British Airways Holidays - potential disability discrimination

[onetimenamec]

Right, name changed for this. Bear with me, this could be long.
The young student whom I support with multiple SNs and his mother have been treated appallingly by BA and I need some alternative perspectives from those who know more about these things.
Yesterday, they booked a seven night break away. While the booking was going through, several things happened. The screen froze, then seemed to go back on (there were a few compare options open on the BA website), mum (who has a vision impairment which BA already knew about) could not focus well because of all the flickering and completed the booking for what was the only suitable hotel for their disability needs i.e. not on a clifftop. Only after she got the email did she notice that it was the wrong one and for whatever reason, a clifftop resort in the middle of nowhere had been booked instead. She called and called but no reply.
She finally got through today, she mentioned all of the above. The agent was really off, saying that it was her fault, not BAs and saying that she could potentially charge £500 to book the hotel which she actually needed/had wanted all along. In the meantime (you've guessed it) flight price raised by £200 odd quid, the change fee of £100 not negotiable as "charged by the hotel" even though the hotel have confirmed they know nothing about it as BA pre-purchase a block of rooms from them and allocate among paying customers without their input.

Mum was in tears. Ended up being charged over £400 extra in total when it should have been £130 if the booking had gone through properly.
Mum asked to speak to the complaints team but was told by the manager that he wouldn't be putting her call through because she had no basis for a complaint as far as he was concerned.
He also tried to remove the breakfasts which were clearly stated as included (and listed that way on the BA website as well 'because this is not a new booking' but put them back on after she insisted. He also made the point that she should take responsibility as though it were her fault even when she explicitly pointed out their visual disabilities.
I know their ratings are down in the shit but isn't this blatant, unpleasant disability discrimination? It sounds like they could have just charged the difference from the point of sale price but instead forced over £400 extra out of her which makes their holiday more expensive than what it is selling for on their website in general or if they had booked it directly on the Hilton website. What about deliberately refusing to put her through to complaints? She also offered to take a full refund and book with another company but they would have charged her over £500 for that as well.

WWYD? Thanks for bearing with me!

What is the best way of complaining if she doesn't want tp go on Twitter?

Unsympathetic customer service but not discrimination.

They may well pledge all kinds of help but maybe it would have been better to contact them when they started experiencing difficulties.
I can see why they would think their customer was managing if they were pressing ‘confirm’ at various stages unfortunately.

How exactly were they ‘told off’ for being visually impaired though?
I can’t see how anyone would turn round and say something like that.

Hopefully the call will be recorded and that particular matter can be addressed properly.

This. There’s no discrimination here and she does need to take responsibility for her part in this.

@onetimenamec Sorry I haven’t booked accommodation through them for a while.

If she booked a Hilton hotel, I’d contact Hilton directly and explain that she accidentally booked a location that can’t accommodate their family’s needs-and that BA was extremely unhelpful.

It’s worth a try.

She never recorded it as it was on her landline but apparently, she was telling them that it may have happened because the rapid screen freezes and relightings created blind spots in her right eye vision and she may have pressed return when asked to confirm just to get out of the screen (and being confident that she had selected the Hilton as no other hotel was in the running).

I know why people think that she must have gone through ten screens of options as many travel websites are like that but I've just tried a dummy booking and it is remarkably quick to end up with a BA booking after merely two screens without even a pre-finalization page.

Totally agree.
I have a visual disability, no one gives a shit.

The screen freezing sounds like an internet / computer problem. Nothing to do with BA

www.britishairways.com/travel/customerportal/public/en_gb#/customer-service-portal%23pageTitle

Complain via this link.
'Screen flickering' and 'relighting' are not problems with the website by the way. It's the device

Thanks. I understand that she has done this but the first booking which went through for the hotel on a cliff in the middle of nowhere was not a Hilton.

I also noticed that their descriptions of the hotels are quite selective in what essential details they share.
Jet 2 for example will clearly state if a hotel is unsuitable for mobility issues or state the number of steps up to access it.

If she is unable to see the screen properly - on an accessible website - she needs to either ring up, go into a Travel Agent, or get someone else to book.

