Why a certain British Airline is better than a certain local one

A little while ago there was a thread here about a certain British airline. Well I am going to tell you why this airline is better. No their staff are not all young and attractive, no they don't serve amazing food but they do have some consideration for ill health and elderly people.

1. In September I was due to fly with a British airline. I was sick and my doctor advised me I could not fly. I was concerned and therefore contacted the airline as my flight was a miles reward booking and their website were not showing any more availability for months! Not a problem they said. Send us the doctor letter and once you are fit to fly sent us another letter to that effect and we will put you on the next available flight regardless of the fare type. I actually ended up having to change the flight twice, both times I was assisted by a very helpful person who spoke perfect English.

Will the other local airline do this. Not a chance.

2. My grandmother is 89 years old and flying shortly with this local airline. Now BA will move seats around to ensure you is seated in an accessible seat with access tot he toilet. In fact BA hold two rows of accessible seats until the last 48 hours for such instances.

The local airline just advised us they were seating my 89 year old frail grandmother in row 12 of 21 and told her it was near a toilet. The toilets are at each end of the row. Seats 6 and 21 are near toilets, 12 hmm sounds like almost in the middle? Now they want to seat her separately from my mother, her carer. Again does this sound like a good plan.

3. Almost forgot this one. Dealing with the British UK call centre is a blessing. They don't cut you off, if they say they are going to call you back at a certain time they do, if they say they are going to call you on a certain day, they do and if they can't get through they try again until they can. I tried both the UAE and British numbers for this local airline, got cut off three times before being put through to the most uncooperative and unhelpful person on the planet who I could barely understand (this was the UK number).

So which airline is best? Well as with a great many things, the local airline is perhaps glossy on the outside, but scratch the surface...
<em>edited by RuthM on 29/11/2013</em>