AIRPORT ASSISTANCE: Flying with a Disability UNITED vs FRONTIER
video description
Getting around Las Vegas as someone who cannot walk long distances can be infuriating at times. Especially if you're heading to different places down the strip. Hotels will let you rent scooters, and they're pretty fast. The problem are the elevators to get up to the bridges. When we were there, there were a bunch of bridges that had broken lifts and my mom couldn't get across them. Since you cannot cross the road on foot on the strip, you really are SOL in some instances. This happened to my mom when she and I were heading to Planet Hollywood for a dinner with my sister's in laws to be. My mom was starting at the Luxor where we were staying and I had already been exploring the strip all day so I was there. She got as far as New York New York and could go no further. She was upset and exhausted at this point. I ran over there, and came up with a plan to, check the scooter in at NYNY, get her into a taxi and then see if she could be dropped off near the door where the restaurant was. If that were the case she could've managed. But no, you can't do that in Vegas and there are no exceptions for the disabled. So she had to walk all the way from the taxi drop-off area, all the way through the mall, and to the restaurant. This was absolute torture on her heart, lungs, and back, and we had to stop multiple times so she could recover. We got to the restaurant, and had dinner. Getting her back to the taxi was another challenge. I went down to the front desk, security said we could borrow a regular wheel chair for a bit, and they sent me to the valet station near their taxi pickup. It took some negotiating with the people there, but eventually they let me borrow a wheel chair to bring my mom down to the taxi.
Date: 2023-08-20
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Comments and reviews: 19
Sebina
Thanks you Noel for allowing Rach to share her experience. There are legal provisions in the EU and the USA to cater for PRM. In the US (Under the Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights, airlines are required to provide wheelchair assistance to passengers who need it, free of charge. This assistance includes assistance with boarding and deplaning, as well as assistance with baggage and security screening. The airlines MUST train their employees to ensure that they can assist PRM.
In the EU (Under EU Regulation 1107/2006, Airport managers must make announcements in the airports and provide assistance to disabled persons, provided that the disabled persons have notified their arrival at the airport at least 48 hours before the scheduled time of departure of the flight.
There are no such legal provisions on the African continent, so it is up to the airline, or its contracted Ground Handling Agent to offer wheel chair assistance to an airline's PRM. Whereas some airline websites stipulate a 48 hour notice period, Ground Handling Agents have wheel chairs available should the need arise.
PRM can be a tricky area, especially where the aircraft is parked at a remote stand and special equipment is needed to assist the passenger to board or deplane. Similarly, it can be tricky especially on single aisle aircraft when an immobile passenger needs to use the restroom.
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Thanks you Noel for allowing Rach to share her experience. There are legal provisions in the EU and the USA to cater for PRM. In the US (Under the Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights, airlines are required to provide wheelchair assistance to passengers who need it, free of charge. This assistance includes assistance with boarding and deplaning, as well as assistance with baggage and security screening. The airlines MUST train their employees to ensure that they can assist PRM.
In the EU (Under EU Regulation 1107/2006, Airport managers must make announcements in the airports and provide assistance to disabled persons, provided that the disabled persons have notified their arrival at the airport at least 48 hours before the scheduled time of departure of the flight.
There are no such legal provisions on the African continent, so it is up to the airline, or its contracted Ground Handling Agent to offer wheel chair assistance to an airline's PRM. Whereas some airline websites stipulate a 48 hour notice period, Ground Handling Agents have wheel chairs available should the need arise.
PRM can be a tricky area, especially where the aircraft is parked at a remote stand and special equipment is needed to assist the passenger to board or deplane. Similarly, it can be tricky especially on single aisle aircraft when an immobile passenger needs to use the restroom.
reply
Brian
As an airline employee who travels standby with multiple airlines, and someone who utilizes these services frequently, Ive found that it isnt dependent on the airline itself, rather the contracted company the airline uses at the specific airport. There are many times where they are extremely short staffed, slow to respond to requests, or the agents are so set in their standard way of doing things that they struggle to adapt to provide the service that a person actually needs. You often have to be your own advocate and push to get the service you need if they try to do something different (she should have insisted they go into the CLEAR lane in IAH and PreCheck in DEN as she is still entitled to their service with her disability. Under the Air Carrier Access Act, an airline has up to 30 minutes to provide service from the moment they are notified, and cannot leave you for more than 15 minutes. They are also required to provide your required service curbside to curbside, even though many contractors will insist on meeting at their Accessibility Desk. Any time you have any issues, you have the right to ask the airline for a Complaint Resolution Officer, or CRO, to discuss your issue and, if there is indeed a violation, file a complaint with the DOT (where the airline has 30 days to respond to your complaint.
