AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT CREW'S SELFISHNESS HURTS DISABLED TRAVELER - 7

WHEELCHAIR SEVERELY DAMAGED BY UNCARING GROUND CREW AFTER AMERICN AIRLINES FLIGHT CREW REFUSES TO MOVE ITS LUGGAGE TO ACCOMMODATE ONBOARD WHEELCHAIR STORAGE

Editor's note: We arrived home on Dec. 31 from a week in Mexico City. The City was great, our Hotel -- the St.Regis -- was spectacular but the flight getting there was a nightmare caused by American Airlines employees who are abusive toward the needs of disabled travelers. It is no wonder why this carrier is in banktruptcy. We will share our tale of disability discrimination during the next several days. The postings are in the form of a letter to American Airlines, which has not even been addressed -- despite the urgency of our complaints.

We not only lost time waiting for the makeshift repairs at the hotel, but my wife also had to head back to the hotel at 6 p.m. most days because her arthritic hips were aching from the poor condition of her wheelchair seat.

This painful condition was caused directly by the wheelchair damaged by American Airlines. On the couple evenings that we went out for dinner, my wife stayed back at the hotel from noon to 6 p.m. – missing out on the sights and culture of Mexico City to be rested enough to be able to stand the pain of being in a wheelchair seat damaged by American Airlines.

When we returned to Miami on Dec. 30, we went to the Mexico City airport 3.5 hours prior to our flight.

The person who printed our boarding passes was polite.

But when I told her we wanted to file a complaint about the wheelchair damage, she wasn’t sure what to do – even though we had several hours to speak with an airline representative.

Her best guess was to go to baggage claim in Miami when we arrived, which would be less than two hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve.