Airport or airline troubles?
Our Center was contacted by a gentleman whose wife’s wheelchair was damaged
by airport personnel at the airport in Nashville, TN, and again, at O’Hare Airport.
I am looking for folks who have had similar problems, including bad transfers due to airline personnel’s refusal to listen to the person or attendant, damaged, destroyed, or lost wheelchairs, and odd situations such as people with disabilities being separated from their group, or other discriminatory actions.
We are collecting these stories to bring them to the attention of the various airlines and airports, as well as the media. The goal is to work with various airport hubs and groups to make traveling by air a better experience for folks with disabilities.
Send your stories here:
Anita Cameron
Systems Advocate
Regional Center for Independent Living
497 State Street
Rochester, NY 14608
(585) 442-6470 ext 164
Feel free to post your stories here, as well!
March 10th, 2007 at 1:59 am
Well, I’ve certainloy had my share of neglent handling incidents by the airlines, but here is my most recent. A bit long but still on-going!
My MOST RECENT Negative Wheelchair Experience with United Airlines
Lopeti S. Penima’ani
On several occasions, I have flown from Salt Lake City, Utah to major cities throughout the nation, but have on over 80% of my airline trips, experienced some difficulty or another at the hands of the airlines, or more specifically, the baggage handlers, who do not understand the delicate nature of a wheelchair and how important it is to me, and my livelihood.
On my most recent trip to Washington DC, I traveled with an attendant, who was not only my most helpful attendant, but a witness to the destruction caused to my tilt, recline, and elevating leg rest–equipped wheelchair, as were the attendants who waited with us until my chair was unloaded and brought up to the jetty. This is sometimes a procedure that takes a half hour to 45 minutes after all the other passengers have disembarked-especially if there has been some damage done to my chair. I have, at times, had to wait on a cold jetty way under the blankets brought to me from inside the cabin of an aircraft while awaiting my chair.
On this particular occasion, while waiting in Chicago (O’Hare Airport to be exact), for my chair to be brought to me since there was at least a 45 minute layover, my personal attendant and 2 female flight attendants were all peering out the window that looked over the ramp they take out the luggage and wheelchairs. As we watched 2 baggage handlers wiggled, and pushed my chair down the ramp. I commented to them “just watch” as we did. Not to my surprise, when it got to the end of the ramp, two handlers tried to pull my chair off of it, obviously misjudging the weight, as they dropped the chair on it’s left side against the bottom part of the ramp. They lifted it up and promptly dropped it again on its right side slamming it against the ramp. These 2 actions proved most destructive as they unknowingly bent the motor disengage handles, and dented and damaged the motor casings as well. Then, they dropped the front end onto the tarmac, bending both the front castor forks. The two flight attendants were aghast, telling me to be sure to report it to the baggage claim service office.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see my chair again until we got to Washington DC (Reagan National) as I had to be pushed to my connecting flight and there was no time to bring my chair up to me. First spending about 20-30 minutes trying to jerry-rig the motor handles into the ‘up’ position with folded paper so that the motors would engage, I immediately went to the baggage claim office to report the damage. After taking all the information, the woman at the baggage claim office asked if I knew where to go to repair it in Washington DC. I told her no and that since it seemed to be working with the way we had jerry-rigged it, we would report to the office in Salt Lake City, Utah when we returned home. She agreed it would be best that way and assured me that she had the information in the computer.
Throughout the 4 day stay in Washington DC, where I was attending a National Steering Committee meeting for Easter Seals Project Action (an organization that deals with transportation related issues for people with disabilities), I had to have my attendant constantly replace the folded paper under the engagement mechanism so that my chair would operate for me. The front castor forks, in the meantime, were causing uneven wear and tear to my newly replaced front castors that had been damaged from one of the previous UAL ‘mishaps’. I prefer to refer to these ‘mishaps’ as negligent handling incidents.
When we arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, we went immediately to the baggage claim office to confirm that she had the report that was filed in DC and she assured me all the information was there. Since it was well after 11:00 pm, I was told to call back on Monday morning to talk to the supervisor. I thought nothing worse of this instruction, and called on Monday to speak with someone. This person advised me that he could not find anything in the computer, but to go ahead and get a quote and submit it. It took me about 2 weeks to finally re-reach this individual, who advised me that he had as yet received nothing from the wheelchair dealer whose service department has been repairing my chair after almost each flight I take with United (and a few other airlines as well).
I contacted my wheelchair dealer and provided them with the name of the individual from UAL who was to be taking care of this problem along with a fax number and ‘turned it over’ to them, hoping I was to hear from them soon. Meanwhile, I have been using a manual chair, when needing to get out to my advocacy meetings, and various other civic and community involved commitments, often needing assistance from somebody else to push me since my shoulders don’t handle too much exertion anymore. When not outside my apartment I am in bed more often than needed due to the mobility infringement caused from not having my power chair.