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As an airline employee who travels standby with multiple airlines, and someone who utilizes these services frequently, Ive found that it isnt dependent on the airline itself, rather the contracted company the airline uses at the specific airport. There are many times where they are extremely short staffed, slow to respond to requests, or the agents are so set in their standard way of doing things that they struggle to adapt to provide the service that a person actually needs. You often have to be your own advocate and push to get the service you need if they try to do something different (she should have insisted they go into the CLEAR lane in IAH and PreCheck in DEN as she is still entitled to their service with her disability. Under the Air Carrier Access Act, an airline has up to 30 minutes to provide service from the moment they are notified, and cannot leave you for more than 15 minutes. They are also required to provide your required service curbside to curbside, even though many contractors will insist on meeting at their Accessibility Desk. Any time you have any issues, you have the right to ask the airline for a Complaint Resolution Officer, or CRO, to discuss your issue and, if there is indeed a violation, file a complaint with the DOT (where the airline has 30 days to respond to your complaint.
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Ana
I'm a wheelchair user. My husband and I are usually last on the plane at certain airports when we are connecting there (looking at you, LHR) because they simply do not have enough wheelchair pushers. The experience of sitting on the plane waiting for the wheelchair pushers to arrive and pick us up so that we can make our next flight has made for stressful connections on several occasions. Once, when we were connecting at FRA from a LH flight within Schengen to an AA flight going to the US, we simply missed the connection (in spite of the wheelchair pusher's best efforts. The flight was delayed by a couple of hours due to weather, then had to wait over an hour for a gate. The four hours we had banked as connecting time just vanished. Those who believe that using a wheelchair is some kind of an advantage in travel have no idea what it is really like.
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I'm a wheelchair user. My husband and I are usually last on the plane at certain airports when we are connecting there (looking at you, LHR) because they simply do not have enough wheelchair pushers. The experience of sitting on the plane waiting for the wheelchair pushers to arrive and pick us up so that we can make our next flight has made for stressful connections on several occasions. Once, when we were connecting at FRA from a LH flight within Schengen to an AA flight going to the US, we simply missed the connection (in spite of the wheelchair pusher's best efforts. The flight was delayed by a couple of hours due to weather, then had to wait over an hour for a gate. The four hours we had banked as connecting time just vanished. Those who believe that using a wheelchair is some kind of an advantage in travel have no idea what it is really like.
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Rob
Since you did the video with you and your wife flying to Belfast and back my wife and I have now flown a few times. On every occasion the assistance from the airline has been excellent. However the only we have had was at Luton when we couldn't contact the assistance desk from the Car park. The wife had to struggle to the desk which was located just inside the terminal building. Once we had sorted out the wheelchair it was smooth sailing. Our last trip was to Fuerventura where the assistance was excellent in both inward and out ward.
Cant fault the airline. In three weeks time we are travelling again through Luton hoping the communication issue has been resolved. Next year we are using East Midlands hope that is just as smooth.
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Since you did the video with you and your wife flying to Belfast and back my wife and I have now flown a few times. On every occasion the assistance from the airline has been excellent. However the only we have had was at Luton when we couldn't contact the assistance desk from the Car park. The wife had to struggle to the desk which was located just inside the terminal building. Once we had sorted out the wheelchair it was smooth sailing. Our last trip was to Fuerventura where the assistance was excellent in both inward and out ward.
Cant fault the airline. In three weeks time we are travelling again through Luton hoping the communication issue has been resolved. Next year we are using East Midlands hope that is just as smooth.
