Black hearted

I had to phone an airline this weekend.

I hate phoning these people. I've had terrible experiences in the past: like arguing with BA that leaving an elderly woman with no English sitting in a wheelchair for hours in Heathrow, so that she would have missed her flight if she hadn't come across a young Chilean guy who was alarmed that she'd been abandoned, was maybe not a fair reflection of what she'd paid for her flight (a breach of contract, in other words).

I didn't win the argument then and I don't expect I ever will win with these people, and certainly not now that the UK looks to be leaving the EU, because whatever else the EU does it offers some protection from airline companies that just want to make money and b$gger the service.

TodayI wanted to do 2 things: firstly, make sure the airline would accept me as a passenger, given that I am a bit poorly and may need a wheelchair to get me from check-in at 'Glw Int' to the 'bottom of the passenger ramp' (that's what it says on the form they sent me). I was worried that my needs as a (slightly) disabled passenger might be overlooked online. I was assured that would not happen but it was up to me to make sure they knew I coming. I promise you I will kick up several kinds of hell if I get to the flybe check in and discover they're not expecting me.

Secondly, what would the flight cost? Now that's complicated: the airline told me it was best to book online rather than through the call centre because it was cheaper. So what the hell is the point of having a call centre, widely advertised on their website, if the purpose of the call centre is to refer possible passengers back to the website? The woman at the end of the phone didn't answer that but gave me 2 prices: one for booking with the call centre (in other words, paying to speak to a human being) and the other for booking on the website. The difference in prices was about 40 quid. I said I thought this was a pretty poor way to do business. She said little, just that the booking fee if I booked through the call centre was an extr tenner. I gave in and went online. And I will still have to phone to register as a passenger who needs support.

It's pretty horrible, all this. How do hospital patients manage when they are travelling back and forth for treatment from the Hebrides? Twenty years ago, I was the person designated - purely by chance in that I was travelling that day - 'the accompanying adult' for a few (mainly very young) passengers going to Glasgow hospitals for treatment. I was the person who sat beside them on the flight and waited with them till I could see the ambulance people coming to pick them up. Has all that gone? Replaced by the cash culture?

I can only call this what it is. Nasty.