What would you do?

[honey lamb]

OK, here's the skinny. I am booked to fly on Aer Lingus next Sunday to LHR to connect with VS21 the following day to IAD. I have a non-refundable booking at the Crowne Plaza at LHR but as it's through Priceline it is only costing me about £38. The problem is an on-going dispute between EI management and the pilots about the terms and conditions of employment of pilots recruited for the new Belfast route. Pilots are refusing to co-operate with the training etc of these pilots and already 6 have been suspended. The pilots have been given a deadline of Tuesday and have been told that if they don't co-operate they will all be suspended on that date and effectively the airline will be shut down. The matter is before the Labour Relations court tomorrow which may or may not bring about a resolution.

So, what do I do? Do I hold tough till Tuesday? Do I book a ticket on Ryanair to LGW (the price has already gone up by €30 today) as the cheapest option. Another is Ryanair to DUB and BD to LHR. That is dearer but the cost of the bus between LGW and LHR will probably absorb that difference.

What would you do?

[Scrooge]

I would grab the Ryan air flight, yes you stand to lose money, but not as much as it will cost if you miss the VS flight.

Yes--what he said. 30 quid is nada compared to missing a longhaul. Iron it out with Aer Lingus later on. RR

Airlines.Don't you love them?? If (and it's not a certainty) the EI pilots hold firm and the airline shuts down there will be an awful lot of EI passengers looking to re-book. I think I'd rather have a ticket already in my hand.Trying to secure something if the worst case scenario happens(along with several hundred others who will be looking to do the same thing)will be a bit of a lottery.
My advice- book something now before everyone else does and all the Ryanair seats go.The cheaper option (to LGW) will give you a safety net and will ensure you don't miss your flight to IAD.
DL

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by roadrunner
Yes--what he said. 30 quid is nada compared to missing a longhaul. Iron it out with Aer Lingus later on. RR

RR, it's not 30 quid. The fare went up by 30 euros (not quid) yesterday

Even if the fare does come to 100 euros or so, I'd still take it if I were you; it would be a bit of a gamble not to in my opinion.

45.

[honey lamb]

So, I've learned the hard way!

Prior to making my original post I eschewed the cheap flight when the suggestion of closing down was merely a possibility than a probability. I'm sorry now I didn't do that. I should have learned from my experience in 2002 when there was a strike and EI decided they would close down the airline in the days following. I was able to parley my ORK-LHR flight into a BA ORK-MAN - BD MAN-LHR flight an hour before they announced they would not be flying on that date and EI honoured my rebooking. Those were in the days of Willie Walsh at the helm.

I did seriously consider making the booking and all these posts would have been redundant, but I didn't. I held tough and waited till management and airline went through the LRC process which started yesterday. After several hours of negotiation they agreed to reconvene on the following day which at least showed there was some dialogue. The price on the Ryanair flight to LGW remained the same. Negotiations started again this morning and on the 6 o'clock news there was a modicum of optimism. The price on the Ryanair flight to LGW remained the same. By the 9 o'clock news there seemed to be a set-back and at that stage I decided that "faint heart never won fair lady" and I should book. The price on the Ryanair flight to LGW remained the same. So off I went on the merry-go-round of internet booking. I declined to check a bag (just in case I didn't need to) and copped for a Û3 check-in fee. I also copped for a credit card handling fee so already Û6 on the published fare - but here comes the cruel twist of fate. [:0] Having pressed the continue button the site stalls and an email ensues telling me that fare is no longer available and the fare has increased by another Û40. So I have the option of accepting it and having Aer Lingus honouring it in the event of a shutdown, or losing that amount of money.

Sometimes peace of mind comes at a price.

Like I said don't you love them (airlines that is. Ryanair in particular...). What about Aer Arran to either CWL or BRS and catching a bus/train to LHR? Bit of a potch I know.Otherwise,I feel you have no option but to make the Ryanair booking now (whilst seats are still showing as available).

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by DragonLady
Like I said don't you love them (airlines that is. Ryanair in particular...). What about Aer Arran to either CWL or BRS and catching a bus/train to LHR? Bit of a potch I know.Otherwise,I feel you have no option but to make the Ryanair booking now (whilst seats are still showing as available).

Believe me, DL, I looked at all the various options, ORK-DUB-LHR using Ryanair and BD, ORK-LPL on Ryanair and train down, ORK-MAN on bmibaby and train down but the cheapest (and still is in spite of the price hike) was the ORK-LGW option.

What I didn't make clear in my post was that I had actually gone ahead and re-booked the LGW flight at the higher price as I was afraid it would sell out. So what happens this morning? Yup! On the 7:00am news they announce that there's a breakthrough and new proposals are on the table. Wouldn't you know it!

Sods law HL,but nothing is certain (proposals on the table does not equal resolution) and at least you have a definite means of reaching LHR for your flight if some agreement is not reached with EI.Admittedly it's been costly and caused a fair bit of aggro for you to boot. However it you look at it from an optimists perspective,both options are win-win.
1.EI shut down - HL has get out of jail free card (OK, not exactly free...).Win situation.
2.EI don't shut down. HL hops to ORK-LHR with EI(no horrid Ryanair!!).Win situation.
You can tell it's only Monday as by Wednesday I'm out of optimism and nosediving into pessism.

[honey lamb]

And there's a third option which is also win-win. EI doesn't shut down. I hop over to LHR from ORK having changed my Ryanair ticket for a future flight. After all, waste not, want not!