The inside story on the BALPA / British Airways pay negotiations

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

The BALPA pilot strike threat has been pushed down the news agenda this week because of the threatened (and then postponed) strike by UNITE members at Heathrow and yesterday’s IT meltdown.

A pilot strike is still a very real risk, however.

I spoke to a BA pilot yesterday who is up to date with the current negotiating position. This is where things stand:

British Airways is claiming that it has no money, effectively, despite reporting impressive Q2 results and expecting another year of substantial profits, and despite finding a few pounds to take BALPA to court last week – and whilst this was not reported at the time, British Airways has been told by the court that it must pay BALPA’s legal costs as well as its own.

Progress at ACAS late last week and earlier this week was described as “minimal”

BALPA has agreed to another, potentially final, round of ACAS discussions which will start today (Thursday)

Here are the current sticking points:

The current pay offer is not linked to RPI. Whilst British Airways has sold this – and it was accepted by cabin crew – as an ‘above RPI’ offer, this is not guaranteed to be the case. BALPA wants an RPI+ pay agreement.

BALPA is insisting on a profit share arrangement, similar to the one KLM recently introduced for its pilots. Jet2 has also just awarded its pilots a bonus equivalent to 4-weeks pay. The current bonus scheme, which has ten different triggers, is seen as one which is designed to stop payments being made. BALPA would like a scheme based on a fixed percentage of profits.

The ‘gain share’ proposal on cost cutting, which has been accepted by cabin crew, is not acceptable. (For what it’s worth, I agree.) Employees do NOT share in the gains from cost cutting programmes – they only share in the additional gains over a random ‘base case’ figure put in place by management. With no control over the ‘base case’ figure it is easy to see why this is not attractive.

BALPA has concerns over the governance of British Airways. IAG, the parent company, refuses to get involved in negotiations because it claims that BA, Iberia etc have the freedom to operate at arms length. BALPA believes that this is not the case and that the BA negotiating team is uncertain as to what it can agree without facing the wrath of IAG.

Let’s see what happens at ACAS today.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Michael Jennings says:

8 Aug8 August 12:45

Well, for the August long weekend, I have plans to fly STN-LUX on Ryanair on Friday the 23rd. I am flying home LUX-LHR on BA on the 26th. Ryanair have a strike on the 23rd. Can I manage the perfect storm of having my return flight impacted by a different strike?
Shoestring says:

8 Aug8 August 12:48

Hmmm just my luck, I got my wife +2 Ryanair tickets as an insurance back-up plan for the 23rd

actually might still turn out OK if there’s a Ryanair strike & refund for cancelled flights, now on tenterhooks seeing if BA announce strike on the 23rd – if I’m reading it right, no BA strike has been announced yet with the 14 days’ legal notice requirement, today being 8th August that means no BA strike legally possible on 22nd – but 23rd possible if they announce the strike today/ tomorrow? (14 + 8 = 22)

tomorrow is Friday so you’d have thought they won’t announce a strike until tomorrow/ end of week/ exhaust ACAS possibilities
- Mike says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 12:50
  
  doah !
- Shoestring says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 12:55
  
  we’ve got Section 75 ‘insurance’ for the flights on BA on 23rd – paid on a credit card – so if needs must, they can fly out any old how with another airline & I’ll claim it back from Tesco Bank
  
  I have finally realised it’s a pretty good idea to pay for all your flights on a credit card to get that S75 protection
  
  only taken me about 15 years to work it out
  
  BA Amex card would be fine (credit card) but not Gold/ Plat (charge card)
  - Shoestring says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 13:15
    
    hmm, seems I booked them back-up flights on 24th on Ryanair, so no strike refund likely 🙂
  - S says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 17:03
    
    Gold is credit now
    - Genghis says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 17:39
      
      Only for new applicants
      - Shoestring says:
        
        8 Aug8 August 17:47
        
        ah yes, sorry about that, Gold is a credit card for new cards (and has been for almost 2 years! I’ll catch up sooner or later 🙂 – still on a Gold charge card until the anniversary at least
  - eldoctore says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 10:14
    
    Hi
    Do you have evidence of this – ie a previous cancelled flight due to a strike being refunded by the credit card company, or is it speculation. Thanks.
David says:

8 Aug8 August 12:58

We are flying First to LA on a 241 in September, we are only going for 9 nights so if we are delayed, even for a few days, it won’t be worth going. I am wondering if our date is a strike date with 2 weeks notice given, if there is availability on earlier flights could fly out to LA a few days earlier than had planned?
- Anna says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 13:49
  
  If a strike is announced for your travel date you could certainly ask BA to put you on an earlier flight (this option would be easier for them anyway). Or you could cancel and re-book, though of course no guarantee of award availability if not showing already.
  - David says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 15:34
    
    Thank you
- Lyn says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 13:57
  
  That is what I would expect, but I am no expert.
  
