Last week I went off on a long (but entirely truthful) rant about traveling as a disabled person. Or, in the case of Mrs Steve (pictured) and myself, two disabled people. TL;DR it sucks. We are almost always treated as ‘other’, a problem, a nuisance. This blog post will have rather more meaning if (assuming you haven’t already) you take a couple of minutes to read the earlier one.
In this week’s exciting episode we bring you British Airways (alleged) Customer Service not getting back to us after more than a week. Mrs Steve’s new power chair (Alber Erivo R10) is airline and TSA approved, but it is always wise to check up on these things. So we’d sent them exact details of the chair, especially of the battery capacity and asked for confirmation that it was okay for her to fly with it. After ten days we gave up and called them. All is well, but it is always at the pilot’s discretion, so you can (and it has happened, as a quick Google will show) be refused boarding at the aircraft door.
A few days after that, they also responded to our original email, noting that we had been dealt with by phone. No apology for the almost two-week delay. I know I’m at best naive and and worst bloody foolish for wanting a good customer experience. Anywhere, really. It’s almost completely absent from this bean-counting world in my experience.
I know… there ain’t no fool like an old fool and I’m old.
