Virgin Atlantic pilots to ballot for strike

[Neil]

You will be covered by Virgin for so much, as detailed here.

Then I am afraid it is down to your travel insurance to cover you for anything else.

Hi
I've got 3 weeks until my holiday and someone has told me the 3 weeks is over the 28 day strike ballot and I should be fine?? But I'm not sure if this is a certainty or not? As I've received all my e-tickets and vouchers but I'm not sure if I should get excited with the strike luming around?
Please help
Thanks

BALPA have to call and have an actual strike day within 28 days of the result of the ballot otherwise they have to reballot the membership.

However they can name as strike days dates that are over the 28 day period.

So you are not yet in the clear.

However, my view is that as they are still and no dates have been announced that is a good thing.

The dealine for BALPA to be able to call a strike within the 28 days post ballot date AND to be able to give the legal 7 days notice of a strike is next monday / tuesday. (sorry can't rember the date the ballot was announced to be more exact)

BALPA have to call and have an actual strike day within 28 days of the result of the ballot otherwise they have to reballot the membership.

However they can name as strike days dates that are over the 28 day period.

So you are not yet in the clear.

However, my view is that as they are still and no dates have been announced that is a good thing.

The dealine for BALPA to be able to call a strike within the 28 days post ballot date AND to be able to give the legal 7 days notice of a strike is next monday / tuesday. (sorry can't rember the date the ballot was announced to be more exact)

Thanks for the reply!
I thought there was no reason to get my hopes up! So the plan is to sit tight until next Monday/tuesday I suppose!
I haven't heard any news of the talks going good or bad?!? I just hope my holiday is not wasted as I splashed out for upper class and I would probably cry if I heard bad news haha!
So hopefully a good agreement comes to light! Then everyone can not panic and go on their holidays as planned!!

Just to emphasise how damaging this is for VS already, a work colleague (who isn't clued up on the facts of the situation) booked a trip to NYC in mid-Sept. She told me 'we are going BA because theyve sorted all their strikes out now, didn't want to go Virgin because they're going on strike'.

The fact that it's highly likely that this will be resolved by mid-sept seems to be irrelevant. People see 'strike' and avoid.

I'm flying to Florida on Aug 3rd & this 'no mans land' we're in is the worst part. Very little info & next to no updates as to how things are progressing, I appreciate that talks are ongoing and this can only be a good thing but a daily update wouldn't hurt.

I was afraid you'd say that...

Of course if you booked with a credit card and the value was over £100 and less than £30,000 your card issuer is equally liable so you can claim a refund from them. They may argue agaist this because they could view it as a "force majeure" but it would still be worth pursuing.

Miopyk 8D

Well, trip's booked on the Virgin Black Amex (from MBNA) so not sure that qualifies as a "credit card" - although the repayment terms mean it's treated as a credit card by MBNA.... ?|

[Neil]

Well, trip's booked on the Virgin Black Amex (from MBNA) so not sure that qualifies as a "credit card" - although the repayment terms mean it's treated as a credit card by MBNA.... ?|

The VS AmEx is a credit card - what else is it? It is irrelevant if you pay the full balance each month or the minimum payment.

Ref lack of updates, even to say there is no news and talks are progressing...this is unbelievably short sighted of VS and they really need to get their act together. Its the same kind of philosophy which all airlines and airports need to adopt when dealing with flight delays - keeping people up to date regularly makes a HUGE difference PR-wise...

Ref lack of updates, even to say there is now news and talks are progressing...this is unbelievably short sighted of VS and they really need to get their act together. Its the same kind of philosophy which all airlines and airports need to adopt when dealing with flight delays - keeping people up to date regularly makes a HUGE difference PR-wise...

Couldn't agree more; BA dealt with the passenger issues last year in what was essentially a text-book example of how to do it right. They communicated very well, dealt with the resulting cancellations in a flexible and professional manner. The web site worked very well etc etc. It really was very well handled from a customer perspective y) - and I don't even particularly like BA, (however I DO admire their maturity and professionalism).

You can see the VAA issues now, with a company more fixated on protecting the "Brand" at all costs rather than clearly inform the outside world what's going on, what the contingencies are, what the processes will be. We're only days away from potential strike action, and VAA remain silent. NOT clever. They don't seem to realise how easy it is to lose customers and how difficult it will be to get them back, especially in a tight market...

[Darren Wheeler]

Or, for balance.

BALPA could make a statement. After all, the decision is with them.

