A Disabled Traveler Was Stranded At The Aiport As a result of The Airline Forgot To Put The Wheelchair On The Aircraft

For all the effort and price related to flying, you’ll assume the airways would be capable of accomplish the naked minimal of getting passengers and their baggage to the vacation spot on the similar time. A disabled traveler was stranded on the airport for hours as a result of their wheelchair one way or the other didn’t make it on the aircraft.

Insider reported Xavi Santiago’s ordeal once they flew from Los Angeles to Orlando. Xavi initially booked a direct flight from LA to Orlando on account of earlier expertise on how airways deal with disabled vacationers, however the flight was adjusted to incorporate a layover in Miami. That’s when the method began to go awry.

Santiago stated that on that connecting flight she was unable to pre-board which is usually the protocol for folk with mobility points.

“That’s all the time the way it goes, I pre-board, I get transferred whereas the aircraft remains to be empty or whereas different disabled folks or different people who find themselves pre-boarding are nonetheless getting on…That didn’t occur. There was no wheelchair attendant or accessible attendant to get me into the switch seat.”

As soon as Santiago arrived in Miami the airline knowledgeable them that the wheelchair didn’t make it onto the connecting flight. Santiago was apprehensive that the $22,000 electrical energy chair was misplaced or would present up broken.

“I used to be satisfied that it was not going to make it on the flight and that if I received it again, it was going to be broken. Simply with how many individuals advised me that they hadn’t seen my chair,”

These fears should not unfounded, as airways wouldn’t have the very best observe file of safely dealing with mobility units. This yr a passenger had not one, however two costly chairs have been damaged inside a month after flying American Airways. And I’ve written about my very own expertise with an airline breaking my spouse’s wheelchair.

Regardless that the airline provided a loaner chair, Santiago couldn’t depart the airport and was caught there for 5 hours till the chair confirmed up. Whereas Santiago’s ordeal may have been worse it may even have been simply prevented.

“I couldn’t depart the airport. It was actually tough for me to get moved and go to the lavatory, onerous for me to switch out and in as a result of the chair isn’t my very own. It’s not made to fulfill my wants…I used to be simply uncomfortable and caught there for a number of, and it was terrible.”

American Airways provided a $300 journey voucher, however Santiago doesn’t wish to fly American once more.

“Whereas there is part of me that wishes to make use of the naked minimal of what they’ll give me, I barely wish to fly once more…I actually don’t assume I’ll ever fly with American Airways, and I positive as hell am by no means going to the Miami airport once more.”

A Division of Transportation report revealed in July revealed that US airways noticed a 108% enhance in complaints from flyers with disabilities, from 76 in Could 2019 to 158 in the identical month this yr.

It looks as if the one method airways will take higher care of disabled vacationers is that if there are up to date rules mandating them to take action.