BA cabin crew today voted to strike for 10 days over the Christmas holiday about changes to their working practises. Those who have booked Christmas holidays with BA must be worrying.
It is reported in todays Times that BA cabin crew earn twice as much Virgin cabin crew. Seems hard to believe, is there a catch? Also BA have a policy that if you stay long enough you become the cabin boss. Sounds like the selection process from hell. Would you want to work for someone who isn’t the best?
BA have managed to hang on in the face of budget airlines but appear to be in a 1970′s timewarp where the staff still live the nationalised way. Reminds me of our old electricity company, Norweb. When they opened a store to compete with Comet they kept their stuffy old ways but didn’t last long. They once refused to sell me a Video Camera unless I produced an ID so I went into Comet, bought it and went back to show them.
We used to fly to Australia with BA from Manchester, every couple of years, and I was proud to fly the flag at that time. But it seemed to get more and more difficult going through Heathrow. When we missed our connection and had to queue till 1am to get a new flight allocation and in the morning no bus turned up to transfer us across terminals, and then our bags were lost, I knew it was the last time. So we now go direct from Manchester with Singapore Airlines which is quicker and less hassle. The service with Singapore Airlines is very good as well, I don’t know what BA offer nowadays but with SIA nothing seems too much on the flight, we choose our seat at booking and when we’ve a query they reply promptly.
I think BA management need to decide what is best practise and go for it, whatever. These annual strikes or threats of strikes are a killer to confidence. For me to fly BA again I’ll need at least 5 years of no strike threats as it appears new topics for disputes and antiquated practises are emerging every year.