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Airline Strikes Are Breaking Out And Being Called Off Across Europe

We're thinking of starting a daily column just devoted to which airline sector of what major European country is on strike. It's genuinely getting hard to keep up. At the end of last week, Lufthansa's pilots were going on strike but—at least formally—British Airways' cabin crews and France's air controllers were still on the job. A few days later the situation is exactly the opposite.

Yesterday the bulk of employees at British Airways, Great Britain's flagship airline— which, we'll remind you, is not a small company—voted in favor of striking. No one knows when exactly they'll be walking out, but that's just part of the fun. Across the Channel, France's air traffic controllers chose this morning as the first day of their own five day strike. 25% of flights of CDG flights and 50% of Orly flights will be canceled for the duration. Thousands of travelers were already stranded across the continent by a four day work suspension on the part of Lufthansa pilots that began yesterday, though as of today they're suspending their suspension. Isn't this fun?

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Breaking: British Airways Cabin Crew Vote To Strike. Again.

Having been denied their strike by a judge at the end of last year, British Airways cabin crew are ready to make another go of it. The official announcement came down a little over an hour ago from the Unite union, which is Britain's largest and which counts much of the airlines' staff among its members. Out of the 12,000 ballots that were cast, 7,000 employees - an astounding and apparently very pissed off 81% - voting in favor of the strike.

What happens next: no strike date has been announced so BA flights continue as normal. There's another meeting set for Thursday, which is when the union will roll out a list of potential options. They've already ruled out striking around schools' Easter break. They got burned the last time they tried to leverage holiday traffic as part of their strategy, so presumably they're loathe to play with fire again.

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How American Airlines And I Survived The British Airways Strike Together

And now, in the spirit of holiday travel, a rant from Jaunted writer Omri Ceren, who has spent the last week riding an emotional roller coaster thanks to the called off British Airways strike and his complex flight plans. Do enjoy his story:

Many of you have been following with interest my ongoing and frustrating odyssey to book a winter trip using only American Airlines miles. It's not really "many of you" as much as "three or four" and it's not really "interest" as much as "idle curiosity." Still, there are a couple lessons to be drawn from the final itinerary: LAX-SOF, SOF-TLV, TLV-LHR, LHR-LAX for 80K miles plus fees and taxes.

The initial itinerary was uneven—seats that I thought were available weren't and I couldn't get a SOF-TLV flight even though oneworld partners fly that route—but it was what it was. Then the British Airways strike was announced, which led to this series of phone calls, the tips that came out of the experience, and an itinerary that included a bus ride from Heathrow to Gatwick and an overnight in the Budapest Airport. Then the strike got called off and I tried to get my original itinerary back, which is where this little Teaching Moment picks up.

First, I'd like to thank the US Mint for providing what until now has been the easiest way to convert credit into miles and then back again. They've closed that loophole so now you're advised to seek out branded debit cards. Second, this trip couldn't have been created without American Airlines one-way awards booking. More on that below.

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Massive British Airways Strike Averted; All Flights 'Operating As Normal'

BREAKING: The BBC reports that the imminent two-week holiday strike by British Airways' employees has been averted. When the airline employee union United decided to strike during peak holiday travel time, from December 22-January 2, and for so long a time, British Airways took them to court to seek an injuction.

Today, the court ruled in favor of British Airways, meaning that BA employees will have to report to work as normal through the holidays, but they will hold another vote to strike after the new year. And the union was even denied the ability to appeal the decision! Flights are back on, everybody!

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Virgin Atlantic Aims To Be Savior Of Passengers During British Airways Strike

If you're holding tickets to fly on British Airways anytime between December 22 and January 2, then we hope that you've already heard that the airline's employees are striking for those two weeks, virtually incapacitating the world's third largest airline. Although BA has admitted that flights during the first week will be cancelled, they'll attempt to run a skeleton operation for the second week, but we don't see how that's possible. Thus, you've got to scramble to rebook now.

We've already offered Five Tips for Rebooking Your Cancelled BA Flight from a Jaunted writer who just went through the stress of actually changing a multi-segment itinerary. But now, more help comes in the form of Virgin Atlantic swooping in with larger planes to help scoop up the passengers left stranded by British Airways.

The full deal, after the jump.

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How To Rebook If You're Flying During British Airways' Two-Week Strike

Update December 17, 2009: The strike has been averted thanks to court action! See all the details here.

If you had a flight on British Airways between December 22 and January 2, we've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that future-you's carbon footprint may be a lot smaller. The bad news is that the environmental benefits may come from canceling your holiday travel, as 12,500 of the airline's employees are going on strike for the holiday season.

If you booked a British Airways flight directly via the airline, their agents will work with you to find alternative routes. If you have a British Airways flight that you booked via one of their oneworld partners—say, if you were planning to go to Europe this winter on American Airlines miles—things are going to be much more difficult. You'll need to make your own calculations about a new itinerary vs. taking the risk that the flight will be called off. But if you're going to rebook you need to get on the phone and do it now. Here's why...

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Tweet Of The Week: Blame British Airways

We love Tuesdays. Why, you ask? Because the day brings many travel tips and quips as "Travel Tuesday" on Twitter, and we're going to share our favorite with you. Got an avid travel twitterer we should follow? Let us know.

Today's Twitter action was dominated by two topics, and happily both are completely up our alley since they focus on the airlines. First, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner successfully took its first flight, and people tweeted about watching it on a livestream. Second, there's the news of the big two-week British Airways employee strike that'll cripple the company and millions of passengers over Christmas.

There's been tons of angry tweets about the BA situation, and we were all set to feature an outraged flyer until we came across this tweet from someone suffering secondhand from the flight cancellations. This is perhaps the most hilarious tweet we've yet seen regarding the BA strike, and we really feel for this woman, who is appropriately facepalming and/or showing off her wedding ring for her Twitter picture. Here's what she said:

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