United Airlines says "sorry"

[2drwhofans]

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/U...ng-6591811.php

[stephen212]

From Bad Cripple:

http://badcripple.blogspot.com/2015/...off-plane.html

[funklab]

"United suspended the manager on duty and offered Neal $300, which he accepted."

What a weird amount of money to offer. It's low enough to be insulting and the only person who would accept that amount of money is somebody who wasn't going to complain in the first place.

[t8burst]

Delta managed to break the CF camber tube of my Zra in half. Like the article Stephen posted alluded to, it happens a lot. I was waiting to be taken off the plane, some delta guy in a red jacket comes on board. Hands me a 300 dollar (it may have been 4, I can't recall its been a while) voucher as he is telling me "there was an incident with my wheelchair". They wheel me up to the gate where my poor chair was sitting mangled. He hands me a card of the place they are going to have fix it, I explain that its not a common part you are going to get at Ace hardware or anything, but he assures me this place can do it. Sure enough a week later they drop my chair off at my house w/ a brand new TiLite CF tube in place.

I wasn't insulted, shit happens and they have a pretty efficient process of dealing with it. The blog has some good travel tips, one I disagree with and one to add.

Fight for the bulk head seat. You will have fought for a tiny amount of extra space but being in the first seat will enable to see or hear problems as they arise.

This is going to sound snobbish, but its how I roll so whatever. I don't fly coach very often but when I do, I fight for the window seat behind the bulkhead seat. I hate bulkhead seats because the armrests are fixed and I can't transfer into the seat without assistance or risking tearing a hole in my ass cheek. The seat behind the bulkhead has armrests that flip up and the window seat means you don't have to have people with small bladders climb over you. If you fly coach its the best seat on the plane.

I mostly fly business class and the opposite is true there. Bulkheads are fine, the trays flip up from the middle and you want the aisle because with the wide center console in domestic business class it is difficult to get over to a window seat. For international travel I don't know how AB people manage in economy, much less people w/ SCI. Also in international business class lay flats you can cath under a blanket with no one being the wiser.

Pro tip: unless you enjoy same sex TSA groping, TSA Pre Check rocks. As will all things TSA it varies w/ airport and the person you get but most times they wipe my hand, the back cushion, I press up and they wipe my seat cushion and thats it. No 15 minute probing and chair calisthenics. I don't think you have to be a frequent flyer to get pre-check cleared, I think you just have to visit the TSA website, make an appointment then go show your passport (you get added automatically once you hit whatever "gold" level is on you air carrier of choice but unless you explicitly register its random whether you get pre-check or not, even at platinum level.

"United suspended the manager on duty and offered Neal $300, which he accepted."

What a weird amount of money to offer. It's low enough to be insulting and the only person who would accept that amount of money is somebody who wasn't going to complain in the first place.

[cass]

well, the guy didn't even complain himself and he's an access advocate, so all in all, it's hard for anybody else to judge.

[Mac85]

This is why I never fly United airlines. American airlines is top notch

[HACKNSACK44]

First time flyer in February. Flying American Airlines. Stuff like this scares me the most. Power chair gets damaged I'm screwed. About 4 months to give it a go.

[Domosoyo]

We flew Delta's Comfort Class recently and found it very similar in "space" to First Class. Usually it is only an extra $40 bucks/a seat and so worth it. We are starting to fly a lot more and always get the TSA Pre-Check now which, rocks! So far no problems with the power chair but our luck will run out one of these days. In December, thinking of switching to Zra/ZX-1 combo to try that out.

T8burst...have you ever had an instance that you could store your chair up front? I know the Zra is rigid but I've heard of a few people that have done it. Just curious and great tips btw, spot on.

[t8burst]

T8burst...have you ever had an instance that you could store your chair up front? I know the Zra is rigid but I've heard of a few people that have done it. Just curious and great tips btw, spot on.

I don't even try to tell you the truth. I find in most areas of life, but especially in air travel being friendly and not rocking the boat usually results in a better outcome. If I (I travel alone except for rare vacations) were to take the time to disassemble my chair for stowage it would back up the boarding process and piss off the gate agents, flight crew and possibly the "people" who are contracted to strap us in our aisle chair and deliver us to our chair.

I see you are also from the land of lutefisk, MSP used to be awful when it came to getting the people to come and load you on the plane like a sack of potatoes. Showing up late, sending one 100 pound female to load me (on most flights the only work they have to do for me is get the aisle chair up onto the plane for the jetway which is sometimes flat, other times a 9 in lift). Within the last year it has gotten a lot better. If you are flying to NY ever, I would avoid LGA (since MSP is my home base I usually fly delta, your experiences may vary based on other airlines).

[Domosoyo]

We subscribe to the same friendly ideal so that makes sense. Yeah, it has been so far so good at MSP via American/US Air, Delta and Sun Country. We are mostly Delta, however, we have received some screaming good deals for First Class on Sun Country.

Regarding La Garbage; yes horrible. Probably get even worse as these renovations start, I can't even imagine going there even if they paid me.

[vjls]

delta drop me on the jetway and blame it on me they were transferring me from ailse chair to mine it got ugly fast lucky for me I was not hurt I call delta amd wrote nothong from them but again had I been hurt
I would have lawyered fast

[t8burst]

The people who get you on/off the airplanes are airport employees and not Delta employees/contractors. Since you weren't hurt what did you expect from Delta as a response?

delta drop me on the jetway and blame it on me they were transferring me from ailse chair to mine it got ugly fast lucky for me I was not hurt I call delta amd wrote nothong from them but again had I been hurt
I would have lawyered fast

[2drwhofans]

The people who get you on/off the airplanes are airport employees and not Delta employees/contractors. Since you weren't hurt what did you expect from Delta as a response?

They are not airport employees, they are employees of AirServ, a subsidiary of the publicly traded corporation ABM.

Their job title is "Aircraft Passenger Assistant". According to Glassdoor.com, the AirServ salary for this position title is $7.25/hr

http://www.airservcorp.com/wheelchair_service.php

I was flight phobic long before my husband's SCI. It's even worse now.