I attended a conference in Portugal with some work colleagues. BA operated the return Porto-London leg and Finnair was to fly us home to Helsinki. The flight from Porto was slightly delayed, leaving us just under an hour to reach the gate for our connection at Heathrow. Passengers were still queuing to board when we arrived. My wife and colleagues checked in without difficulty, but, although we had all arrived together, I was told that BA had changed my ticket for a flight later in the day, as I was late. Finnair was unable to reinstate my original ticket, so the plane departed without me.
I filed a complaint with BA and asked if there was a racial element to the decision to remove me from the flight, as I was the only person of colour in my group and the only passenger denied boarding. I have subsequently asked the same question six times and have only received generic apologies. My question about race has been totally ignored, which I find more disturbing than the airport experience.
PL, Helsinki, Finland
I can see why you are questioning BA’s motives. The airline, in response to one of your complaints, explained briefly that there was a minimum connecting time for passengers arriving at Heathrow and that they were automatically rebooked on to a later flight if they were delayed, but it did not address why you were singled out.
It failed even to mention race in its replies. Moreover, you had to complain via the LGBT option on its complaints portal, as race was not listed in the tick-box menu under the discrimination tab.
The airline told me that if a passenger had less than 60 minutes to make a connecting flight, they would be automatically rebooked on to the next available flight. They should receive notification. You did not. BA reckoned that your colleagues’ tickets were in the process of being transferred when they reached the departures gate and said that, since it was done remotely by an offshore company, ethnicity would not have been a factor.
You accepted this, but questioned why it only addressed your concerns head on after media involvement. And why, if its web form gave the option to complain about discrimination, were “LGBT” and “disability” the only available categories?
BA did not address that omission when I queried it, but the page has since been amended to one catch-all form. As for the automatic rebooking policy, it said it offered “certainty” to passengers. Certainty, that is, that they will miss their connecting flight, even if they make it to the gate in time for boarding.
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