misterfuss

Hello,

We arrive LHR on a Sunday Morning in early May at 7:10 a.m. on United Airlines. Originally, we were going to spend the first part of our holiday in the U.K. and the latter in France, but changed our plans to get to Paris as soon as we arrive. I purchased tickets on BA that depart for Paris, Orly (ORY) at 11:15 a.m. (We were considering CDG airport at 10:45 a.m, but the price was almost $100 more expensive per ticket.)

Considering that BA could have labor issues (currently earliest projected strike 04 April 2011 according to http://www.britishairways.com/travel...t/public/en_gb ) would we be wise to buy a backup on Eurostar from London to Paris that we would no-show if everything goes well with our BA connection? I am currently showing a price of 78 GBP (approx. 126 USD) for two passengers departing London St. Pancras at 12:28 and 13:02. Of course, If our UA flight is late, the train option could protect us from having to buy very expensive last minute airfare to Paris too.

Thanks in advance for your input.

jamikins

There really is no way anyone can answer this for you. You need to decide if the delay did happen if it would be worth the extra GBP for the eurostar.

alanRow

And if the flight is cancelled will you have enough time to get to St Pancras for the train? Your plan will only work if you know before you leave home that the flight is cancelled.

BTW couldn't you have changed your United flights to go to Paris instead as part of a multi-city / open jaws itinerary

misterfuss

Thanks for the replies. It is now a non-issue since the fare has doubled to 146 GBP. We will just take our chances and hope that BA operates normally.

@alanRow: My understanding is that the last time BA had strikes, they did cancel in advance. If so, then we may have known before boarding our outbound flight. Regarding changing our tickets, we can do that for $250 each plus the fare difference. We paid about $900 each SFO-LHR rt and SFO-ORD-CDG LHR-SFO is faring at $1330 each. So, we would have to pay $680 each total additional to make that happen. We will cross our fingers with what we have purchased at this time.

zmac

Last year I was in Paris twice, and both times there were some disruptions - once because of strikes, the other time because of the snow. Both times the trains as well as air traffic was affected, so I don't see a guarantee that if the flight is cancelled the train would go.