The British High Court has stopped the British Airways strike that was set to begin on Tuesday, December 22.

The court ruled that the strike was illegal, on the basis of “balloting errors” in the union’s voting.

But the problems aren’t over for British Airways, and a new strike is quite likely in February if labor and management can’t come to an agreement. Once the holidays are over, the real fun begins. British Airways customers should be aware of that strike risk, going forward.

So where does this leave the passengers who canceled, rebooked, or otherwise changed their holiday travel plans because of the strike? Many passengers opted for a refund rather than a rebooking, and ended up buying new tickets on other carriers. The Guardian has a good summary of the options. One of the key takeaways is in this quote:

The airline will not be offering any special terms to those who thought they would be hit by the strike. A spokeswoman said: “We made it clear from the outset that the option we were offering ahead of any cancellation was the ability to rebook to a different date on another BA flight. As we did not make any cancellations, we did not rebook customers on other carriers. We did not encourage people to rebook on other carriers.”

I understand that position, legally, but it’s not going to go over well, from a PR perspective. The airline’s troubles will have already created a great deal of anxiety (and I’m not optimistic that the cabin crew will be at the top of their game during the next few weeks…) This just gives the flying public another reason to grumble. Smooth move, guys.

If you changed your flight to an alternative date, you might be able to switch your dates back to the holidays, if that’s your fancy. The December and January flights should be safe. If anything, they’re probably safer than any others on the BA schedule right now.

Good luck.

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