British Airways’ labor woes have received a fair amount of press in the past several months. Although so far, after an injunction, none of the airline’s employees have gone on strike. Yet.
As a matter of course, regular travelers to Italy and France in particular have become accustomed to all kinds of strikes, from airline employees, to transit and train personnel, to even museum workers.
The next strike on the horizons is from a relatively unlikely airline, with comparatively little advance media or industry warning — it’s been called by Lufthansa pilots.
The official notice from Lufthansa:
As result of the call for industrial action by the Pilot’s Union for the dates of 22-25 February 2010, LH expects some irregularities to the flight operation. Details are not known at this point.
The airline is allowing one free change for any ticketed passengers, as long as travel is completed by May 31, 2010.
In general, travelers not flying Lufthansa should find their flights schedules to be unaffected. But strikes by major carriers do have repercussions throughout the system.
For one thing, anyone on an unrestricted ticket will change to a different airline. Which for travelers on that airline may mean kissing any chance for an adjacent empty seat or upgrade goodbye, since full fare travelers will jump over anyone on a mileage upgrade waitlist.
Premium travelers will probably switch airlines and not take their chances. Since United and Lufthansa are partners, this means many of them will choose United so they still get miles. Many affected travelers will be on United tickets but on a code share flight operated by Lufthansa, so they will certainly be moved.
A strike also means more craziness at the airport as people with more restrictive tickets try to argue their way onto other carriers, or at least to try standby. Which also means this will not be a good week to get to the airport late.
And all this is before any potential weather issues. Remember the days when international air travel used to be glamorous?
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