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Anthony
As someone who also has fybro, I struggle with walking. I have found that carrying a walking seat stick enables me to take frequent pauses so that I'm not killed by distances. Before I started to request assistance, I struggled to get to and from the gates. The only time I was badly let down with assistance was coming through Gatwick on a Norwegian flight from JFK. They had a wetlease A380, and it was a remote stand. There were no chairs awaiting at the end of the bus trip. The Norwegian assistance desk was worse than useless. I had to flag down a passing golf bugging for help.
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As someone who also has fybro, I struggle with walking. I have found that carrying a walking seat stick enables me to take frequent pauses so that I'm not killed by distances. Before I started to request assistance, I struggled to get to and from the gates. The only time I was badly let down with assistance was coming through Gatwick on a Norwegian flight from JFK. They had a wetlease A380, and it was a remote stand. There were no chairs awaiting at the end of the bus trip. The Norwegian assistance desk was worse than useless. I had to flag down a passing golf bugging for help.
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Phil
A possible addition for next time when you make Rachel into a human guinea pig would be to have a tracker/phone on Rachel, so we could track and monitor her progress through the airport.
It is disappointing that in this day and age, someone with a disability can't make it through the airport without the assistance of a loved one.
But it would be good to see more guest appearances from Rachel please.
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A possible addition for next time when you make Rachel into a human guinea pig would be to have a tracker/phone on Rachel, so we could track and monitor her progress through the airport.
It is disappointing that in this day and age, someone with a disability can't make it through the airport without the assistance of a loved one.
But it would be good to see more guest appearances from Rachel please.
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dmav522
As a person with mild Cerebral Palsy, this video perfectly illustrates my usual airport experience, in my home country of Canada or in the states I've never had issues, and most of Europe for that matter, but there's a special place in hell for Gatwick and how they lump families and people with disabilities together in the customs/security lines making wait times atrocious. NEVER FLYING INTO LGW AGAIN!
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As a person with mild Cerebral Palsy, this video perfectly illustrates my usual airport experience, in my home country of Canada or in the states I've never had issues, and most of Europe for that matter, but there's a special place in hell for Gatwick and how they lump families and people with disabilities together in the customs/security lines making wait times atrocious. NEVER FLYING INTO LGW AGAIN!
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Mark
Here in Europe, it differs. Schipol Amsterdam is brilliant and brng you to the gate, so does Athens and CDG Paris as well. In Milan the drop yu in a waiting hall. Arriving in CDG Paris they wait for you at the end of the gate so you have to wlk there. Barcelona is ok, but they on ly take you hal way on arrival and then you can sort it out for yourself.
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Here in Europe, it differs. Schipol Amsterdam is brilliant and brng you to the gate, so does Athens and CDG Paris as well. In Milan the drop yu in a waiting hall. Arriving in CDG Paris they wait for you at the end of the gate so you have to wlk there. Barcelona is ok, but they on ly take you hal way on arrival and then you can sort it out for yourself.
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fizzys26
Having worked in and traveled through many airports in the US, they are not at all employed or contracted by the airlines. It is contracted through the individual airport, as others here have stated. However, airline employees can step in to fill in the gaps to help you on and off the airplane, which Ive done many times when no pusher showed up.
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Having worked in and traveled through many airports in the US, they are not at all employed or contracted by the airlines. It is contracted through the individual airport, as others here have stated. However, airline employees can step in to fill in the gaps to help you on and off the airplane, which Ive done many times when no pusher showed up.
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700
Very nice. Thank you. (This is real. I was always annoyed by the so-called slackers who use such services, but then my mother was wheelchair bound and I quickly experienced the trouble and lack of empathy for our fellow citizens needing such accommodation. . evil curbs, lack of wheelchairs, full H/C parking spaces used by idiots, long walks. )
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Very nice. Thank you. (This is real. I was always annoyed by the so-called slackers who use such services, but then my mother was wheelchair bound and I quickly experienced the trouble and lack of empathy for our fellow citizens needing such accommodation. . evil curbs, lack of wheelchairs, full H/C parking spaces used by idiots, long walks. )
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Imran
Great Job highlighting this hardly anyone highlight this in North America. My mother who got a bad knee and cannot stand or walk too long had to wait an hour to even get a wheelchair assistance in Montreal. We talk so much about ADA complaint but airlines are the worst offender when it come to accessibility. We need to bring this to light.
