UKTraveller4Fun

The only part of this I find very confusing is that if they were converting the row from CE which would have 4 passangers to Economy, which would ahve 6 surely if it was while things were changed the other 4 passangers would need holding back also? Surely with FLY if you can issue BP for the the other 4 you can do the same for these two passangers or could it be they needed to record it as a downgrade?

13901

orange1, sorry to hear about your downgrade. I wouldn't say that there is racism or discrimination involved; I'm a white European and I had similar experiences, from GVA, LHR and also LYS. I should point out that in all 3 cases I was an employee on a standby ticket, but with a seat. In all 3 cases there was something wrong with my booking, I'd been re-seated or thrown out of the flight: in all those I was told to make myself sparse and wait; in all cases they spoke to me in French (without so much of a m'sieur) and told the good news afterwards.

The gate agents are contracted and, unless you're lucky and get the (awesome) station manager or the great duty managers (all former BA if memory serves me right) you're left with guys and gals who don't do multitasking.

mctaste

why assume racism and not something less sinister? delaying your boarding protects no one from coronavirus, so that is illogical to assume as the reason.

Krisz

I would think what could happened is the OP checked in online downloaded the boarding pass and they were hand bag only. So the first time ground staff had any contact with them is during boarding. Computer said no. I’m not sure what is the computer setup in GVA but in many outstation they just have one or two computers. When those “set” to boarding they can’t switch to other part to Fly. So ground staff asked them to wait until everyone who had a “proper” boarding pass to board and then they switched the application on one of the PC to fix the OP boarding pass. Once it was done they could board the flight. Probably other people who were similarly had this issue were checked in bags or picked up boarding passes at check in so those issues were solved there.
I don’t think there was any discrimination, though I’m not sure why ground staff couldn’t explain this better.

nmpls

BA may not be a racist company, but that doesn't mean that BA doesn't have racist employees. All airlines have racist employees, and they all seem to come out of the woodwork when something comes out. My large employer, who I'd argue is not racist, just had to send out a "don't be racist about coronavirus you jerks" email, likely due to some isolated incidents. "Our company isn't racist" isn't a good argument when your company is made up of more than 1 person and particularly when you have thousands of employees and contractors.
That said, nothing here strikes me as motivated by race or coronavirus, but operational reasons. OP should seek and should get compensation.

orange1

I avoided the word racism as you rightly called out it is more sinister, instead I used discrimination just to call out the different treatment received. Unsure the reason why we were specifically singled out of 8-12 downgraded passengers but this has never happened before on any other BA flight or other airline flight before.

Can I help you

Of course you are correct but I do not believe this was the case in this instance.

mctaste

“discrimination because we are east asian” is equivalent to “racism”. you assumed it was because of race...

there was a good possible explanation a few posts back!

orange1

Would have been great to get a clear explanation like the one above. Unfortunately we checked online and at the airport and had checked baggage. Any clarification would have gone a long way. Unfortunately we got none other than we needed to wait after everyone else was on and we weren't in the system. Mind you, this was even before checking/scanning our tickets.

Can I help you

As I have said there was a reason for this but I believe it was an operational problem but we never know, please accept my apologies on behalf of the BA staff.

Flythe96flag

On the contrary, it is wholly logical if indeed a prejudicially driven action. It may not protect anyone from the virus, but would very much empower an agent in their prejudicial views.

Confus

Very likely. In BRU for example there’s a central podium where issues can be sorted out as it’s not used for main boarding. I don’t know GVA but many airports with smaller gate areas won’t have the ability to do this. They could be politer about it... but not everywhere has the same cultural expectations, and let’s not forget they’re under pressure to get everyone boarded by a certain time.

Thepi

This has already been debunked by the OP already, he checked in at the airport. It sounds like a clear case of discrimination to me. I have no doubt BA is a diverse company (except the board of course ), but that doesn't mean it might not have a few bad apples. When it comes to discrimination I like to fight fire with fire and would have had a fake coughing fit all over the gate agent...

giporlos

"Mind you, this was even before checking/scanning our tickets." To be clear... are you saying they didn't even know who you were, what your names were, and what class you were booked for when they told you to step aside? If thats the case, then let's stop dancing on the head of a pin and figure out why in the world these folks were treated like this... no excuses. If this is not the case... then OP, you need to be more clear if you are going to make such statements. Not drawing conclusions either way here, but would like to know if this is pure and simple discrimination, or just coincidental happenstance.

golfmad

It certainly is not 'clear' so while you may jump to that conclusion it's not possible to justify it.