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!

They’re a terrible company to deal with and their website is shite but as someone who works in digital what you describe, flickering isn’t the website, could be down to the users computer screen, broadband connection….how are you pricing it was the site?? And also how can you prove the same thing couldn’t have happened to a person with no visual impairment also?? So many other things I can’t list. How does the operator know she wasn’t trying it on??

it is not discrimination. It is a user error. But It is crappy and sounds like quite passive aggressive customer service. I would have advised her to try another operator. Before agreeing to the changes. They could have honoured the previous pricing.

They charged all that but also bumped up the price of the hotel, blaming it on the hotel. They should have honoured the price on their website at the point of booking. Because of the disability impact, I think the £100 should have been waived and only the original price difference charged.

As I understand it, they refused to let her speak to Complaints despite her asking clearly because they felt it was a non complaint.
She wanted to speak to the Special Assistance Team but they were not in on Sundays and she was told that they all sit in the same room and would make the same decision. If she waited until Monday then it would take her beyond 24 hours and she would have no case at all. Actually, I cannot see where they got that from in the T&Cs but they stated it boldly.

How can you know they stated it boldly etc when you weren’t even there? You seem to know enough details to answer everyone’s questions in depth.

You really need to take a step back from all this OP.

No, they shouldn’t have honoured anything. This is entirely her mistake and she needs to take responsibility for it.

Sorry for most of the time since you qualified a year ago or most of the time since she requested a new support worker?

Basically - how long have you been with this family?!

They didn’t bump the price up though! You’re acting like the phone agent purposely put the price up for her. The price of the other holiday went up a day later. That’s completely normal and just bad luck. It could have passed into the next week on the algorithm, less rooms were available etc and so the prices go up. It wasn’t bumped up for this women.
She was charged the normal rebooking fee and the other holiday happened to have gone up in price.

I'm visually impaired and there is NO way I would have tried to carry on with a booking if my internet/the website was playing up!

How the heck did she manage to enter her payment details for a start and why didn't she double check the order before hitting submit?

It just doesn't make any sense OP and I'd strongly advise you to take a very large step back from the entire situation.

Am I right in thinking the 2 hotels are different prices, she's saying she accidentally booked a cheaper one than the one she wants but now wants the one she actually wants at the other hotel's price?

But I don’t get why she didn’t book through the special assistance team in the first place. They could have ensured that the booking met their needs

I suspect am inexperienced case worker and fairly new to this family

has got swept up in a story and her inexperience and naivety has led her to accept without question the account despite it very likely being full of holes.

or

the op is the person in question and is putting forth her view, and either consciously or subconsciously, not presenting the situation remotely the case and the recorded conversation would be very interesting and enlightening I suspect

The BA Special Assistance team is for after you have booked. They do not help with bookings. Google it, they say clearly what their role is.

Quite logically they don’t expect those with a visual impairment disability to use a website to book rather than calling

@Gwen82 Yeah she must be lying.
Except those of us who are disabled know this kind of thing happens all the time.

Does she have any proof of the price of the same room at hotel b at the time she booked? Was it more expensive anyway or the room she hoped to book was no longer available so was allocated a more expensive option. It all sounds fraught with potential variation, yet you are so adamant as if you had booked it yourself. She could send an email to the Assistance team explaining her error and how she hoped to resolve it.

From their website “If you want to make a new booking and you’re travelling with a disability, our Accessibility Team can provide support and advice. Customers outside of the UK will be directed to their local support team.”

@Gwen82 definitely doesn't sound like someone who would go out of her way to help anybody in need. I hope for the sake of the service users that she doesn't work with disabled people.

Not proof but she said that there was only a £100 difference yesterday but the difference conveniently went up by hundreds during her conversation. Hotel prices fluctuate a bit but she said it it seemed deliberate.

BA are not going to change the price of a holiday for the sole purpose of inconveniencing your friend.

I have spent a long time on this and gained some useful insights but I have spent too long thinking about it! I have told the mum that BA is not a company which can be expected to meet their needs and she should not use them again. I will pass on the complaints link but I don't really want to get further involved. their bad reviews speak for themselves.

Do individual agents answering the phones have the power to change the prices for everyone on the website? Surprised more doesn’t go wrong from that, seems very open for errors and fraud.

Honestly OP, you’re new in the role - might be worth having a chat with a supervisor of the sort of distance and boundaries expected of you, and advice on how to maintain them.

I booked a hotel room last week, 3 days away in July. 2 days later my brother and wife decided to join us and the hotel price had increased by 214euro. Same dates, same room type same breakfast included. It happens all the time. No one put it up just for your friend

The BA call centre was helpful to me this week when I rang to make an enquiry about bringing my wheelchair on my flights, there was a £50 fee which I would've had to pay for booking over the phone that they would've waved due to the disability issue but I ended up having to book online as needed final confirmation from a family member they could come in those dates, when I went to book the flights 45minutes later the cost had increased by £100, sadly just one of those things.

OP it would be helpful for your service user to still contact the accessibility team as she will be able to book any required assistance in advance including seat reservations if she hasn't already paid for them, that saved me and my party a fair bit.

Travelling with any type of disability sucks so the lady has my sympathy, in future directly contacting the company before booking may help

OP I suggest a factual, concise email to BA complaints clearly setting out the situation and the solution you require. Remove any blame or extraneous detail but fall on their mercy e.g.

"I recently made a booking on your website Booking No ######. I have xxxx and my son/daughter has xxxxxxx therefore it is extremely important to us that we have xxxxx.

We found a suitable hotel for our access needs and proceeded to book it. Unfortunately the website glitched severely
in the process and due to my (xxxxx) which stops me from xxxxx, it was not evident until I received the confirmation email that the incorrect hotel had somehow been booked.

I called your call centre immediately and several times and finally spoke to an advisor on xx/xxx/xx at xx time. As it was now in excess of 24 hours they were unable to help me beyond charging me a change fee of £xxand by that time the price of the hotel we required had increased significantly by £xxx

We have now managed to book the hotel we required (if that is the case) however this has left us £xxx out of pocket and dismayed at BA customer service and your ability to support those with disabilities and/or access needs when a clear error had been made

To resolve this issue to our satisfaction we would request that BA refund us £x and (book the correct hotel or whatever)

With many thanks for your consideration. Yours etc