Last weekend London airport workers had announced a strike, but called it off. British Airways was slow to come out with any sort of travel waiver — they played chicken and won but at the risk of inconveniencing literally everyone flying out of or through London.
The next planned strike is for this coming Monday and Tuesday. And this time British Airways has a travel waiver (although it isn’t very generous). If you want to reschedule a British Airways short haul flight out of London Heathrow you may do so without penalty, but you have to travel by August 12.
You may fly out of London Heathrow, Gatwick, or City airports (except not out of Heathrow on the 5th or 6th). The waiver doesn’t apply to long haul passengers.
If you do try to fly,
- Only a personal item will be permitted on board flights. This limits the amount of items going through security. Carry on bags can be checked free of charge.
- Fewer carry on bags will mean more checked bags, and longer lines to check bags (hopefully offset by people choosing not to fly on August 5 and 6).
- Fast Track and First Wing security will be closed, and the number of regular security lines will be reduced.
- Head for Points reports that short haul catering will be limited. Coach passengers “will be offered tea, coffee, water and a biscuit” while business class “will receive a voucher to spend in the terminal and a muffin or flapjack on the aircraft.”
Many flights will be cancelled to reduce traffic to levels the airport can manage during the strike. If your flight is cancelled, of course, you can change plans or take a refund. Of course this strike could still be called off like the last one way, if the union feels sufficient progress is being made on a new agreement.
Other airlines are taking action as well,
- Virgin Atlantic is operating some of their flights in and out of London Gatwick.
- American Airlines has a waiver in effect for its flights. So does United.
- Delta has an offensively bad travel waiver, you must reschedule to travel by August 9. So if you intended to fly for the business week, you can’t even push off meetings to the following week.
While the strike won’t last until the 7th, it may take some time for service to return to normal on Wednesday morning.
London Heathrow airport staff are again planning to strike August 23 – 24, and British Airways pilots have voted to strike, and beaten back legal challenges to that plan, although no plan to strike has been announced yet. London passengers may still be in for a very rough end to summer even after next week.
Per the terms published on each carrier’s website, DL appears to be the only one that allows fee-free changes through the end of ticket validity (I.e. one year from ticket issue). The August 9 deadline is for waiver of fare difference.
At least as published, the AA and UA waivers don’t allow for fee-free changes beyond the short waiver period.
Air New Zealand services into and out of London Heathrow are scheduled to operate as normal. They’re offering customers booking flexibility should they wish to avoid travelling on the proposed strike days. Airlines with only one flight per day will probably be fine – it’s those with multiples that will bear the brunt of cancellations.