Airport’s disabled assistance was so poor we missed our flight

QI booked the trip of a lifetime to Lapland with family and friends for December last year but because of incompetence by the disabled assistance at the airport we missed our flight. My daughter is severely disabled with a life-limiting condition and this was supposed to be a really special time for us.

Upon arrival at the airport we headed straight to Ryanair’s check-in desks. As we queued, my wife and our daughter were moved as her disabled buggy was causing a blockage. No one asked if we needed assistance or if we had visited the disabled assistance desk.

After checking in our baggage my wife and I spotted the disabled assistance desk towards the other end of the airport and we were checked in. At no point were we asked whether we would like to have a member of staff to accompany us through the airport and to assist with showing us through security, as we had expected.

We headed through the security barriers only to find that our daughter’s buggy wouldn’t fit. This added several minutes to the security process.

We were then led through the dedicated lane for disabled passengers. Then there was confusion over electronic devices.

I took my mobile phone out and placed it in the tray, yet when my wife asked the security lady whether she should take out her phone she said “no, its OK”.

We therefore left electronic devices in our bags only for the staff at the other end to become disgruntled and say the devices would have to be rescanned. This added additional unnecessary time to our journey.

Following the security process a very helpful staff member started chatting to our children, who told him about our special trip to Lapland. We needed to get some porridge for our disabled daughter, who has special dietary needs. The gentleman kindly got on his radio to find out our gate number and went above our expectations by showing us a shortcut to get to Pret A Manger. However, he expressed no urgency whatsoever about us proceeding to the gate. We feel he provided a false sense of reassurance.

Having overheard conversations from fellow passengers, we instead had to proceed on foot. After finally arriving at the gate we were absolutely shocked when Ryanair refused to allow us to board the flight. The plane was still sitting there with both doors still open. Among the hysteria of our dreadfully upset children it had suddenly hit home that our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Lapland had come crashing down around us. It transpired that two other families had also been refused permission to board the flight.

Ryanair appeared sympathetic after I explained that we had a disabled passenger and described the problems we had encountered through the airport. We were taken to Ryanair’s customer service desk, where a member of staff searched for alternative flights for a small charge. However, the only flight offered was several days later and had only three seats available.

It feels as though Ryanair and Stansted are blaming each other for what went wrong here, while we are caught in the middle.

– JW, via email

AYour daughter suffers from Coffin Siris syndrome, which causes severe physical and learning difficulties. Taking her on a long journey like this required meticulous planning and effort, which you now feel was wasted, as none of you actually ended up going to Lapland.

I’m so sorry for the way this attempted holiday panned out. I want you to know I do recognise the extra layer of difficulty you faced, and greatly sympathise with you.

I asked Ryanair and Stansted airport to conduct a full investigation of exactly what happened. Stansted immediately started trawling through its CCTV footage of you and your group making your way through the airport. I’m afraid the conclusion of its investigation was not what you were hoping for.

You were advised to arrive at checkin at least two hours before departure, meaning you needed to be there by 4.50am at the latest. However, the footage shows that your party of eight did not arrive until 5.18am. You waited there for about 26 minutes and were advised to proceed without a disability assistant as you were already so late.

You then cleared security in 14 minutes and the fact you were sent the wrong way added just 90 seconds to your journey, according to the CCTV. You then took a detour to Pret A Manger. Unfortunately, you hadn’t realised passengers with special needs were allowed to bring food on board, so you could have avoided this added time.

You arrived at the gate 10 minutes after it closed and Stansted said its records showed you were the only passengers to miss the flight. You chose to decline the three seats on the alternative flight as it would have meant you had only a day and a half in Lapland and you didn’t feel that was worth the effort.

Sadly, because the reason you missed the flight seems to be that you were half an hour late to check in, I cannot reasonably ask Stansted airport or Ryanair to compensate you.

I know you’ll be disappointed by this, but I suggest you now discuss what happened with your travel insurer. Best of luck to you.