From my own experience of these things negotiations can be badly compromised if the parties start making public statements about progress. But I do agree that VS should be doing more to keep pax informed of arrangements if a strike takes place.

[Neil]

You can see the VAA issues now, with a company more fixated on protecting the "Brand" at all costs rather than clearly inform the outside world what's going on, what the contingencies are, what the processes will be. We're only days away from potential strike action, and VAA remain silent. NOT clever. They don't seem to realise how easy it is to lose customers and how difficult it will be to get them back, especially in a tight market...

Not really fair.

The BA strikes last year where CC strikes, and when VS CC where going on strike a couple of years back, VS handled the situation very well, with very few flights due to be cancelled, until the strike was called off at the last minute.

I'm not sure you can criticise VS for not handling a strike well, when no strike dates have even been announced yet. How can they announce what flights will be cancelled, what they are going to do for paxs whose flights are cancelled etc? It is pointless them announcing a plan of action until they know exact dates, especially when many of the VS flights don't operate on a daily basis.

[Darren Wheeler]

Problem is, until BALPA announce what (if any) strike action the plan, VS can only wait.

For example.

BALPA announce a 48-hour strike. Flight ops will have their work cut out, cancelling flight, re-protecting where possible (subject to availability) etc. etc.

BALPA announce a 1-hour token strike by crews on about to depart, all you have is delays. This is much easier for Flight Ops to deal with.

Yes agree Darren, I was hoping someone would give BALPA the heads up..its a cardinal sin to state you'll make an announcement on a specific date, and a day later that message hasnt been updated....

But a simple 'talks are progressing, nothing to report at this stage' on VS website AND BALPA's is all it needs to let the public know that they are not being kept in the dark, which is what a lot will think.

Worryingly I noticed on a Trip Advisor post that VS apparently gave out incorrect info (on June 27th) about when a strike could be called http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k4579812-o10-Virgin_Atlantic_strike-Air_Travel.html on page 2....

[Neil]

Worryingly I noticed on a Trip Advisor post that VS apparently gave out incorrect info (on June 27th) about when a strike could be called http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k4579812-o10-Virgin_Atlantic_strike-Air_Travel.html on page 2....

That is just as likely that the poster misunderstood the info given to them, rather than it be VS giving out wrong info. Kind of irrelevant to the whole thing really.

The same as alot of people here. We just want to know what's going on.

We're booked to on holiday mid next week. The kids are upset, my wife's upset and I'm absolutely furious!

The Virgin Holidays website has not been updated since 21st June. The BALPA site has not been updated since Friday. There's very little in the news either!

Possibly Neil, which is why I said 'apparently', the fact is ...no regular info/updates does nothing for customer confidence, all it takes is a brief message to say talks are continuing and another update will be issued at 'x' .....

How many times have any of us had a rolling flight delay and had zero info, or waited several hours for an update that failed to materialise? Again, BALPA need to be on the ball here too.

Possibly Neil, which is why I said 'apparently', the fact is ...no regular info/updates does nothing for customer confidence, all it takes is a brief message to say talks are continuing and another update will be issued at 'x' .....

Not the same psychology for me, all that would do is reconfirm the possibility that strikes will happen.

Guess it's a glass half full / half empty thing.

After last weeks 'are you angry?' on the VS website FAQs which probably got BALPAS hackles up perhaps they have agreed to say absolutly nothing other than very bald statements like BALPAS on Friday.

What is surprising is that there have been no leaks from the talks (the BA - UNITE leaked like a sieve with even twitter updates from the room) which u think us a good sign.

I know it's all frustrating though for pax but also for VS crew as well who are as anxious about this as we are with not knowing if work rota are ok.

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/174605/20110705/virgin-atlantic-virgin-pilot-pilot-strikes-strikes-u-k-gatwick-heathrow-richard-branson-balpa-insura.htm

...worth a read...

[Neil]

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/174605/20110705/virgin-atlantic-virgin-pilot-pilot-strikes-strikes-u-k-gatwick-heathrow-richard-branson-balpa-insura.htm

...worth a read...

Doesn't really add anything at all and could have been written by any one of us on here. It just states the obvious, of course the strikes are bad for Virgin and will cause upset and chaos for pax.

I think the only interesting things that will be worth a read, will be when BALPA or VS say something.

.... its was the bit about the union spokesman that I thought was intersting... right at the beginning...

[Neil]

The bit where the spokesman says there's nothing to report? Or the bit where the writer assumes they went away to consider their position rather than just maybe have a break?

As I said before, until either party makes an official statement then there really isn't much else to say IMO.