I received an email from this particular UAL baggage manager to inform me that he was leaving the department and that his supervisor was then going to take over the handling of this claim, and included his name and phone number. From that date until today (which was 5 weeks), I was calling every day-sometimes 2-3 times per day, leaving messages on this UAL supervisors answering machine, which clearly stated “This is Randy Hubbell, operations supervisor for UAL baggage claim services, I’m sorry that I cannot take the call at this time but leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible.” Never once did I get a return call from anyone from UAL
I wrote to the main website of United Airlines explaining my frustration and disgust at the way this situation was not being handled, and received an automatically generated e-mail message the next day, but as yet have not heard anything else from them, either. Being a frequent flier with a personal number and all, I would have expected something different from them.
Realizing I was getting nowhere nor was the repair department at the wheelchair vendor who has been my service supplier, I called the woman from UAL who had handled my wheelchair damage situation in Orlando airport when they damaged my chair last June.
She has left that position and has been replaced by a gentleman who couldn’t give me any specific contact numbers, but at least called me back twice to inform me that he had made contact with SLC and they were going to call me soon. I waited an hour before trying the supervisors number I had been given 5 weeks earlier and when I encountered the old familiar recording from the supervisor, I simply pressed 0 for operator and was connected to a ‘main’ number where I explained the situation and was immediately connected to the ‘missing supervisor’. What a shock! Here I was speaking to this person I had been leaving a daily message for over 5 weeks!
His excuse to me was that that particular number had been given to the city and that he never answered that number anymore, and that he had 3 different phones in his office and that he had not heard of this situation before, until Orlando called him just about an hour earlier. Later on in the conversation after he told me he never received any information from neither the vendors, nor the manager who had given me his number in the first place (and that he shouldn’t have). He then placed me on hold, so I 3rd party called the vendor and had him on the line when this supervisor returned on line.
He again repeated that he did not receive the 2 previously faxed quotes and letter-headed memo from the wheelchair vendor company who has been doing my repairs. With all involved parties on line, we were able to exchange phone numbers, fax numbers and tentative figures and quotes with regards to the irreparable condition of the chair, (due to the fact that these chair parts are no longer made), along with promises to again fax this information to UAL.
Hopefully at this point the pass the buck game is no longer being played, as I have been promised a phone call from this supervisor within a week to let me know what is being done. I will keep you informed.
March 10th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Welcome back, okapidread, and thanks for posting! Yours is my first story. Let me know how everything turns out. it seems that you have had a level of patience with this that I couldn’t even begin to aspire to!
What airport/airline do you feel is the worst offender?
March 10th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I will definately keep you posted. As a matter of fact, the supervisor I had so much difficulty in contacting over the past 5 weeeks actually called me bright and early this morning to tell me that he is in fact working on it now that he has the details.
I sent him this same information as is in this original comment here as well as contacting the folks at Magic Rest who does the repairs for me. It seems that the $20,000.00 figure they suggested to replace the wheelchair has sparked a flame under his butt, so I am hoping that there will be much progress in the next few weeks.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Dude called you bright and early on a SATURDAY!?!? Hot dang! Well, I hope that good comes of this!
March 13th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Hey-he even called me Monday morning to tell me that he has sent the information to the Chicago people and that they are working on it. Glad that he’s really keeping in touch-that’s the main thing that I wanted-to at least be informed as to what was happening!
The saga continues…
March 14th, 2007 at 2:40 am
Wow! I’m glad to hear that this guy is being diligent about keeping you informed as to what is happening with your case. Hopefully it will be resolved soon, and something positive will take place.
April 21st, 2007 at 1:25 am
Update: Big manager for SLC operations called me 3 weeks ago. He had received a letter from Chicago UAL AND FAA regarding this situation. He advised me that he’ll be handling the case after it had been passed one more time to another manager there. (How many managers do they have there?)
He told me not to talk to anyone else at UAL and actually has been calling me as well.
Bottom line is that I went today to get fitted for my new wheelchair and the representative from Invacare is in town to meet with me on Monday so that he can show me what my new chaior will look like and for me to ‘try it out’.
United just needs the invoice from Magic Rest and they will get it ordered on Tuesday, I guess.
They said it should take about 5-6 weeks for delivery at the longest.
Hopefully this is the end to my saga.
I have one more trip to DC scheduled in mid May on United. I don’t think that I’ll have my new chair by then, but I also have another trip scheduled in July or August on UAL again and I am debating whether or not I will take my new chair. I might just borrow one for the trip!!
April 21st, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I am glad to hear that the saga with UAL is almost over! I hope that you will like your new chair. Btw, what chair will you be bringing to DC? I agree that when you get your new wheelchair, that you should not take it on the airlines. It would be messed up if it were damaged before you had it any length of time.