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. This final posting, combinging the previous serialized postins, is in the form of a letter to American Airlines, which has not even been addressed -- despite the urgency of our complaints.
I am writing to make American Airlines aware of a terrible situation for disabled travelers -- one that very negatively impacted my wife and me. My wife, an attorney and the American with Disabilities Act coordinator for one of the largest counties in America, has flown dozens of AA flights with me.
She uses a super-lightweight manual wheelchair that folds in half and can be further reduced in size with easy removal of the foot rests and wheels. We learned more than two decades ago that when we gate check her wheelchair, it often gets broken either by a careless ground crew or by other items in the cargo hold. That is why we invested in a very expensive lightweight, collapsible wheelchair -- because the disassembled chair readily fits in the closet area entry of aircraft.
We also prearrange AA disability services so my wife has assistance at the jet bridge, while boarding the plane and with stowage of her wheelchair in the onboard closet. We are aware that crew members like to stow their baggage in the same closet that provides space for passengers’ wheelchairs and other mobility devices. In most cases, crew members kindly relocate their bags to clear space for the wheelchair.
On Christmas Day 2011, we flew from Miami International Airport to Mexico City on flight 2199, departing at 7:30 a.m. The folks at the AA check-in counter understood our needs and said the wheelchair could be stored in the closet (not gate checked where it can get damaged). The gate crew that checks boarding passes and escorts us down the jet bridge also confirmed this. But when we arrived at the door of the plane, it was obvious that the flight crew had a large amount of luggage stored in the closet. It also became clear that the brand new plane had a smaller than usual closet, a dreadful design flaw that negatively impacts wheelchair-using passengers.
I pleaded with the flight crew, but they refused to move their bags. (I must note that this 12-25-11 flight was less than half full and had more than enough room in empty first class bins to store crew luggage near the front of the plane.) I told them we'll arrive in Mexico City on Christmas Day, when no shops will be open to repair my wife's wheelchair, with her chair very likely damaged by being gate checked into the cargo area. I tried to take the wheels off my wife's wheelchair to show how easily it can be stowed, but the unyielding flight crew refused to move its baggage. I was told to take my seat or there would be consequences.
Upon arrival in Mexico City, the crew brought up a broken chair. My wife’s lightweight chair has a canvas seat that folds. There are metal rods inside that hold the seat in place. Plastic caps on the outside of the metal tubes hold the rods inside. The plastic cap had been knocked off while my wife’s chair was stored. Because of this, the rod that holds the seat in place slid out, rendering the wheelchair unusable– on Christmas Day upon arrival in a foreign country.
Anguished, I chided the crew for being so selfish as to not move a couple bags into empty overhead bins for the sake of a disabled traveler. I did not curse, but I’m sure my voice was raised, considering how upset I was. I was told the chair was fine, but when I placed my hand where she sits, it fell right through. If my wife had believed this line of lies and tested the chair, she would have fallen and broken her leg. I complained more – emphatically but not threatening in any way – and was told I would be taken into custody if I didn’t accept the chair as-is.
Finally, the ground crew appeared with the metal rod that holds the chair in place. This was only a half solution, because the plastic piece that holds the rod in place was never located. By now the plane was empty, the flight crew were heading toward the jet bridge and customs was waiting for us. I crumpled some napkins to stuff in place of the plastic piece and pushed my wife’s wheelchair toward Mexican customs.
I asked the AA gate agent where we could make a complaint, but she said it was Christmas Day and no one was around and if they were, we’d have to make our damage complaint in Spanish. Thankfully, at customs, an airport employee saw how upset we were and my wife, in her primitive Spanish, explained our plight and pointed to the missing plastic piece and the rod now jutting dangerously out the side of the seat. The kind man helped us Scotch tape over the napkins to try to hold the rod in place.
We caught a cab to the St. Regis Hotel and by the time we got there, the chair was broken again and my wife was almost falling out of it. Because the St. Regis is a 5-star property, it called a member of its engineering staff to try to make a substitute plastic cap out of materials on hand. The hotel assistant manager could not believe that we were treated so poorly by American. Finally, we got a decent substitute cap. But it continually fell out during our week-long visit and we had to borrow duct and electrical tape to try to hold the cap in place to keep the rod from falling out.
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.
Thankfully, the crew on the return Flight 2188 (Dec. 31, 2011) heard our pleas and allowed me to take my wife’s wheelchair apart and store it in the front closet. The closet was full of crew luggage, but they quickly moved their stuff to some very nearby vacant overhead bins in first class. I thanked the crew profusely and they were shocked. They said “this is what we do for disabled people. This is the right thing to do and that’s what we do.” I politely explained that the crew on Dec. 25 did the opposite and we suffered greatly because of it.
Upon return to Miami, we did not have to go to baggage claim because we carried on our two small bags. We went to the baggage claim area, but saw no one capable of handing a complaint about a wheelchair damaged on a flight. Besides, my wife was in pain, we were exhausted and wanted to get home.
We both have been swamped with work upon our return, but I have now taken the time to write this letter. Not only am I asking American Airlines to repair my wife’s wheelchair (she uses a power wheelchair in Miami, so we have yet to take the manual chair for travel in to the shop for a damage estimate), but I also am asking American to refund the entire amount we paid for the Dec 25/Dec 31 flights. That cost is $676.82.
American’s behavior was shameful and we are owed an apology and financial redress for the extreme pain and suffering we were forced to deal with because of the Dec. 25 flight crew’s negligence.
I expect a response from a high-level decision maker within 48 hour of receipt of this complaint.
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