The Portland Rugby Quad team and the members of three other teams, some 20 wheelchair users, were reserved in a United Airlines Louisville flight to Chicago on Sunday night. We spent hours of direct progress from United and told Gate staff that we would need multiple corridors and multiple employees to address. They did not hear
What followed in the next 12 hours was the worst travel experience that I have suffered in more than 20 years of traveling around the world as Paralympic, athlete and wheelchair user.
When it was time to load, they had a hallway, and it took more than an hour to load everyone. Then we spent two hours sitting on the plane in the asphalt because United could not make his disorder team work.
When everything was said and done, United forced us to move and re -border three times, claiming all the time we were still going to leave. They only had a staff helping, so our 75 -year -old assistant was forced to help with transfers.
The flight was supposed to leave at 6 pm at 1 in the morning, officially united “delayed” the flight until the morning and issued hotel coupons. Without accessible transport, the quads that could not transfer to a standard taxi had to spend the whole night in luggage claim. A person had an intestinal accident. No one had access to marked luggage or marked mobility team.
As I could transfer to a standard SUV, I finally arrived at a hotel at 2 in the morning with my 7 -year -old son. With United not providing information on how we could leave Louisville, I canceled my tickets and spent $ 850 to take my son a flight in another airline. We don’t have our personal luggage. My rugby chair and equipment are lost in the United system.
It is a complete failure by United Airlines: a total contempt for the needs or safety of the disabled passengers. The entire air travel system for wheelchair users must change. It is broken and is dangerous.
Hopefully my son and I got home today. Hopefully everyone else will do it too. Our mobility team, who knows?
Apparently, United Airlines did not get the memorandum Digny trips for passengers with disabilities. Let the airline know what he thinks by sending a United Airlines complaint form.
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