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DISABLED PASSENGERS – WHICH AIRLINES TAKE BEST CARE OF THEM?
POST JONATHANCOHEN
Good a ernoon all.
is is an area that I have recently seen a lot of negative publicity with regard to the way that certain airlines treat passengers with varying degrees of disability who nevertheless are able to y either on their own or with carers.
I have chosen not to post links about speci c airlines as I do not want it to turn into one of those threads that relentlessly beats up one or two airlines and rather than focus on the bad I am hoping that this thread can bring out the good by giving details of carriers who are good at and go the extra mile for disabled passengers.
From some of the reading I have done it seems to me that some carriers go out of their way to make things di cult enough that you would think that they would prefer not to carry those passengers.
I look forward to reading the comments of my fellow posters as I value your input on what is an important topic.
Safe travels,
JC
➜ SCOTISHTAFFY
I have to say that I have used three airlines in recent months, British Airways from Glasgow to London Heathrow, I was able to check-in at the business class counter and was then escorted to the gate and boarded first. From Terminal 5 my wife and I had a mini bus take us to Terminal 2 for our connection.
All Nippon Airways from Heathrow to Haneda and then Japan Airlines from Haneda to Sapporo. They were absolutely spot on. I am a wheel chair user, I’m unable to walk long distances. ANA checked us in at the first class counter, I was collected by assistance and taken straight to the gate and boarded first. The crew could not be any more helpful and kept checking on me during the flight. On arrival I was escorted by a member of the crew to the front of the aircraft and waiting for me was assistance and they took me into the terminal building where I received my own chair. I look forward to my trip to Montreal from Glasgow with BA and my flight to Toronto with Air Canada in June.
➜ NOGBAD
I was very impressed with EasyJet a couple of years ago, who had a large group of people with varying degrees of disability on the same flight. The crew were very helpful and respectful to everybody and it seemed this was genuine.
➜ DNADAMS
My husband is severely sight-impaired and our experience has been very poor with EasyJet. They expect us to pay for our seat allocations if we want to guarantee that we sit together. We cannot use the free seat allocation at check-in as there is a risk that we are not sitting together which is not acceptable or safe for someone with less than ten per cent sight. This means that the experience can be very di erent for someone with a disability than without. They also make the boarding scrum very stressful as they often do not pre-board or acknowledge passengers needing special assistance.
Surprisingly, BA perform much better at this. They allow us to choose seats free of charge at the time of booking and are very attentive on board especially if your BA Executive Club profile shows special requirements. Most of the time they also personally ensure my husband is aware of the location of exits, seat belt, life jacket, etc without asking, something EasyJet has never done.
➜ BMJ
In the EU it is the responsibility of the airport operator to cater for disabled passengers. There is liaison with airlines who act as intermediary and gather and forward information to the nominated operative for the airport.
At Heathrow it is BAA who outsource the activity to Omniserve. Bluntly in my experience they are incompetent and totally disorganised.
I do not know if it is the fault of management, a lack of sta and/or equipment, or inadequate funding from BAA to undertake the tasks. Having completed all the protocols for arrival at Terminal 5 and departure from Terminal 3 (BA in both cases) we were not met from the aircraft, left waiting in a passage, ignored and generally sidelined. We arrived at T5 at 0559 but did not reach the departures lounge in T3 until 0944. I wondered if the clocks had sprung forward whilst in transit but on checking I realised that BST had started two days earlier.
BA were extremely sympathetic but said that there was nothing that they could do other than file a report. In this instance, and probably on most other occasions it is not the airline that is at fault. They are a hostage to fortune and without some considerable e ort are not able to make adequate representations to the airport operator and the service provider.
Brian Jones
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