The British Airways strike has inevitably dominated this month’s discussion on Cheapflights News & Views, with the overwhelming majority of readers voicing strong opposition to striking staff.

That consensus was echoed in our online survey, which took in the views of more than 1,000 members of the public and pointed to an overwhelming lack of sympathy for the grievances aired by BA cabin crew.

But the BA strike wasn’t the only thing on your minds last month. EasyJet also attracted scorn following a massive email blunder, while Ryanair’s antics irked and delighted in equal measure. Here are our highlights…

 
On the British Airways strike…

“Over the past year every UK resident has made some kind of financial sacrifice to keep their job. The cabin crew should realise that by voting for a strike they will eventually ruin their own company. If its so unpleasant to work for BA you are free to go and apply to another airline.”
George - 10 February

“Your union is stuck in the 1970’s and seem hell bent on suicide for BA (same as the car industry / miners / shipbuilders etc). Except the difference is Willie ain’t going to let you get away with it this time, thank god. We all have a vested interest in our company surviving the worst recession ever in aviation and that is why we will do anything we can to ‘back BA’.”
Fingers - 11 February

“The uncertainty created by BASSA/Unite has motivated me to move all of my company’s business travel away from BA to another airline that provides a superior level of service and reliability. It would be nice for some of the more militant cabin crew to think about the mess and consequences that they are creating for all cabin crew.”
Business Traveller - 12 February

“I think the BA Management do tend towards the aggressive, and have not come out of this particularly well. However the BA cabin crew do seem to live in a make-believe world, where their conditions are clearly out of kilter with the norm … It is a situation rather like the Post Office: mediocre management coupled with staff who do not realise the facts of commercial life.”
Richard Wyndham - 19 February

“My partner is BA crew, and is totally opposed to the strike - as are all of his crew friends! Lets face it, this is a company that is losing money left right and centre, so if these crew further damage the reputation of BA, then none of them will have a job, because there won’t be a company to work for!”
Adrian - 22 February

“‘Turkeys voting for Christmas’ would be an understatement if you decide to alienate the travelling public any more.”
Harry Briscoe - 25 February

On easyJet’s email blunder…

“Notified of the error within minutes? What nonsense. I was told of a cancelled flight at 14:20. I was notified of the error at 17:48. By then I had cancelled my hotel and parking in Gatwick and rebooked another flight at an unearthly hour from Bristol. Now I have 4 flights instead of 2 and have to wait for Easyjet to sort out a refund - sometime never!”
Jeff Hawkins - 17 February

“Further to my post I emailed the CEO. I had an e-mail back the next day apologising and explaining it was only earlier bookings affected. My faith in Easyjet has now been restored!”
Keith Richards - 17 February

“EasyJet refunded my money today. Looks like things have gone back to as they were. For me no change, just an error by them and a lot of stress on me! My views havent changed though and I wont use them again.”
Gill Buller - 25 February

On Ryanair’s unrelenting PR machine…

“In past years I flew with Ryanair more than any other airline; something that has reversed over last year or so. Balancing all things out, it’s just not worth flying with Ryanair anymore … By opening his big mouth Mr O’Leary just reconfirms that not all publicity is good publicity. He is showing contempt for his competitors - something which his customers are well accustomed to.”
Paul Heslop - 20 January

“While I can understand peoples reasons for finding Mr O’Leary childish, at the same time I must say that I admire him for simply being a down to earth character. He brightens up the pages of the business section and encourages people to get involved wherever possible. Like voting on whether overweight people should pay more to fly, or whether you can hold off going to the toilet in an effort to get cheaper air fares, or even if you would prefer a “sumo wrestle” or a “drag race” in Trafalgar Square to settle differences. With over 10,000 votes on this subject alone, is his publicity really proving to be ‘bad’ publicity?”
Kirk Harris - 25 February

© Cheapflights Ltd (Creative Commons image: altemark / Flickr)

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