'Degraded' wheelchair user, 15, forced to shuffle up plane stairs after British Airways lost specialist chair

A 15-year-old wheelchair user was forced to shuffle up aeroplane stairs after British Airways lost his specialist chair and spare, describing the ordeal on a £1,500 flight as "frustrating" and "degrading".

Tomas Woods, a champion of wheelchair motocross (WCMX) from Preston, was returning from training in California with his able-bodied coach, Ben Adshead, when he had to "bum shuffle" up the stairs leading to the plane's upper floor because the jet bridge malfunctioned.

The teenager has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which is caused by faults in certain genes that make connective tissue weaker and results in him having chronic pain, joint dislocation, muscle weakness and gastroenterology issues. The incident happened on a British Airways flight from Dallas to London Heathrow on April 1.

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After waiting onboard for two hours, Tomas was informed that his £5,000 specialist wheelchair had been misplaced along with his spare chair in the hold. Left with no choice, he had to use an airport's wheelchair, which he found challenging to manoeuvre himself, received minor assistance during loo breaks between flights, and received no updates about the whereabouts of his wheelchairs.

Once he returned home, he voiced his complaints about the flights and threatened to take his story to the media. It was then that he said the complaints team "as if by magic" located his specialist wheelchair and spare wheelchair and sent them back to him.

Tomas has commended some of the staff members who assisted him during the ordeal, including a cabin crew member who suggested he should be awarded 10,000 Avios flight points. However, he has not received these points, and British Airways have not responded to his complaint.

He has not received any compensation or a response from the airline – but when contacted by PA Real Life British Airways apologised to him for the “unacceptable experience”.

Tomas told PA Real Life: “When we were getting on, they were like, ‘Are you sitting upstairs? Well, the jet bridge is broken. We’re going to have to change your seats, you’re going to have to wait here. You might miss your flight’.

“We didn’t have any other option and didn’t want to miss our flight, so we got on board, and we got the assistance guys to carry the wheelchair to the hold.

“And then I had to bum shuffle up and get in an aisle chair so I could go down to the economy cabin.

“It was pre-board so there was only us and the cabin crew, but it wasn’t brilliant, and obviously it’s a bit degrading, I suppose.

“After you spent £1,500 on a flight, the last thing you want to do is try to climb up a set of stairs – I was very frustrated.”

Tomas began using a wheelchair full-time in 2019. He experiences “daily pain”, meaning he cannot attend school full time and wears braces to protect his ankles and wrists.

Just one year later, he started doing WCMX and in 2023 he came first at the World WCMX Championships in Coachella Valley, California.

“It’s essentially BMX in a wheelchair. If you think of any trick in skateboarding or BMX, I do that but in a wheelchair,” Tomas explained.

“(In the competitions) you get 90 seconds and, in that time, you have an entire skate park to yourself to do whatever you want.

“It’s a bit like synchronised swimming. Basically, you’ve got 90 seconds to do tricks but also something that looks good and flows really well.”

Since winning the competition, Tomas has increased his training, and went to the largest action sports training facility in the world, Woodward West in Stallion Springs, California, with his coach from March 12 to April 1 this year.

After weeks of training, they were due to fly from Bakersfield to Dallas, then to London Heathrow and finally to Manchester – but their flight did not go to plan.

When Tomas was about to get on his British Airways flight from Dallas to Heathrow, he was told the jet bridge was broken so had to “bum shuffle” up the plane’s internal stairs.

In the middle of the flight, Tomas and his coach were upgraded to business class, and both slept through the entire flight comfortably.

However, when they landed in Heathrow, the assistance crew did not arrive to help them, and Tomas and his coach were informed they had not put his specialist wheelchair and spare wheelchair in the hold.

After waiting for another half an hour, Tomas was told his wheelchairs may be lost after they were loaded in the wrong area.

A member of staff went to check arrivals, and Tomas was forced to wait on the plane for two hours.

“A good majority of all of the upper deck crew stayed – they didn’t want to leave until it was sorted,” Tomas explained.

“But we were told my chairs were lost and that we’d have to use the airport chair.

“The airport’s wheelchair is incomparable to mine – my chair has suspension and is sort of built to take anything.

“The airport wheelchair, you can’t push by yourself, you need to be pushed by someone, and it’s awkward to do anything.

“One of the members of the crew, called Joe, was absolutely brilliant – he was ringing people and doing everything he could, and he requested that we both get 10,000 Avios points.”

After finally getting off the plane, the two were forced to sit in pre-customs for 40 minutes as they were not allowed through without a BA customer service representative.

Once they eventually got through and got to the gate for their connecting flight, they had to wait another two hours at the end of the runway as the flight was delayed after British Airways allegedly miscalculated how many passengers would be on board.

After arriving in Manchester, Tomas was planning to get the train home to Preston but could not take the airport’s wheelchair with him and could not push it by himself so had to get his parents to pick him up.

By the next day, Tomas had still not been updated about his wheelchairs so decided to call British Airways.

“They told me they had no clue where they were and they were completely lost … I explained that I was doing a competition on the weekend and needed the chair,” he said.

“After multiple calls I told them I’ll go to the press if I don’t hear any more, and in 20 minutes, it was like the chairs were found as if by magic. They said they had been found and were on their way to me. It turned out they were put on the flight before mine to Manchester.

“Originally, they said I’ll have to wait 21 days and if they were completely lost I could request funds for a new one, but obviously, that doesn’t mean they will respond to the request quickly, then it takes months to build a bespoke wheelchair and ship it.”

“It makes me quite anxious about flying again, I’ve lost confidence – what if it had happened on the way out?

“The trip would be ruined with no way to get around let alone compete.”

Despite retrieving his chairs, British Airways have failed to give Tomas his 10,000 Avios points that the cabin crew offered him and have ignored all his emails regarding compensation.

A spokesperson from British Airways said: “We’re looking into this as a matter of urgency but it’s very clear from our initial investigation that we got this wrong.

“We’re sorry to our customer for the unacceptable experience and don’t underestimate the impact it will have had on him.

“We successfully carry hundreds of thousands of customers who require additional assistance each year and we work hard to provide help and support them throughout their whole journey.

“It’s extremely disheartening when things go wrong but we’re committed to learning from these incidents so we can deliver the best service possible in the future.”