I have had to remove a couple of posts up thread.

Please can we keep the tone civil and not attack other posters.

Moomba
Moderator: Trip Reports

brwc, my sincere sympathies. Your story is heart wrenching. Whilst there is not much that can be done now to soothe the experience of your wife and daughter's outbound journey, there is something you can do to ensure the return goes more smoothly.

If your wife and daughter are travelling back on BA, please note that as passengers with disabilities or additional needs, they are entitled to preassigned seating from the time of booking. If they do not select seats themselves, BA will allocate suitable seats together three days before departure. This applies to BA operated flights. For BA codeshares you will need to consult with the operating airline.

Heathrow terminal transfers can be demanding on the most frequent and light footed travellers and whilst the minimum transfer time between T3 and T5 is 90 minutes, I would strongly recommend building in a longer and much gentler transfer. Three hours minimum. Whoever it was who booked the 90 minute BA7309 to BA0812 connection deserves a jolly good kick in the goolies. And dear Sir, if it was you, you have my warmest sympathies but you still deserve a jolly good kick in the goolies.

Now that your wife is safely in Denmark, I wish her a gentle and speedy recovery and that you'll be reunited with good health and happiness very soon.

Well said on all fronts. ^ Constructive and helpful, but also pointing out the need for very careful planning in situations like this. The airlines did not cover themselves in glory, but the itinerary planning was also clearly faulty - though I accept there may have been other reasons for this (e.g. may have been the only affordable way to get your wife there in business class).

However, it seems to me that any BA routing from CPH to BNE will be less than ideal given your wife's serious mobility challenges. If it's feasible to change to a one-stop service (on SQ or EK or SK/TG) then I would suggest seriously considering it. Every transit point is a possibility for problems, and a four sector journey from BNE to CPH is a taxing experience even for the able bodied.

Good luck both for the return and for your wife's treatment.

Prospero, excellent post and a wholehearted agreement from me.

brwc, you have my sympathy, and I hope you will have your complaints taken seriously regarding BNE check-in and LHR wheelchair issues. (You need to address any issues up to arrival in LHR to QF, by the way.)

I really recommend not doing LHR-SIN-MEL-BNE on the way back. Any extra connection is best to be avoided, and if you are able to change it, I recommend changing to LHR-SIN-BNE. As you would be well aware as a QF Platinum, domestic sectors are in near-upright seats, and while the seats are sloped on SIN-BNE, the slope does not justify the discomfort involved in a longer flight, an international to domestic connection and a domestic flight. The sloped seat can be made up into a relatively flat seat if you use enough blankets - your daughter should be able to help with this. Given the problems encountered during their outbound, Qantas may consider changing her routing?

May I also add that it is extremely important that your wife carries all her important medications with her in her hand luggage? If the bag is delayed, particularly when involving connecting flights, she could potentially be without her medication for a few days if she has them in her checked baggage. Some medications are difficult to obtain or not available in some countries, and therefore replacing them may prove to be problematic, certainly at a short notice. To me, just one or two days' worth is not quite 'safe enough' when her well-being depends on them.

Good luck with your wife's treatment and with a smoother return journey.

Seems that Emirates would have been a lot better.

Exactly 1 week after lodging a complaint with BA, I received an answer tonight as follows:
It took BA a full week to come back and say sorry we won't discuss it with you without your wife's written permission.

The itinerary was as offered by the online booking engine zuji.com.au (part of Travelocity). No later connections were offered.

On their return trip they arrive at LHR at 9.15am and depart for SYD at 11.05am. That is 110 minutes, but if they need 4 changes of wheelchair and driver again the story will be repeated.

However the LHR experience was considerably worse than the BNE experience, and this was all BA.

Qantas has responded by offering to upgrade my wife and daughter to First Class for the return LHR-SIN-SYD trip.

Meanwhile BA elects just to argue that they can't discuss my wife's travels with me, though they happily took the payment for 2 return business class airfares from me

But did zuji.com.au know of your wife's mobility difficulties?


This seems to me like a very good resolution. ^

I hope your wife's operation is a complete success and justifies the challenges which she's had to overcome.

BA are bound by the Data Protection Act of the UK and are simply sticking to the law. If they were to discuss this with you, then they would be breaking the law in the UK. It is as simple as that.

Yes, your wife has had a terrible experience through parts of her journey, but unless your wife provides permission for BA to discuss and deal with you on her behalf, then it is not going to get anywhere. If you want to take this further with BA, then you need to do that, there is no grey area on this front I am afraid. I understand that your wife may not, at this moment in time, be able to do that, and in that case, it may have to wait till she is in a position to provide permission for this to take place, but it will have to be done. I am afraid it is irrelevant who paid for the ticket, it is the passenger details which are to be discussed here, and that passenger is not you. No way around it I am afraid.

umm, there are many ways around it should BA give it a little thought.

OP should just conference wife in on the call and she can consent to disclosure...

how can BA be off side if the person whose personal information they are supposedly protecting consents to the disclosure.

if OP was to do the same, he would find out pretty fast that BA wants to hide behind this legislation.

sometimes the old adage, sue first settle later is more productive....because everything settles!! But this is coming from a person who does not see legal fees as an impediment to the same.

All I am stating is the requirement for BA to have consent from the Passenger who traveled to discuss and deal with someone else on their behalf and discuss details which are protected under the Data Protection Act in the UK. No need to get so defensive.

By all means, the OP can start legal proceedings if he wishes, and if that is what he decided to do, then best of luck to him and I hope he gets what he would like in terms of apologies and compensation.

Yes daft as it may seem to some that is the legislation that BA have to abide by.....as do all companies,organisations, etc in the UK.
As for finding ways around it.....far too costly and time consuming for a company to be doing that I'm afraid. It's really up to the customer.

i can tell you want BA's answer will be on the phone if OP tries to conference his wife in to consent to disclosure of information by BA to OP directly..."computer says no"!...cough