Yahoo News Paralympian furious after British Airways fail to provide wheelchair and crew 'ignore' husband'
Eleven-time Paralympic gold medallist Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson has accused British Airways of ‘ableism’ after claiming a flight crew ‘ignored’ her husband.
Lady Thompson, who is now Chancellor of Northumbria University, hit out at the airline on Twitter over the treatment of her husband Ian who was flying home from Italy.
Mr Thompson, who also uses a wheelchair, had been told his chair would be waiting for him at the gate on arrival into the UK.
However, following a series of blunders Mr Thompson was forced to get onto the transport bus before being asked to use an unfitted airport wheelchair until his own could be collected at the baggage reclaim.
But when he reached the area he found the crew ignored him, and instead spoke to his colleagues because they thought he ‘didn’t understand’.
OK @British_Airways this is going to be a long thread. An official complaint is going in. Incident was my husband flying back from Italy yesterday. As he got on plane he asked if chair would be at the gate. Cabin attendant said yes. Had a gate tag on.
— Tanni Grey-Thompson (@Tanni_GT) April 29, 2019
In a Tweet Lady Thompson said: “I believe this is poor service in itself. Ian was told that he’d been allocated a code about his impairment which turns out to be the wrong one. Ian eventually gets to baggage claim to find crew talkig to his work colleagues. Crew then leave without talking to him.
“Ian later finds out that crew were talking to his colleagues because they believed he didn’t understand what they were talking to him about. I don’t say FFS on twitter very often. But seriously British Airways.
Read more from Yahoo News UK:
Inspiration for Winnie the Pooh’s 100 Acre Wood on fire
Nigel Farage tells US audience Oldham has streets split by race
Met Office says no bank holiday heatwave
“This is now my personal opinion. Why would staff go and talk to some other random people who happen to be travelling with him. Is it because they are non disabled?This is beyond patronising. Was it to ask ‘Does he take sugar?’ Patronising disability treatment.”
She added: “Stop treating disabled people like they have no value. BA used to be an airline that you could trust to fly with. Not sure that’s true any more.”
Lady Grey-Thompson was named as one of the most inspirational sporting figures in the BBC Icons series being placed as runner-up in her category, second to boxer Muhammad Ali.
She has been married to her husband for 20 years, the couple have one daughter.
A British Airways spokesman said: “We are taking this very seriously and have asked for the customer's booking details so we can investigate as a matter of urgency.
“We carry hundreds of thousands of customers with disabilities each year and we work hard to provide help and assistance throughout the whole journey, from the point of booking to the final arrival.”
