I'm not sure if this is the right forum to place this on, but hoping someone can help.
DD is autistic and travelling with her can bring its challenges. She tends to go through all the emotions and then is sick for a few days whatever country we visit, so we ALWAYS contact airlines and request special assistance for, well everyone to have the most pleasant experience possible given the circumstances.
We flew with BA in December long haul to Tampa and everything by the ground staff was amazing. When we stepped foot on the plane, i genuinely don't know if it was sheer laziness, not understanding children with special needs (dhe aas wearing a lanyard which apparently all BA dtaff recognise as passengers with special needs) or outright racisim.
Everytime we asked for assistance, we would be ignored or told "I'll be right back" but then I would have to chase. We order 2 children meals on the plane and when I boarded, i asked what was in the meals and i was told someone would come find me. Hours later, as the food is being served, someone confirms it was chicken nuggets and mac n cheese. As a muslim family, we dont eat chicken so I asked if there was an alternative option and made clear if not, the mac and cheese part of thr meal will be OK. They then walked away with my childrens food and didnt return until I called them by which point, they handed my food to another child WHO DID NOT PREORDER THE MEAL. I obviously was annoyed and they offered my children the veggie meals which they didnt eat because they don't like tomato pasta. Luckily i had food in hand luggage so figured they would get by on that until the light snack...
So they also offered that to the family without even consulting us!!! They literally handed out all the food to every other passenger and when I asked where my childrens kids meals were, they said we didnt preorder the kids meal (lie as I have proof I did! And it conflicts with then coming to us earlier with kids meals!) So they gave my kids stale bread. For a 10 hour journey, 2 kids under 7 were given stale bread. I was beside myself, crying and so angry that they treated us this way and was apologised to by the head of cabin crew as the blonde lady who gave my child stale bread was rolling her eyes and slagging my daughters autism off to a colleague (yes I heard her).
We got off the plane, got through security and put it down to lack of training, one to complain about on return ...
So anyway we have an amazing time and go back to Tampa Airport. Ba ground crew were just as bad! Time to board, one of the members of staff asks me to remove myself and my family from the assistance queue. I calmly explain my daughter is Autistic and we have medicial evidence stating we need that little bit of assistance and he literally SHOUTS at me to MOVE OUT THE WAY FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED ASSISTANCE. Again, i say we do need assistance and he starts threatening me with security in front of 100s of passengers and MY KIDS! I burst out crying again and a disabled lady comes to me (in a wherlchair) to console me and said she was treated exactly the same. I explained we requested special assistance on both parts of the journey and I dont ubderstand how people could be so poorly treated
That aside, we get on the flight and as its nighttime there was minimal contact with the staff on board. No issues with food this time but i packed stuff just in case!!! We land and we wait for everyone to get off the plane so we could get the assistance
As we board the transport, we are asked to leave as "we don't require assistance" (again wearing the lanyard). I was in tears again, British airways really.outdone themselves. They class old people in wheelchairs disabled as that was the only folk on that bus, and there was plenty of space for a family of 4 with one child being special needs.
I was furious, so i wrote an email to the CEO..
NO REPLY.
I write an email to customer services. The guy who responded didnt even bother reading the email as it was a generic response. I then asked for a manager to call, nothing. I got an email back saying sorry for your experience, our head of additional needa services will contact you.
Guess what-nothing. I even threatened to contact the CCA to investigate but i am just so upset that they could get away with all this, realistically nothing will be done as they havent bothered to contact me a month later.
What can I do?