Prime Minister steps in to British Airways dispute

Gordon Brown has pledged to do all it can to resolve the dispute between British Airways (www.ba.com) and its 12,500 cabin crew who are threatening to strike for 12 days over Christmas, bringing misery to a million passengers.

The Prime Minister has urged the two sides to come back to the negotiating table, though BA has already resorted to legal action to try to stop the cabin crew from striking.

Passengers who have tickets to fly with BA from December 22, the first strike day, should check their travel insurance to see if they are eligible for refunds for out of pocket expenses, such as hotel accommodation and car hire.

The airline will refund tickets for any cancelled flights or rebook passengers on to alternative flights, but it is not likely to offer compensation in addition as it will claim the strike is an extraordinary circumstance beyond its control.

BA is expected to announce shortly which flights will be cancelled and until it does so passengers are being urged not to book alternative flights with other airlines, as they will not be able to claim a refund if their BA flight is not cancelled.

BA says passengers whose flights are cancelled will be offered a refund, a flight on another day or the option to reroute or fly on another airline, subject to availability, which is likely to be very tight over the Christmas period. EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) said flights on routes it shared with BA were already 75 per cent full.

Alternatively, BA passengers booked on flights from December 20 to January 4 can take advantage of BA's offer to switch to an alternative departure date within the next year. To do so, they should follow this link: ttp://www.britishairways.com/travel/flightops/public/en_gb?p_faqid=3917.

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