As regular readers will know, I can be quite a harsh critic of organisations with poor attitudes to disability.

My policy is three strikes and you are out. I have reached this point with British Airways.

Their motto “we fly to serve” is pretty strong. What they neglect to say is that if you are disabled the service is dreadful.

On each of the three flights I have taken nothing has gone according to plan.

My last trip to Rome was particularly bad.

I am meant to be first on and last off to preserve my dignity.

To get on a plane if you can’t walk means transferring onto a small narrow chair and being strapped in, wheeled down the aisle, unstrapped and lifted into a seat.

It’s pretty grim when it goes well but when it goes badly it’s mortifying.

On this occasion I was left outside the plane while they went looking for the narrow aisle chair. Normally the other passengers are held back until I’m in place. Not this time. People came down asking if they could help me as I was alone and looking confused. Well, they couldn’t. I was sat there like a lemon getting increasingly angry.

Anyway, eventually they find the chair and stop people boarding. So now I have a crowd. I hate moving from my wheelchair to another with others watching. It’s a very private thing and to be exposed made me feel awful.

Then the men assisting me couldn’t work the chair they had found so I was left wobbling and not strapped in while they panicked.

So I’m man-hefted on to the plane.

You can imagine with all this commotion, those already on the plane are watching too.

It was like I was an exercise in how to humiliate a disabled passenger.

When I got to my row there were already people seated in the aisle seat.

They had to get up and move their possessions while I sat there. Then I was greeted by three huge fixed armrests. I had to lift myself over them. It was awful.

Everyone was embarrassed, from the crew, the helpers and the passengers adjacent. I was furious.

Of course I complained and I was greeted with a “sorry the plane was late we had to board it”.

Once on dry land I chased up the complaint, where I got a cursory sorry but it’s not our fault as we don’t deal with disabled passengers it’s a third party. Oh silly me, there was me thinking that booking with BA meant I was choosing them. Pathetic excuse.

There are few things I hate more than passing the buck. I then chased the claim multiple times. I actually had to ask them to call me on multiple occasions as no one actually asked me what happened.

The complaint procedure was robotic and devoid of genuine care. No attempt was made to ask the question “how can we learn from this repeated failure?” (three times remember).

I guess it’s indicative of an organisation that has so many complaints that the personal touch is gone.