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Great Job highlighting this hardly anyone highlight this in North America. My mother who got a bad knee and cannot stand or walk too long had to wait an hour to even get a wheelchair assistance in Montreal. We talk so much about ADA complaint but airlines are the worst offender when it come to accessibility. We need to bring this to light.
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Christopher
Im visually impaired & Ive booked assistance at Aberdeen & Kirkwall & both were excellent. On my recent trip to Dublin from Birmingham I have to say both were brilliant. I have to give the edge to Dublin (mainly due to how quick I got through security) but it was close (Birmingham is a bit of a building site at the moment.
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Im visually impaired & Ive booked assistance at Aberdeen & Kirkwall & both were excellent. On my recent trip to Dublin from Birmingham I have to say both were brilliant. I have to give the edge to Dublin (mainly due to how quick I got through security) but it was close (Birmingham is a bit of a building site at the moment.
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Pan
Actually, it's not the airlines that provide wheelchair services but third party company's contracted by the airport. And i think it does not matter which airline you are flying because it's about the same level of service no matter what airline. it really depends on the employee who helps you and the airport your at.
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Actually, it's not the airlines that provide wheelchair services but third party company's contracted by the airport. And i think it does not matter which airline you are flying because it's about the same level of service no matter what airline. it really depends on the employee who helps you and the airport your at.
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John
I have fibromyalgia along with small-fiber neuropathy and the thought of walking across one of these hub airports is a bit daunting, so I appreciate what you two are doing to show off what to expect when requesting assistance services in the States. I hope my local airport (TPA) does a better job than IAH & DEN did.
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I have fibromyalgia along with small-fiber neuropathy and the thought of walking across one of these hub airports is a bit daunting, so I appreciate what you two are doing to show off what to expect when requesting assistance services in the States. I hope my local airport (TPA) does a better job than IAH & DEN did.
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andykillsu
I have flew United many times for someone that has needed an idle wheel car. And United has always had the wheel chair ready when we have asked for it. We didnt need a pusher though. I will also say I have also almost saw wheelchairs and pushers waiting on nearly every other United flight Ive been on.
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I have flew United many times for someone that has needed an idle wheel car. And United has always had the wheel chair ready when we have asked for it. We didnt need a pusher though. I will also say I have also almost saw wheelchairs and pushers waiting on nearly every other United flight Ive been on.
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magicmonette
Very helpful! Your wife is a gem and I appreciate her doing this. BUT! I love Frontier! My husband and I feel we can pay for water etc for a really cheap flight. Plus we have way more cancellations on United, American, and Delta than Frontier. The assistance in America is lacking across the board.
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Very helpful! Your wife is a gem and I appreciate her doing this. BUT! I love Frontier! My husband and I feel we can pay for water etc for a really cheap flight. Plus we have way more cancellations on United, American, and Delta than Frontier. The assistance in America is lacking across the board.
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James
Theres an argument to say that if the airline is directly employing people to deal with assistance, then its even worse service if its delayed. When its a 3rd party company, you can see why in some airports its delayed.
Also, side note, but Rach is right, its pronounced St Lewis! Not Louie.
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Theres an argument to say that if the airline is directly employing people to deal with assistance, then its even worse service if its delayed. When its a 3rd party company, you can see why in some airports its delayed.
Also, side note, but Rach is right, its pronounced St Lewis! Not Louie.
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kushal
Question for anyone who knows, how does using the restroom/toilet work for someone who is physically disabled? Ive seen videos from those who are visually impaired and understand that but do wonder if that means that if you cant walk on the flight you cant use the restroom.
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Question for anyone who knows, how does using the restroom/toilet work for someone who is physically disabled? Ive seen videos from those who are visually impaired and understand that but do wonder if that means that if you cant walk on the flight you cant use the restroom.
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MTBelly
Great to see Rachel with you on your travels. Yeap definitely think Rachel should do a yt on traveling with disabilities. It may force the airline companies to get there act together. Sending you and your family best wishes from the home of robin hood.
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Great to see Rachel with you on your travels. Yeap definitely think Rachel should do a yt on traveling with disabilities. It may force the airline companies to get there act together. Sending you and your family best wishes from the home of robin hood.
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