers will be expected to bring their own seats to sit on, and to power the plane ourselves by flapping our arms.

Why do many tiny countries have several national carriers, but Canada can’t even seem to support one? And the government keeps bailing it out, when maybe it’s time to just put it out of its misery. No wonder Air Canada’s bankrupt, with its lousy service and gross inefficiencies. It’s a second- or even third-rate airline, and frankly I can’t see any reason to voluntarily fly with it in the future.

Update: Tom pointed out that at least it’s not as bad as British Airways this week.