reasonable adjustments ? flight cancelled

Aylesbury_Duck

mrsshadow said:

So it’s a package holiday and yes we wouldn’t consider Gatwick due to her risk of running off and getting dis regulated. We would move dates yet they say we can’t because we would lose the free place offer. And then have to pay the full week of the child’s place ontop. 

In regard to change arising we would have to cope with that at the time, yet 10 months away is time for the package company to make reasonable adjustments in line with the equality act. 

Yet they are not considering any alternative or adjustments to the normal protocol of options and this is wrong under the equality act area that covers disability. 

In regard to what we want or need, any individual that understands having a child with a challenging disability will understand that standard procedures do not cut it lawfully and this is why we have discrimination laws. 

I get the offering sounds all good but this is not reasonable for a child such as ours. 

I sympathise with your situation but you cannot lawfully force the airline to run a flight from a specific airport at a specific time.  That's unreasonable.

la531983

I suspect no judge in the land would agree with the premise that the Equality Act means someone can't fly from Gatwick and they can only fly from Southend (as an example)

Keep_pedalling

Have you check out the special assistance pages on the Gatwick Airport pages? They provide things like dedicated seating areas with the ability to bypass the duty free area.  Might be worth giving them a call to see what they can offer your family.

https://www.gatwickairport.com/passenger-guides/special-assistance.html

Flugelhorn

Keep_pedalling said:

Have you check out the special assistance pages on the Gatwick Airport pages? They provide things like dedicated seating areas with the ability to bypass the duty free area.  Might be worth giving them a call to see what they can offer your family.

https://www.gatwickairport.com/passenger-guides/special-assistance.html

these things are always worth a try - when the iceland volcano stopped all flights, we had some older relatives who had to get a train instead, GWR were very helpful - met at connecting station and assisted with luggage and driven to next platform - also when kids were young and flight delayed at a european airport we used the childrens zone, marvellous staff, quiet, no risk of children running off - helpful staff kept eye on flight times and made sure all the toys were available, crayons sharpened, paper pile replenished, coffee machine  working for flaked out parents ... and they spoke english 

silvercar

mrsshadow said:

. 

In regard to change arising we would have to cope with that at the time, yet 10 months away is time for the package company to make reasonable adjustments in line with the equality act. 

Fourth, we could cancel and get a refund, but we’ve been preparing her for months with social stories, and changing now would cause huge distress.

I don't see how a change 10 months in advance would cause distress. Surely you just stop talking about the holiday until it forgotten about.

I don't know what reasonable adjustments you would like. Obviously rescheduling a cancelled flight is not going to happen and would not be "reasonable". So what adjustments are you asking them to make?

Here is the government guidelines for aviation reasonable adjustments:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rights-of-disabled-passengers-on-transport#aviation

Nothing about costs, so that would be for you to negotiate if you can, the provider isn't obliged to offer a discount on the new price. So we are back to asking you what adjustments you would want. 

saajan_12

mrsshadow said:

In regard to what we want or need, any individual that understands having a child with a challenging disability will understand that standard procedures do not cut it lawfully and this is why we have discrimination laws. 

I get the offering sounds all good but this is not reasonable for a child such as ours. 

That's still very general - what specific solutions are you expecting the company to offer that you would consider in line with discrimination laws? Ideally a few options as some may be more or less costly to the company and hence unreasonable. 

grassmarket

Unreasonable? Seems to be a bit of that on both sides here! 

1. Different dates + same airport/hotel: is that your preferred option? You didn’t choose those dates & you say it’s a package, so surely the tour operator should simply waive any extra costs that would otherwise apply? If they continue to refuse - complain & escalate to the right bodies eg ABTA. 

If that fails, the next best seems to be:

2. Different airport + same hotel/dates: the gov.uk guidelines above do seem to address your kind of needs. 

It would be down to you to work with Gatwick to provide the specific adjustments you need to reduce the risk of ‘dysregulation’.
And it would be reasonable for them to expect you to take responsibility for ensuring she doesn’t run off (if that’s what you mean by ‘flight risk’). 

For example, how would you cope if you had to take her to another large place - like a hospital? 

I don’t think any dispute resolution service like ADR would consider it reasonable of you to refuse to ever go near a large airport. 

For example - what would you do in an emergency, if your return flights got moved to a different, larger airport?

DeathByFluffy

elsien said:

I think you are misunderstanding the scope of the equality act in these circumstances.
They don’t have to offer you something that is not available, and the holiday you want on a different date but a similar price is not available.
And while I do understand the difficulties of having a child who gets dysregulated very easily, it’s not logical to say you would have to cope with change if it happened but you can’t cope with it with eight months planning.

This is the correct answer - OP, what you're expecting just isn't reasonable I'm afraid. 
They've offered you all they have to, and I honestly don't think you'll get anything more (nor do they have to offer it). 

TELLIT01

I sympathise with the OPs situation and problems, but they are precisely that THEIR problems.  All the tour operator can do is provide practical alternatives to the original package.  If none suit the requirements of the OP then will have to accept a refund.

Grumpy_chap

mrsshadow said:

We would move dates yet they say we can’t because we would lose the free place offer. And then have to pay the full week of the child’s place ontop. 

As I understand it, the travel company do not say "you can't move dates" as that is an offer that has been made available to you.
What you don't like about that change is the cost-penalty.

Perhaps, your stance that everything is unacceptable is what is contributing to the stubborn-ness of the provider:

Mands said:

From what you have said they have offered:

* A full refund, which is unacceptable
* Same flights and hotel but different dates, which is unacceptable
* Same flights and dates but different hotel, which is unacceptable 
* Same dates and hotel but different flights, which is unacceptable 

What outcome would you like here? 

What the OP now seems to be saying is that they want the second of those options:
* Same flights and hotel but different dates
BUT without the cost penalty that currently seems to be the issue.
Perhaps the way forward would be to understand and seek to negotiate the desired outcome and not suffer the cost penalty:
 - Polite discussion around the cost penalty being mitigated / (partly) absorbed by the travel provider because this is a change not of your making
 - Discussion about what alternative dates are possible and the range of dates where the free child place is available.  I can't imagine the free child place was only available for one specific week.  I also can't imagine that the free child place will be available every week if either peak school holiday or very low season when the venue might be adult-only

The OP may not realise it but their tone in this thread comes across very protagonistic and entitled, very much waving the "equality" flag and demanding.  If that same tone is used in discussions with call-centre staff it may not get them onside to work to find the best compromise solution.
In fact, some of the OP's comments almost leave the reader feeling that the OP is demanding the cancelled flight is reinstated just for them, which is obviously never going to happen.