British Airways Holidays - potential disability discrimination

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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!

The take away from it is that people should think twice before using BA. I have never heard anything like it and I have travelled a lot.

The airline world has got pretty brutal over the last few years and I think realistically and in all honestly you’d struggle with many operators to get a free change of flights/accommodation once you’ve hit accept, but I’m sure there will be some with a more liberal approach out there somewhere.

FWIW BA allow (or certainly allowed) free cancellations of flights booked through ba.com if the cancellation was actioned within 24 hours of booking, sadly I don’t think the same applies with BA holidays.

The take away from it is that people should think twice before using BA. I have never heard anything like it and I have travelled a lot.

I don’t see how BA are at fault here at all and it certainly doesn’t put me off them.

Oh, apart from Ryanair, obviously 😞

FWIW, they apparently stated that BAHolidays was a separate product to BA.com and one may be flexible but with the other, you are truly screwed if something like this happens.
Good luck to the few posters who rate them highly but the comments out there suggest they are generally unpopular, even taking posting bias into account.

This family is very very new to you OP? Correct? And you’re very new to the role in general? Correct?

Less than a year working in this type of setup with young adults.

And with this family?

Originally, I was not the delegated support worker but the mum requested the change so I have been involved for most of that time.

Any time I've bought anything on line recently, it takes me through an additional security verification check via my bank app. Did it not do that?

A change from previous worker to anyone or specifically to you?

Thanks for the advice, I have noted the useful points and I will leave it to her to decide what to do.
There is a tiny chance this may be outing so I may request for it to be taken down!

I honestly have no idea why people are saying this is poor customer service and it’s definitely not discriminatory.
Sorry OP but the reality is if your friends visual impairments caused this issue then why was she booking online in the first place? She could have phoned up and made a booking that way.
Most airlines and travel agents have a no cancellation policy.

BA gives you a confirmation page of your booking before you pay.
If she wasn’t in a position to be able to able to view this properly she shouldn’t have confirmed the booking.

User error at the end of the day.

The only things that were poor customer service to me is the ‘telling off’ for being visually impaired - although I’m sure that will have been recorded and appropriate action taken if this was the case.

The other is not allowing her to escalate it. Even though it is quite likely that it would have had the same outcome, she should have been allowed to try.

Ultimately though, as unfortunate as it is, it is a user error.

The only things that were poor customer service to me is the ‘telling off’ for being visually impaired - although I’m sure that will have been recorded and appropriate action taken if this was the case.

The other is not allowing her to escalate it. Even though it is quite likely that it would have had the same outcome, she should have been allowed to try.

Ultimately though, as unfortunate as it is, it is a user error.

Sorry - not sure what happened there 🤷🏻‍♀️

There should be a complaints process on the website. How did BA know she was vi and vulnerable? Did she use Accessibility on the website? I agree it is poor customer service rather discrimination. Anyone making such an error would be charged to amend. Do BA record calls?

I'm not sure how anyone could be so heartless to shrug their shoulders at two disabled people and expect then to stay in a hotel high up on a steep cliff upon the basis of making a "user error".

A hotel with a single (bad) evening buffet food option as I understand it. Two people like them aren't going to go up and down the cliff in the dark (next to the sea) to get a bloody pizza from the neighbouring town. They were never going to choose that hotel which ended up in the booking.

It's very sad for her but that doesn't mean it's BA's fault. And they don't control everything. BA are good - but in the end every bad experience gets shouted from the rooftops because people think they'll then get money back.

People won't pay for service - they always say " oh well X is cheaper" - so the companies that offer better service lose out - because people don't expect to pay for it.

I'm sorry about your friend but it's not Disability discrimination - she booked the wrong hotel because her internet connection was a bit dodgy and the screen froze. I've done that - booked the wrong week!! Didn't get a refund.

But she is the one who made the error. Mistakes happen but you can’t apportion blame where it’s not right to do so.

if she was struggling with the website she could have phoned or asked someone like you to help.

Again, you seem to also be suggesting it’s BA’s fault that the location she wanted to go to was on a cliff tip and therefore not even property was accessible. BA don’t own or run the hotels, they are simply a travel agent.
If staying near a cliff top was an issue why was she looking for that location at all?

She never wanted a refund. She wanted to book the only suitable hotel on the website which she had been trying to book from the start. She wanted to pay the difference but never expected to be penalized by extra penalties and fare increases within 24 hours of booking.
They actually claimed that they could have charged a further £500 for changing the booked hotel (not flights which go through a central system, just a pre-paid block of hotels). .

I agree it's discrimination, largely with the customer service.
Websites are rarely accessible. A sh*t website can make a browser glitch. Regardless of the cause of flickering and glitching it caused this woman issues that wouldn't have affected someone without a visual impairment in the same way.

Companies are supposed to make reasonable adjustments and that applies to customer service, not just means of booking.
So the customer service team could and should taken the customer visual impairment into consideration with the booking issues she reported to them. They should have tried to ensure she incurred no extra costs. If that truly wasn't possible due to restrictions in IT systems at their end, for example, they should have done all they could to minimise extra costs. Getting staff with authority to override costs the system automatically adds, etc is usually possible.

This customer had a difficult booking experience and has incurred extra costs as a direct result of her disability. The customer service team refused to make reasonable adjustments and in fact tried to add even more costs, knowing that the customer only needed their assistance due to a booking issue that related to their disability. That's discrimination.

Some of the replies on here are frankly disgusting. A disability isn't an individual deficit that is solely up to the individual to cope with. A disability is an issue because systems, structures, attitudes make it more challenging for the individual than others to do things. Disability discrimination is not making adjustments to reduce those challenges and create a more equitable environment. A few people on this thread need to reflect on their ableist attitudes.

Here's how EHRC describe disability discrimination under the Equality act:

Disability discrimination is when you are treated less well or put at a disadvantage for a reason that relates to your disability in one of the situations covered by the Equality Actct_.
The treatment could be a one-off action, the application of a rule or policy or the existence of physical or communication barriers which make accessing something difficult or impossible.^
The discrimination does not have to be intentional to be unlawful

You don't seem to be listening to what people are saying. You are too involved witbh this family and nees to take a step back.

You would have a hard time arguing that as there are other options to book which the woman chose not to use. Reasonable adjustment has already been made and she chose not to utilise it.

I need to book accessible accommodation when I go away with ds. Most times that needs to be done via phone so they can ensure the accommodation is suitable for what we need. Websites are all well and good but can’t check things are right in the same way as a conversation can.

www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/legal/holiday-amendments-and-cancellations

Looks like it should have been £100 each plus any difference in cost of hotel