Fitch

I think discussion of contracts and legalities risks missing the bigger picture.

BA's agents at SJC made a bad call.

OP contacted YouFirst and told them what happened.

At this point in any decent organisation, a switched-on manager would have recognised the horrible optics of ignoring a passenger with a disability traveling in First back to the home base and would have kicked butt to make sure OP had the best possible experience from then on...

You may draw your own conclusions as to my opinion of BA as a decent organisation...

skywardhunter

Should we jump into the common law rabbit hole and take a look at contract law? I'm not a lawyer (sorry saying IANAL just seems rude to myself ), but from the law courses I remember that I've taken a binding contract exists where there is offer and acceptance. One could argue that BA's advertisement of wheelchair service and ability to book on their website comprises an advertisement. A customer's submission of this form constitutes an offer and BA's confirmation would be acceptance. Thus a contract exists, at no point is a third party involved, unless there are specific terms (there may be) indicating such attached to the advertisement/offer.

Basically, if there are no such terms, the customer has a contract with BA, how BA fufils the contract (i.e. through HAL) is irrelevant.

HilFly

Surely BA can provide special services assistance to any passenger they choose. The fact that a passenger is in a wheelchair should not prevent that. BA can treat any passenger as a VIP. I'm sure an elite or two could manage to get from the gate to baggage reclaim on their own for once while special services assisted the OP.

simons1

I would honestly be surprised if there was no channel for airlines to provide feedback on the service provided. Such as via the CAA who are responsible for enforcing disability regulations in the UK. Or the Heathrow Access Advisory Group of which BA is a member.

EsherFlyer

That's partly why I asked above whether the CAA has to be the prosecuting authority for things like breach of Article 11. Given other comments about CAA's focus on this it seems to be creeping into judicial review or similar territory of whether they are exercising the diligence that Parliament perhaps expected of them.

Deniedboardinghelp

I think this general discussion of disability services at airports and their provision could be useful to some readers, but is perhaps slightly off topic in my case.

To clarify, I was not expecting the wheelchair service provided by Heathrow to help with my luggage as this has never been part of their service previously in my experience (whether it is supposed to be is a separate issue).

In my contact with You First I had asked that, given I was travelling alone because of the actions of BA, they ask if I could be given the service provided by what I understand is now called "The Concorde team". In particular the following:
"You will also be able take advantage of our baggage assistance service on arrival at Terminal 5. We’ll collect your baggage from the carousel and deliver it to you personally so that you can clear Customs and make your way out of the airport"

Quoted from: BA - The Club - A new mission for Special Services

They did request this and the response was that it couldn't be guaranteed as the team was small.

To be clear, I would not expect BA to provide this service to disabled passengers under normal circumstances as it is clearly designed for VIPs, but as expressed in some people's comments here before my flight, under my specific circumstances it seemed reasonable that BA might want to make my journey home as easy as possible.

dewidaniels

Heathrow's own website claims that "Luggage Assistance can be arranged for you free of charge for reasonable amounts of luggage". My understanding is that they are legally obliged to provide assistance, free of charge.

https://www.heathrow.com/airport-gui...ssistance-faqs

It seems to me that you have two grounds for complaint:

1. British Airways did not give you priority in accordance with EC 261/2004 Article 11, nor did they notify you of your right to care. It seems to me that they prioritised couples travelling in First over a solo passenger with reduced mobility or special needs travelling in First.

EUR-Lex - 32004R0261 - EN

2. Heathrow Airport did not provide you with adequate assistance in accordance with EC 1107/2006. Dumping you in the baggage hall is not acceptable. Specifically, EC 1107/2006 states that you should have been provided with assistance, free of charge, to proceed from the aircraft to the baggage hall and retrieve baggage, with completion of immigration and customs procedures, and to proceed from the baggage hall to a designated point. This assistance should be organised so as to avoid interruption and delay.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-cont...lex:32006R1107

simons1

To manage expectations, the thread on this suggested it was really just someone lifting the bags off the carousel.

NEW TRIAL - Manual handling of FIRST hold baggage at arrival

dewidaniels

I think this is the single most helpful piece of advice to emerge from this whole sorry tale. I hope it will help some future passenger.

https://airconsumer.dot.gov/guide/mod4/CRO.html

IAN-UK

To be honest, I don't envisage BA getting their hands dirty. But what is reasonable to expect is that where PRM service falls down, and the airline knows it has fallen down, then someone should call or grab an airport manager and use charm or threat to get some action.

And in the case under discussion BA really, really should have been on the ball, making sure the OP was looked after. They should do as they promise, and make sure passengers who require special assistance are looked after.

Hiding behind a "not our job Guv" excuse is shameful.

Deniedboardinghelp

To keep you all updated: I am still waiting for the response from customer relations. I tried to call them to ask if there had been any progress, but the phone line has a recorded message saying that customer relations are particularly busy at the moment and can't answer calls and then it just automatically hangs up on you. I plan to give them another few days to respond and if I haven't heard anything from them will then escalate this.

simons1

And this for a first class passenger. Unbelievable. Perhaps this is the new 'quality' that Cruz is talking about.

NickB

Can you provide any authority to support this assertion? AFAIK, there is a statutory responsibility on airports to provide assistance to disabled passengers but I am not aware of any provision that states that airlines are not allowed to provide (on a voluntary basis of course) a service to disabled passengers going over and beyond their own statutory obligations and that establishes a legal monopoly to airports for the provision of any assistance to passengers within an airport. I would therefore very much appreciate being enlightened and have the gaps in my knowledge and understanding corrected.

tom tulpe

Of course he's wrong. Airport operators are responsible, but there is nothing in the law that prohibits airlines to provide assistance to their customers as well, as long as they continue to pay the airport operator for its services. As an aside, apparently these services have to be paid whether or not they are actually provided, but then again (as is often the case) a piece of EU legislation in the hands of UK civil servants implementing it can lead to funny results. "Funny" meaning that you get to see a real-life performance of "Yes Minister" close-up, not in the sense that it's funny to any real person or business exposed to it.

BA do in fact have a team that provides services to arriving and departing passengers at LHR: It's called special services, and was unavailable to OP, because they were otherwise busy (read: there was a popstar/royal/CIP to look after).

LTN Phobia

Regarding airport assistance, could it have more to do with the risk of being sued if something goes wrong while providing services beyond what's legally required?