Is there any financial recourse for British Airways' lack of compassion?

Lolzheart

My 27-year-old son was, without prior warning, refused British Airways boarding on a Cancun-LGW flight in March because, on the outward flight he had gotten extremely upset - (<-- this young man has undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome and went through school-life with Special Educational Needs' certification) because airline staff showed zero-concern about yellow liquid dripping on his head, face, shoulders, lap and clothes from some purported airplane condensation. No-one else appeared to be experiencing this deluge and no offer was made to move him from his seat on the partially-full flight.

As well as becoming emotionally out-of-the-window and losing his already-paid British Airways return-flight expense, he then had to pay an extra £1,000 to fly Cancun-Rome-LGW to pick up his car to drive home, arriving 31 hours later than originally planned.

After he recovered and contacted British Airways, describing his condition and the aforementioned consternation, the company apologised, rewarded him with 1,000 Avios points, then officially banned him with immediate effect from flying with their airline for 12 months.

My son's insurance company have notified him that there is a 56-day wait until he finds out whether any financial compensation is due.

Voyager2002

Were you present on the outbound flight? Is there any video or other evidence about what happened?

Airlines obviously have a right to refuse carriage to disruptive passengers. However, it sounds as if they over-reacted and did not do things properly, while the fact that they apologised would tend to put them in the wrong legally. The law prescribes a fairly hefty financial penalty to airlines that deny boarding, and of course under these circumstances they are obliged to pay the cost of alternative transport.

Lolzheart

Thanks for your response: I wasn't present on the outbound flight and I'm not sure my son has video footage of the incident (which went on for several hours) though I know he took photos of the condition of his clothes.

Voyager2002

Lolzheart said:

Thanks for your response: I wasn't present on the outbound flight and I'm not sure my son has video footage of the incident (which went on for several hours) though I know he took photos of the condition of his clothes.

So he travelled alone?

Anyway, if there is anything visible on his clothes that would indicate that he had good reason to be concerned and expect the cabin crew to do something. However, that would not justify something like punching the captain or anything else so extreme as to endanger the aircraft. Extreme behaviour by a passenger does rightly lead to a travel ban.

Even if a passenger misbehaves and is rightly banned, the airline should inform the passenger at the time rather than simply refusing carriage at a future date. Since he was "officially banned" after complaining, that does suggest that he had not been banned at the time when he was refused boarding, and so he is due compensation for denied boarding plus the cost of his journey home. 

I suspect that you will need to issue court proceedings in order to get anywhere with this.

DullGreyGuy

Lolzheart said:

Thanks for your response: I wasn't present on the outbound flight and I'm not sure my son has video footage of the incident (which went on for several hours) though I know he took photos of the condition of his clothes.

So as far as you know he may have been disruptive and unreasonable and so potentially being banned from flying the airline was a much lesser outcome than potentially being arrested and spending time in a Mexican jail?

Based on the airlines decision and no evidence to the contrary the insurance claim will be declined. Insurers dont payout for customers that are disruptive or drunk etc and so get banned from flying as its considered a self inflicted issue and not one of the insured perils 

[Deleted User]

Can you post the photos of his clothes?

If court is needed then you can use Small Claims Court.

eDicky

Was there anything to prevent him from moving to another seat..?

Westin

It would be unusual for an airline to deny return travel and also subsequently ban a customer from all future travel on their airline for a period of time without what they feel is a valid reason.

silvercar

The BA board of the flyertalk forum would give you loads of advice from BA frequent flyers. 

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/

Archergirl

You said it was a 'partially full flight' so he could surely of just sat somewhere else. 
I have had drips from condensation before but it was not yellow just water.

NoodleDoodleMan

"this young man has undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome and went through school-life with Special Educational Needs' certification"

They say there is no such thing as a stupid question - I may prove that wrong.

Can a medical issue be undiagnosed yet identified ?

Should 'has' not be replaced by 'had' if the condition is formally recognised ?