Cabin crew strike ballot

Unite, the union that represents our BA cabin crew, has not as yet announced any strike dates. It must tell us by 15 March if it intends to take strike action and it cannot go on strike without first giving us seven days notice.

In the meantime we continue to have talks with Unite and we want to resolve the issues between us.

I wanted to update you on what we propose to do in the event that a strike does go ahead.

A strike will not ground British Airways, we have had nearly 6,000 volunteers to support our flying programme, including nearly 1,000 who have trained as cabin crew and the number is growing.

• We will operate all our flights from London City airport, including long-haul services to New York.
  
  
• We will operate all our long-haul flights at London Gatwick, and about half of our short-haul flights.
  
  
• At London Heathrow, we will operate a substantial proportion of our long-haul flights and a good number of short-haul flights too, assisted by chartered aircraft with crews from a number of UK and European-based airlines.
  

All BA CityFlyer, codeshare and franchise flights will continue to operate as normal.

We have also arranged to secure seats from other carriers, so thousands more of you can reach your chosen destinations.

I would like to thank you for standing by us in recent weeks, we want to help you as much as we possibly can.

You will be able to rebook, free of charge and subject to availability, onto other British Airways flights outside of the strike period for up to 355 days from the original date of travel.

Refunds will only be available if flights are actually cancelled or if the original booking conditions allow.

You will be able to:

• Rebook onto another British Airways flight to the same destination within 355 days of the original date of travel 
• Rebook onto another British Airways flight to/from the nearest alternative airport  (for example, if booked to/from Boston you could rebook to/from Philadelphia or New York) 
• Cancel your booking and get a refund. 

If you are affected it is our intention to inform you directly if we have your email address or by SMS text if we have your mobile phone number.

We will use the contact details supplied at the time of booking, so please ensure these are correct and up-to-date:

Update your contact details in Manage My Booking

Last reviewed: 0900 - 11 March 2010