Bloody Aer Lingus!

Saw this in today's paper:

"TRAVEL agents are advising customers against flying with Aer Lingus this Christmas amid threats of a "devastating" all-out strike in a fortnight.

With bookings poised to plummet and the airline expected to announce €20m losses today, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey called on both sides in the dispute to restart talks on plans to outsource almost 1,300 jobs.
..........
The chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents Association said customers were in confusion even though disputes between Aer Lingus and SIPTU, in particular, had a "track record of heavy posturing and empty commitments".

"My members are trying to find solutions for their customers and are giving priority to alternatives to Aer Lingus," said Simon Nugent. "They are backing away from Aer Lingus flights because there is a higher risk of disruption to them."

Well fuck them anyway. I booked my flights to Prague months ago for the 11th december, and now I'm potentially either not going to get there or will get stuck there because the usual fecking suspects in the management and the unions can't get their shit together and are rehashing the same old fucking fights as ever? Seems to be in their contracts that they have to threaten to go out on strike at least once a year, just to remind people that they're there, like. Have been caught out on flights at least twice before with these feckers walking off the job. What are they, French or something?

Screw them, time to see what other flights I can get. Think Ruinair have a sale on.....


(Later..)

Just after checking the Aer Lingus site re: their policies on refunds. Well, is pretty simple:

  Fare Rules
Cancellations

    * NO REFUND AT ANY TIME EXCEPT FOR BUSINESS CLASS

Fuckers. So looks like unless I want to take a €220 hit, we're stuck with Aer Fungus.