Travel News
BA cabin crew vote over Christmas strike
British Airways’ cabin crew began voting today over Christmas strike action in protest against new employment rules that include a two-year pay freeze, reduced holidays and fewer benefits. The ballot, which is open to all BA’s 14,000 cabin crew, closes on December 14 and could result in industrial action starting 21 December.
Under the new rules, more than 3,000 crew will shift to part-time contracts, 1,000 will take voluntary redundancy, whilst new recruits will not receive fewer long-haul allowances. For details, click here
Virgin Atlantic helps passengers pay their fare share
Virgin Atlantic, one of the world’s leading long haul airlines, today announced a unique initiative which will help its passengers find other travelers to share taxi rides into city centers across the world – saving both their wallets and ground carbon emissions. The Taxi2 website will help match passengers who are on the same flight or whose flights arrive at a similar time, and are traveling to a similar part of a city, so they can share the taxi ride. Passengers will simply need to log onto http://www.taxi.to and input their flight and destination details (eg. hotel address) and the website will match them with a suitable traveling companion. They are then sent the details of the matched traveler and can decide whether to agree to the match and make arrangements of where to meet upon their flight arrival. Passengers can then print off a convenient Taxi2 sign from the website so they can locate each other at the airport. The system will also match female travelers who only want female traveling companions. The program is not limited to Virgin Atlantic customers and passengers on other airlines can share rides as well. See also http://www.virginatlantic.com/innovationzone for details.
British Airways Strike Update
We are delighted for our customers that the threat of a Christmas strike has been lifted by the court. Visit www.speedbirdclub.com for more update.
Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) Effective January 20, 2010
From January 20, 2010 it will be mandatory for all British Airways passengers travelling to the United States under the Visa Waiver Programme (VWP) to apply for an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) 72 hours prior to departure. This online form will eventually replace the green visa waiver form (I94W) which is currently completed whilst en-route to the US. For more details, please click here
