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British Airways strike grounds SFO flights (update)

UPDATE  Sunday March 21 1:15 pm. British Airways has told me that both departures from SFO to London will happen today (flights 284 and 286). One flight will arrive from London with passengers and depart with passengers (BA 287). Another (BA 285) will arrive from London with cargo only, but will depart for London with passengers (BA 286).

UPDATE: Sunday, March 21. British Airways contacted me to report that it has reinstated a single roundtrip flight (BA 287 and BA 286) between SFO and London-Heathrow today. They say that more workers than expected are showing up, so they are able to reinstate more flights than expected. No word yet on when BA’s second daily SFO-London flight (BA 284/285) will be reinstated.

SATURDAY: A strike at British Airways has grounded the carrier’s two daily flights between San Francisco International and London Heathrow.

According to BA’s web site, BA flights 285 and 287, which originate in London have been scrubbed today (Saturday), Sunday and Monday. From the BA website it appears that BA planes that are already here or in the air on their way here will operate today (Saturday) and fly back to London. But once there, they will be grounded.

It’s unknown now how the strike may affect flights after Monday.

If you are holding a BA ticket to London, here are your options:

  1. rebook your flight within one year (BA waives change fees)
  2. rebook your flight via another U.S. city where BA flights have NOT canceled (Note that flights from both LAX and PHX have canceled, too so not many options from SF).
  3. cancel your flight for a full refund
  4. call British Airways (1-800-247-9297– expect a long wait on hold!) or your travel agent and ask that they re-book you on another carrier.

Note: If you are currently booked to travel to London on another carrier (such as Virgin Atlantic or United which both offer nonstops to London from SFO) expect your flight to be VERY full. And expect the gate area to be rather angst ridden with lots of displaced BA passengers standing by and hoping to board your flight.

For more information and to monitor the situation, go to www.ba.com/strike

News around this strike is changing fast, so if you know more than I’ve been able to include here, or have updates, please add them in the comments section below.


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