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Post by artisans on Jul 28, 2009 10:40:24 GMT 2
Under the ‘Person with Restricted Mobility’ regulation, it is illegal for tour operators and travel agents to refuse to take bookings from disabled travellers. However, such people are now being blamed for delays because ABTA claim that airport organisations need 48 hours notice to prepare the appropriate resources. In our experience, most online booking services have a facility for notifying the operators in respect of assistance needed and disabled travellers, being more cautious about what they might encounter, usually double check the details.
Maybe the real problem is that airport organisations make mistakes and their resources are inadequate. If this is so, it is quite wrong to blame disabled travellers for airport shortcomings, and facilities should be geared up to satisfy ‘worst case’ scenarios. One thing I do know is that most disabled people just want to be treated like everyone else and are passionate about being accepted as normal by the rest of society. They should be able to use any form of transport without having to wave a flag beforehand.
Steve
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2009 17:28:34 GMT 2
A very dear friend of mine suffers with MS, but would not miss her two holidays a year for the world. Most of the time she and her hubby and family fly out of Bournemouth, and have had no problems with the airport services at all. From the moment she arrives, she receives a wheel chair, is helped to the aircraft, has the use of the lift to the tail end, and helped to her seat. The latter makes me think, in most brochures now or online they say if you have problems with mobility you can not have the emergency door seats which have the leg room. On flights out of Bournemouth, no problem, they only insist that hubby or son sits near the door, (then they can push Mum out).
On a recent holiday for reasons, they had to go via Gatwick. Totally different. Although everything was asked for on booking some six months earlier, there was nothing available at Gatwick. Hubby even had to put is wife on a baggage trolley for the long walk to departure. Then there was the ever long arguments about bording, even to the threat of being turned away.
Thankfully, someone with some knowledge and a good head stepped in and sorted it out.
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Post by artisans on Jul 28, 2009 20:47:25 GMT 2
We are generally pleased with the treatment of disabled passengers at UK airports although they are not always consistent and Stansted was our worst experience. Corfu has always been well organised. The issue of where we are placed on aircraft has long been a point of discussion. In this respect, we try to understand the importance of the safety policy which means that disabled passengers, who would benefit most from extra leg-room, are obliged to sit away from emergency exits. We ask ourselves, if we were running the airline, would we make the same decision? Clearly, it is useful to have an able-bodied person near to an exit and evacuating an aircraft is very much a numbers game. On the other hand, the question is, do disabled people have equal rights in terms of being safe? On balance, the current system seems to be best.
Steve
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