British Airways and Disability Discrimination!!

Tojo_Ralph

Disab wrote: »

BA should follow Eurostars example and give free upgrades to disabled passengers that can demonstrate they would be unable to travel without the upgrade.

Interestingly enough, nobody to date has tried to or been able to do that.

That said, I'd be interested to hear examples of instances where a disabled traveller cannot travel unless upgraded to Business class or higher still?

withabix

Disab wrote: »

Ok. probably wading in way over my head but simply wanted to put in my two pence worth on the issue of whether disabled passengers should be able to expect an upgrade without having paid for it... Yes, I think they should and I don't understand why so many of you find this assumption offensive. An aircraft is a form of public transport and if a disabled passenger needs extra space in order to access public transport then a company should offer it. And at no extra cost. Anything less than this IS discrimination. Of course a disabled passenger that needs extra legroom should have prioirty over frequent flyers. The only reason the disabled passenger isn't a frequent flyer in the first place is because discriminatory and inflexible attitutdes have prevented many of them from flying for so long. BA should follow Eurostars example and give free upgrades to disabled passengers that can demonstrate they would be unable to travel without the upgrade.

Please read the rest of this thread, especially the posts regarding illegal positive discrimination.

Disab_2

Sorry! I'm very new to MSE and I didn't spot the bar at the top with the number of pages to the thread, so I responded to the end of page one rather than the end of page 5... Have now read the other pages with interest. Didn't mean to start it up again.

coolio_2

spender wrote: »

May I just enquire whether your sister had considered paying more when booking for extra leg room seats ie World Traveller Plus. We paid extra for this cabin on a trip to San Francisco and the leg room is considerably more, but we booked and paid when we originally made the booking.

No, because he could get DVT and so they should get bulkhead seats for free :rolleyes:

hammy_the_hammer

coolio wrote: »

No, because he could get DVT and so they should get bulkhead seats for free :rolleyes:

so with the danger of DVT and extra leg room seats not being the guarantee to prevent this ....would the OP be better off not flying ?
i'm also unsure whether the risk of getting DVT would be covered by the DDA

coolio_2

They should get a free upgrade to First

M4RKM

we've discussed this before, in this thread..

if they 100% need extra legroom and cannot sit in an ordinary seat, they should BUY a ticket for a SEAT that gives THEM the LEGROOM they REQUIRE.

its is as plain and simple as that. if you by an ECONOMY ticket, that is what you get!

Sam_Bee

markymoo wrote: »

we've discussed this before, in this thread..

if they 100% need extra legroom and cannot sit in an ordinary seat, they should BUY a ticket for a SEAT that gives THEM the LEGROOM they REQUIRE.

its is as plain and simple as that. if you by an ECONOMY ticket, that is what you get!

Yeh, but what if they're a dwarf?

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

Greta wrote: »

The fact that disabled people cannot reserve seats or rather check in advance (whereby able bodied people can) is in itself a form of indirect discrimination. You end up having to arrive earlier, that uncertainty etc ... whereas there's a form of positive discrimination happening for abled bodied people. Whilst the legroom etc might be standard, there's other benefits including being safe in the knowledge that you will sit together as a family, you actually have a seat (overbooking is common), and you have perhaps that extra hour where you can continue to do the travel thing .. and not just turn up at the airport.

In terms of the expectation of an upgrade, this is more problematic. By default, I don't think it should be there ... however, if one method does not work then this needs to be considered. In the meantime, where is the specific designated accessible seats in cattle class? I don't just mean wheelchair users here, there's other adjustments that airlines could be making.

