Gay couple 'humiliated' by airline staff

15 Nov 2006- A gay couple from Kloof, Durban, has lodged an Equality Court complaint against British Airways, claiming that staff at the international airline had done "everything in their power" to stop them sitting together, and alone, on a flight from Johannesburg to London.

Garrit Brown, 21, a commission agent, and his partner, Cecil Pickard, an IT specialist, claim they were barred from sitting alone together on the flight "as though we were like animals that needed a guardian, in this case another passenger, to keep an eye on us so that we wouldn't do anything deemed unacceptable in heterosexual society".

They are each demanding R80 000 in damages and an "acceptable public apology" from the airline.

But the airline says it has done nothing wrong, that the allegations were unfounded and that staff dealing with the two men at the time of the incident did not even know they were gay.

In affidavits lodged with the Kempton Park Equality Court, Brown and Pickard said they had booked flights to travel to London on March 27 this year.

They had inquired at Durban International Airport about sitting together and alone on the international leg of the flight, but had been told it was not possible to guarantee that in economy class.

"It became evident that we needed to upgrade ourselves to business class or world traveller, and we made further inquiries about this. We were told we could only do the upgrade in Johannesburg and that there were seats available should we wish to do this."

However, airline staff in Johannesburg told them that their tickets - for which they had paid R20 000 - could not be upgraded. They would have to purchase entirely new ones and forfeit the original ones.

"At this stage, it became abundantly clear that the staff of British Airways were doing everything in their power not to have us sit alone together. In the light of the recent progress homosexuals have made in terms of equal rights, we were insulted by this revelation.

"We had approached the ticket counter holding hands, and I had explained that this was our first trip together, we wanted to share the experience and we wanted to sit together alone.

"We are comfortable about our sexuality and refer to each other as boyfriends."

They said they had felt humiliated, degraded and as though their money was tainted. In a separate affidavit, Reema Rughnandan, a Durban attorney, said in June this year - three months after the incident - she had telephoned the British Airways call centre, where a staff member had confirmed that the tickets purchased by Pickard and Brown were upgradeable.

In response, Daniel Swarts, British Airways Operations Manager, said the two men had purchased discounted tickets that could only be upgraded at the airline's main offices, and not at the satellite office at Johannesburg's Oliver Tambo International Airport.

He described such tickets as "net remit" tickets and said they were purchased from travel agents who received a rebate from the airline. It was up to the agent to decide how much of the rebate would be passed on to the customer.

"If someone wants to upgrade such a ticket, it is necessary to determine how much the passenger actually paid for it, which was a fairly complex task.

"Our staff at the airport has been instructed not to upgrade net remit tickets because of potential errors occurring," Swarts said.

He said if Pickard and Brown had wanted to sit together, they should have arranged this when they booked the tickets.

Regarding the allegation that the two men had been holding hands, he said the counter at the airport was chest-high and there was no way the staff member concerned would have seen it.

He said the appropriate forum for the complaint to be aired was the high court.

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