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A 15-year-old wheelchair person was pressured to shuffle up a flight of stairs after a jet bridge broke and British Airways misplaced his specialist chair and spare.
Tomas Woods, a wheelchair motocross (WCMX) world champion from Preston, was on his means again from California the place he was coaching together with his coach, Ben Adshead, who’s able-bodied, when he was made to “bum shuffle” up the inner steps resulting in the higher flooring of the aircraft because the jet bridge was damaged.
The 15-year-old has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which is brought on by faults in sure genes that make connective tissue weaker and ends in him having persistent ache, joint dislocation, muscle weak spot and gastroenterology points.
The expertise on a British Airways flight from Dallas to Heathrow on April 1 2024, made Tomas “very pissed off” – particularly when he was knowledgeable after a two-hour wait onboard that his £5,000 specialist wheelchair used when boarding was misplaced and so they additionally couldn’t find his spare wheelchair within the maintain.
He mentioned he was then pressured to make use of an airport wheelchair, which he couldn’t push himself, obtained little assist when going to the bathroom between flights and was not up to date about his chairs’ whereabouts.
As soon as he obtained residence, he complained concerning the flights and threatened to go to the press – at this level he mentioned the complaints crew then “as if by magic” discovered his specialist wheelchair and spare wheelchair and posted them again to him.
Tomas has praised some members of employees who helped him throughout the ordeal together with a member of the cabin crew who requested he ought to be transferred 10,000 Avios flight factors, however he has not obtained them, and British Airways have failed to answer his criticism.
He has not obtained any compensation or a response from the airline – however when contacted by PA Actual Life British Airways apologised to him for the “unacceptable expertise”.
Tomas mentioned “Once we have been getting on, they have been like, ‘Are you sitting upstairs? Effectively, the jet bridge is damaged. We’re going to have to vary your seats, you’re going to have to attend right here. You would possibly miss your flight’.
“We didn’t have another choice and didn’t need to miss our flight, so we obtained on board, and we obtained the help guys to hold the wheelchair to the maintain.
“After which I needed to bum shuffle up and get in an aisle chair so I might go all the way down to the financial system cabin.
“It was pre-board so there was solely us and the cabin crew, however it wasn’t good, and clearly it’s a bit degrading, I suppose.
“After you spent £1,500 on a flight, the very last thing you need to do is attempt to climb up a set of stairs – I used to be very pissed off.”
Tomas started utilizing a wheelchair full-time in 2019. He experiences “every day ache”, that means he can not attend college full time and wears braces to guard his ankles and wrists.
Only one 12 months later, he began doing WCMX and in 2023 he got here first on the World WCMX Championships in Coachella Valley, California.
Since profitable the competitors, Tomas has elevated his coaching, and went to the biggest motion sports activities coaching facility on the earth, Woodward West in Stallion Springs, California, together with his coach from March 12 to April 1 this 12 months.
After weeks of coaching, they have been as a consequence of fly from Bakersfield to Dallas, then to London Heathrow and eventually to Manchester – however their flight didn’t go to plan.
When Tomas was about to get on his British Airways flight from Dallas to Heathrow, he was advised the jet bridge was damaged so needed to “bum shuffle” up the aircraft’s inside stairs.
In the midst of the flight, Tomas and his coach have been upgraded to enterprise class, and each slept via your entire flight comfortably.
Nevertheless, once they landed in Heathrow, the help crew didn’t arrive to assist them, and Tomas and his coach have been knowledgeable that they had not put his specialist wheelchair and spare wheelchair within the maintain.
After ready for an additional half an hour, Tomas was advised his wheelchairs could also be misplaced after they have been loaded within the mistaken space.
A member of employees went to examine arrivals, and Tomas was pressured to attend on the aircraft for 2 hours.
“An excellent majority of all the higher deck crew stayed – they didn’t need to depart till it was sorted,” Tomas defined.
“However we have been advised my chairs have been misplaced and that we’d have to make use of the airport chair.
“The airport’s wheelchair is incomparable to mine – my chair has suspension and is form of constructed to take something.
“The airport wheelchair, you may’t push by your self, it’s good to be pushed by somebody, and it’s awkward to do something.
“One of many members of the crew, known as Joe, was completely good – he was ringing folks and doing every thing he might, and he requested that we each get 10,000 Avios factors.”
After lastly getting off the aircraft, the 2 have been pressured to take a seat in pre-customs for 40 minutes as they weren’t allowed via with out a BA customer support consultant.
As soon as they finally obtained via and obtained to the gate for his or her connecting flight, they needed to wait one other two hours on the finish of the runway because the flight was delayed after British Airways allegedly miscalculated what number of passengers could be on board.
After arriving in Manchester, Tomas was planning to get the practice residence to Preston however couldn’t take the airport’s wheelchair with him and couldn’t push it by himself so needed to get his dad and mom to select him up.
By the subsequent day, Tomas had nonetheless not been up to date about his wheelchairs so determined to name British Airways.
Regardless of retrieving his chairs, British Airways have failed to offer Tomas his 10,000 Avios factors that the cabin crew provided him and have ignored all his emails relating to compensation.
A spokesperson from British Airways mentioned: “We’re wanting into this as a matter of urgency however it’s very clear from our preliminary investigation that we obtained this mistaken.
“We’re sorry to our buyer for the unacceptable expertise and don’t underestimate the impression it is going to have had on him.
“We efficiently carry lots of of hundreds of consumers who require further help annually and we work onerous to supply assist and assist them all through their entire journey.
“It’s extraordinarily disheartening when issues go mistaken however we’re dedicated to studying from these incidents so we are able to ship the perfect service potential sooner or later.”