In terms of the family not being able to sit together, i.e. to cut up food ... yes I do think this is discrimination in its own right.

having worked on check in for various airlines, I am sure online you can reserve a seat, you can not reserve the exit rows as people have explained this is for safety for everyone, I booked a flight ticket the other day and it asked me to choose a seat and also asked me if I needed assistance.

the reason they don't allow online check in is not discrimination, it is so airlines can make sure you are getting the right kind of assitance, you may well have booked a wheelchair, but did you realise there is different codes/needs/etc? the person who has no use of his legs, is different to the older person who cant walk long distances, the difference is the older person can walk down the plane from the aircraft door therefore a regular wheelchair code is entered, the person who cant use their legs, will need to sit in a seat where the arm removes from the chair to enable them to slide from the wheelchair into the seat, likewise for people who cant even do that, there is a life on ambulance service, now all of these have different codes and need different services, the air ambulance for a lift on can take two hours to order hence why online check in isnt the right thing to do, people dont realise this and would just request a regular wheelchair etc.

you ask where are the specific seats? well I can tell you on jet airways a340's it is 56hk....aisle arms come off, it is 2 rows from the toilets etc these are designated wheelchair seats and when controlling the flight the first place to put wheelchair passengers, different airlines have different polices so always put wheelchair users on the aisle, others think hmm an able bodied person would be trapped in an emergency however others think it is better to put them by the window so they wouldnt block, it varies...trust me. If the majority of wheelchair passengers are in a certain row it helps the crew too, if there were such an emergency it is far easier to get them out from certain rows etc.

I believe from the original post they were seated together but chose to sit apart althought having read so many posts now my head is spinning....

those people who looked able bodied may well have had something else wrong, as lots of had said not all disabilties and reasons are shown. I have come across severely phobic people for instance, if you have 10 people who are disabled or have something they feel they need help and understanding for, as a check in agent or even controller of the flight you cant line them all up and put them in order of disabilty can you? there are only so many seats so what are you to do? the fairest way is normally first come first served, just like the bulkheads for infants, if you have for instance 6 infant bulheads but ten babies you do it first come first served.

teenagers in a bulk head...who knows, I know I have had it where there has been a child who is autistic and when scared on landing or turbulance would kick out....that wouldnt be nice to a person in front of them so a bulk head is an ideal place with extra room and no one in front.

dont presume anything!! sometimes you have to take care of yourself before expecting others to. I have problems with mobility and sitting for long periods of time hence why as of recent I havent done long hall, although of course nicer seating would help but I cant afford that so chose to holiday closer to home and use the eurostar where I could walk about etc....

if you dont care for yourself you cant really expect others to fall over themselves when you choose to put yourself in a certain situation really.

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

Greta wrote: »

Okay to turn this on its head, why do families with babies have a right to sit at the front for crib thing? Why can't the baby sit on their knee? They didn't pay for the crib, therefore why should they as much as expect it? Why should I as a person with no children have to contribute a few pennies of my ticket so that (a) crib things are paid for / installed on planes, and (b) such things as baby changing stuff is provided in toilets?

Positive discrimination for families - we can't have that can we? ;-)

On a serious note, if there's that number of disabled people on a plane ... then airlines have a duty to look at solutions for seating allocation. Perhaps that might include a wider seat pitch for all passengers. Sure it would bump up the cost per ticket, but so does other health and safety measures employed.

infants do have a charge, typically 10 per cent of the fare so you could argue that could well go towards paying for a crib and not you paying pennies out of your ticket...having flown british airways and american airlines, having worked for united airlines and flown them with a baby and flown qantas I have never seen baby items in the toilets, only a pull down very small changing table....so no positive discrimination at all

on your serious note, airlines do their duty in my experience. every flight is edited the day before, people who do not have seats pre booked will be seated together if they have booked together to ensure they sit together, and disabled people will be allocated the airline prefered disabled seat...at least having worked for united airlines who used to handle air new zealand, jet airways air china BWIA they always look who is on the flight and booked as wheelchair/infants etc but you always get those who turn up and have not let the airline know and a wheelchair is normally hard to judge as to what issues they may have....people book seats online these days, say they need a wheelchair but do not let the airline always know their specifics.