  Hopefully you will be OK but if your flight is affected I suggest that you have alternative airports available for negotiation with BA. For instance First class availability has been popping up to San Diego for August so I suspect those flights would be in less demand than LAX.
  - Anna says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 15:01
    
    If they are changing a booking there doesn’t need to be award availability (just room in the cabin), they can just transfer over the details from one flight to another. However, if the 2 4 1 booking was cancelled, there would need to be award seats available to make a new booking in the same class.
    - Lyn says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 15:36
      
      Anna, that is what I was thinking as well. I suspect there would simply be more empty seats available in F to San Diego than to LA, and it isn’t really all that far away if it means saving a holiday. Well, closer than LHR is to Manchester anyway!
    - Yuff says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 17:29
      
      If they cancel a flight and you have a 241 booking on the cancelled flight they will re-book you on the next convenient flight. The flight does not need reward availability.
  - David says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 15:34
    
    Thank you
  - David says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 15:35
    
    Thank you for your help
eli says:

8 Aug8 August 13:13

off topic:
just looged into my BAEC account and saw this:
– Don’t use any vouchers

– BA American Express Companion Voucher
Select eVoucher

– 2822818- expires on 1 Jul 2021
—————————————————-
the above 2 sections were always there but the last line seems new, and the box is permanently checked
anyone else see the same in their account?
- Anna says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 13:47
  
  This is the page that usually comes up when you’re making a booking and you have an unused voucher.
- Craig says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 13:48
  
  Similar on mine but only when I tick to use companion voucher does the actual voucher appear.
John S says:

8 Aug8 August 14:50

If the pilots are unhappy, they should move to a different carrier. If a City worker is unhappy with what he’s getting at DB, he’s free to move to Goldman, JPM or elsewhere. Same story. Free market.
- Spaghetti Town says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 14:54
  
  I agree with you, except the pilots have a chance to shut down the whole airline, so they’re going for it.
  
  No pilots = no planes.
- Joe says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 15:37
  
  Totally agree. Would happily make strikes illegal.
- marcw says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 15:41
  
  That’s correct. However, BA depends on pilots to operate – so pilots have a LOT of power. No pilots.. no flying planes. And, there isn’t really a big surplus of available pilots in the market…
- TM says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 16:40
  
  Investment banks spend a much larger percentage of their revenues on employee pay.
  - Clive says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 16:45
    
    Are you insinuating BA Pilots don’t earn enough? They are actually one of the best paid in the industry. One of the main reasons that this has raised its head has been due to the BALPA Rep who is a pilot for BA but the ex Ryanair Union Rep. A young greedy man.
    - marcw says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 16:59
      
      They just want a genuine profit sharing.
    - Doug M says:
      
      8 Aug8 August 19:02
      
      Posts like yours add nothing to any debate, but speak volumes about you as a person.
      - Clive says:
        
        8 Aug8 August 19:17
        
        Is that aimed at me Doug? Just posting the facts which are freely available to also read with a little more glamour in the mainstream press.
    - Stoneman says:
      
      9 Aug9 August 10:54
      
      But who says they earn enough? Citing examples of other poorer paid pilots doesn’t by default mean BA pilots are well paid.
  - Rob says:
    
    8 Aug8 August 19:55
    
    40%
- Stoneman says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 10:53
  
  Or, if you are in a position of power you go to your employer collectively, threaten to ruin their operations, and see whether they give you what you want. All about power in the free market and the pilots are exercising their power. It works the other way as well. Not going to see me bitching about their actions given that the corporation they work for will give them the shaft if they can get away with it. Always makes me chuckle when people cite the free market but moan that employees exercise their power within this system.
Jim ware says:

8 Aug8 August 21:45

any news on what happened at ACAS today
- Rob says:
  
  8 Aug8 August 21:59
  
  No.
  
  EDIT: my pilot friend just told me that talks have broken down, not sure if they will resume
Graeme says:

9 Aug9 August 09:25

Why would anyone moan about an insight into this? Baffling.
David says:

9 Aug9 August 12:24

This waiting is doing my head in – rotten when you can’t look forward to your holiday
- Jim ware says:
  
  9 Aug9 August 16:38
  
  your not wrong
  - Frankie says:
    
    9 Aug9 August 16:50
    
    I keep checking the BALPA Twitter feed…. waiting… and waiting…. checking…and…checking.
    - Jim ware says:
      
      9 Aug9 August 19:27
      
      do you think they are still talking