Airport Special Assistance - Share experiences and maybe campaign for change

Imnoexpert_2

I have just returned from holiday and am fed up with Special Assistance.

It will help me and maybe others if we have a forum to vent in, and who knows it may shame the airports and tour operators.  Maybe there is a more effective way we can change this?

I have a disability. I can walk ok but don't do stairs well and find standing for a prolonged period difficult (queuing). Special Assistance in a wheelchair is a real help and when it works is wonderful. The staff who do it are usually OK even at worst but usually lovely. In the past I have endured delays stoically, even tolerated the passenger who complained that I had been moved to the front of the queue ahead of her (delaying her by 2 minutes getting into the departure lounge where we would both be spending a couple of hours).

This holiday was even worse than normal with 2 offloads at Birmingham airport and transport to an airport hotel due to a cancelled flight. We are always the last to get off the plane, sometimes delayed up to an hour (incidentally the cabin crew can't leave till we do) and usually at least half an hour. This time we were taken outside the airport at 12.30 ish at night in our summer clothes for a coach which had already left with the other passengers. No TUI rep to tell our Special Assistance Staff where we were going to how we could get there.

During the holiday a passenger with a mobility vehicle who had been denied boarding the day before, wrestled with the bureacracy, including he said 7 members of staff surrounding  him trying to decide what to do, got rebooked the next day, had the same long battle on day 2, then when our flight was cancelled had to go through the whole rigmarole on day 3! He was close to tears. A second passenger in a wheelchair soiled themself during the long wait. How awful!

I think I'm a tough guy and I've been through some bad stuff as most disable people have, but I feel as if I have been treated like a bit of unwanted bagage, a nuisance, and someone worthy of, and prepared to put up with, second class service.

Curiously other, yes smaller, airports abroad I have been to do it better.

Brie

When I was waiting for and then recovering from a knee replacement I was happy to take advantage of assistance at heathrow.  I was pleased with the service I received but fortunately if I hadn't have been I could have got up and managed (with difficulty) without it.  

Because all my flights were Heathrow/Toronto Pearson I looked for help that side too but was unable to find any which I thought was strange.  The only person I saw with a disability was a young woman who appeared to be a wheelchair athlete given the unique device she was in - that was enough to get her surrounded by all sorts of security, hopefully for admiration rather than for any other reason. 

I admit that getting to an age when travel appears to be more of a struggle I would welcome some real changes to how the differently abled are transitioned at airports, train stations etc.  

Neil49

I can only give a second hand account of the problems relating to assistance so I won't go into unsubstantiated details, but a friend was on a delayed flight (also into Birmingham) with a colleague who was unable to walk and needed a wheelchair. Assistance finally arrived 2 hours after landing. 

As the OP states above, the aircrew have to wait until all passengers have left the aircraft, so they were also delayed. 

There are numerous complaints about flight delays but if this kind of situation occurs on even 10% of flights then it's no wonder there are problems with delays.

It is in the interest of the airports to ensure assistance is provided promptly just to ensure that flight schedules are maintained. Unfortunately the penny doesn't seem to have dropped over here with assistance services being considered low priority. 

Pollycat

I believe there has been some publicity about a BBC reporter who has been left on a plane several times.
Maybe get in touch with him.
His name is Frank Gardner - Google it.

onashoestring

This is one of the articles where Frank Gardner expressed  his frustration at being left on a plane at  Heathrow Airport 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-61497830

Thers is also a BBC podcast on Access All where they discussed this https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c7zpsp


and another similar experience at Gatwick https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/06/disabled-woman-left-on-plane-at-gatwick-airport-for-an-hour-and-a-half

Simon Calder has also been reporting on these type of incidents

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/flights-gatwick-cuts-easyjet-tragedy-b2103096.html