Cassandra

Timing is everything and mine is never good. Two of the four of us leaving for Italy on Sunday are on UA. With the court decision allowing UA to bail on retirement funding, I can't imagine employees won't call for a strike, legal or not.

Sighhhh. The tickets were bought in Dec., so they won't be supported by credit card company (outside the 60days) -- and then there's the utter chaos of trying to get them from SFO to FCO and back, even if the tickets are honored.

Would appreciate others' comments, although until it happens it's all speculation. And anyone with "inside" info, would be grateful for updates here.

ms_go

No inside information here, Cassandra - just similar hopes for status quo as I have two international trips involving UA this summer (not to mention hundreds of thousands of miles still in the bank). But you might want to take a look at the UA M+ forum at www.flyertalk.com. There is a lot of discussion there - speculation of course, but from some of UAs highest-level FFs.

soccr

According to a flyertalk thread, the real problem will come next, regarding hearings to completely throw out the mechanics and ground staff contracts. They then would have the ugly choice between waiting to be laid off or striking, so they don't have anything to lose, either. For both our sakes', wish things looked better.

Anne55

I am a complete novice when it comes to flying during a strike. My daughter is leaving for Hamburg Friday. Her tickets are with Lufthansa, and she was told to check in at the Lufthansa ticket counter, but the first leg of the trip, LAX to Heathrow, is operated by United. IF there is a strike that affects her flight, will Lufthansa honor her reservation and make sure she gets to Hamburg on some other combination of flights?

Hopefully, this is all speculation and nothing will materialize. But we would appreciate any tips and suggestions so she will know what to expect and be prepared to deal with the situation if it arises.

Cassandra

Anne55, I think (there will be others more expert than I to comment, I'm sure) that the good news is that if your daughter is ticketed through Lufthansa, they are going to have to try to get her to her destination, whatever it takes. The bad news is that if the equipment is maintainied by UA and mechanics/ground crew go on strike, the plane will not fly, and Lufthansa will have to scramble to get her booked via other carriers.

Make sure you/she have all possible phone numbers for Lufthansa passenger service, and if there's a problem, start with the phone, not the people at the ticket counter, if you possibly can.

wills

Hi Cassandra, I think, since you say that your destination is FCO, that you might be on USAirways from Phl-FCO? I believe that United only flys to Milan. So most likely your first leg is on United and then your second on UsAirways. If that's the case perhaps you could arrange to fly on USAirways from SFO to PHL and your trip would be safe? Just a thought. Hopefully it's gamesmanship, no one at United wants or needs a strike. Good luck!

Cassandra

Hey, Wills, DH and I are flying AA, so we're okay for the moment; it's DS and SO who are flying from SFO to FRA to FCO. They're ticketed through UA (with upgrades that will disappear if they are rebooked on another carrier). We'll wait to panic, and perhaps they can be rebooked on partner airlines -- but there will be a rush by everyone to do that, I'm afraid. Just hope there's some sort of delaying strategies for a while, just to get us there and back (selfish, huh!). ;-)

Dick

I'm flying UAL next week ( using USAir FF miles) from DC to Heathrow with connection to Naples.

As far as I'm concerned ...why worry...it's out of our control

karens

I just read on flyertalk that UA is making its case to the Judge through Friday, and then the union's turn starts on Monday. I'm not sure how long the union's case will take, and then if the Judge will issue an immediate ruling.

I cannot believe I am dealing with this now. We are ticketed on 5/19 with a return on 5/23 to Hawaii. We usually fly USAir and spent nearly every trip worrying about a strike/Ch. 7/or other bankruptcy related issue. I thought we'd have no problems with this trip b/c it's United. Sigh.

What's really got me angry and worried is that when USAir was doing so badly, I booked our award tickets for our July vacation on United, b/c I was concerend about USAir's viability. Now it looks like I overreacted and should have been a lot more concerned about United. Double sigh.

inthechips2

I recently booked two seats to Sydney for November and my TA specifically suggested we not use United.

karens

in the chips - yes, we've booked on USAir against the advice of my husband's corporate travel agent. I think they are conservative b/c the worst case scenerio would be a nightmare for them.

Travel agents (and many others) have been predicting the demise of USAir for several years now.