My mum is partially sighted, RNIB have been really helpful with aids & adaptations .

She said that she has hyperoptic (??) superfast internet so it is not at her end. The website is crap, honestly.

Oh as IF they told her off for having visual impairments when the calls are all recorded

OP you heard all this second hand, yes?

No discrimination here. I'm afraid she neds to take responsibility for making the error. She should have either had someone support her woth the booking or do it ovewr the phone. It's not BAs issue. The customer service dod sound poor though.

It quite clearly is discrimination. People do not understand what discrimination means.
You can't do most things over the phone, you have to book online.

Impossible to say in retrospect if the computer problem was down to the website or internet issues etc , however unfortunately if the customer couldn’t see what she was booking I do feel she should have either obtained assistance from a friend , or made the booking by phone . BA aren’t responsible for her completing an incorrect booking in this case .
Customer service could have been better , a complaint should have been logged , at our company we log all customer complaints even when they are clearly customer error and their will not be a favourable outcome for the customer . In all honesty it wastes everyone’s time , but the customer feels listened to and that is why we do it . Calls would have been recorded the BA side I suspect so if she demands to log a complaint they should be able to listen to the call to see if further training is needed .

Ba record all their calls

i suspect that the actual call content was very very different from this

Most websites are not accessible. MN is shockingly bad.
You can't ring up most places. And how many people have someone who will come round and help them out with things on the internet on a regular basis?

@JMSA i think it's quite common for airlines to overbook flights, to keep flight prices down

And, if all the passengers turn up, then retired people / backpackers / students are probably more likely than business travellers to be (1) occasional travellers ie less important customers to the airline and (2) satisfied with compensation or a refund and a later flight. So, I guess that's a business decision for the airline

So? It doesn’t matter if she usually has “super fast internet”.

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect all the time and clearly it wasn’t in this case yet she continued anyway and tried to blame BA.

could not focus well because of all the flickering and completed the booking for what was the only suitable hotel for their disability needs i.e. not on a clifftop. Only after she got the email did she notice that it was the wrong one and for whatever reason

It was her fault for booking the wrong thing.

If her vision is that bad and the screen was flickering then she shouldn’t have booked anything and asked you to do it for her.

I think it’s ridiculous they couldn’t just refund her though, or taken a small fee for doing so.

Would not disagree with some of the comments about BA customer service, however:

They routinely oversell seats, for flights where there is a pattern of passengers not showing up. In the worst case scenario, and all passengers turn up, staff are instructed never to turn away loyalty card customers, but to refuse old people, backpackers and students.

On that one point, and to second a previous poster, a few points:

Overselling to varying degrees p, depending on route/time of year etc and other variables is absolutely the norm at many many airlines.

If offload due over sales is needed it’s normally a case of any staff travelling on leisure travel are dumped first, often with no compensation.

Then it’s an ask volunteers with a financial incentive.

Only then is it involuntary offload (compensation again), and there is a pecking order based to some extent on loyalty card but that in itself doesn’t single out the groups mentioned as priority offload there are a surprising number of old people, backpackers and students with loyalty cards of various colours and hues.

Dh is sight impaired alot of websites are not accessible to him and have no phone number. The local council recently wanted to stop phone lines as there website was accessible ..... but they hadn't actually trailed it with sight impaired people. It's a nightmare to use and isn't accessible. Most sight impaired people struggle with captcha and Chat bots too. It's not as easy as you think.

I don't know much about websites but their one looks awful. There is essential information given in smallprint and even finding their T&Cs was like looking in a haystack.

Does anybody have knowledge of how the accommodation element works for airlines selling it as an add-on. From their own voucher, it sounds like they had already purchased a block and it was up to them at what price they were selling it, not the hotel. When she called the hotel on the original booking, they said that they knew nothing about it. They don't even look at advanced bookings until a couple of days before as they change regularly until the night before. It doesn't make any sense for BA to mainly blame it on them.

She clocked up.

plain and simple

Thankfully ba will have recorded the call, so this will be an open and shut case.

Cocked