Source: consumerist.com
It gets worse from there.
Vitriolic words fail me.
Well, after reading her story, I know one airline company I won’t be riding with anytime soon.
What stairs did she crawl down?
She was probably on a bug smasher (turbo prop, flies low and smashes bugs on the windshield) and they don’t use jet ways. You get stairs.
I can’t believe I’m here to defend Delta, but 35 minutes isn’t a realistic interval between connecting flights for anyone.
I understand the right of the handicapped to reasonable accomodation, but at any major airport there are thousands of non-handicapped people being denied reasonable accommodation. The reason nobody showed up with a wheelchair was becasue they were either stretched thin doing something else, or dogging off with an attitude of “fuck this, they expect too much of me for the little I’m paid.” Mass transit via airplane is an experiment that’s failed, and this is wherer the seams start to rip.
And the headline “Delta Makes Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Crawl Off Plane” isn’t as accurate as “Delta Stupidly Suggests Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Get Off Plane As Best She Can”
An axe ground in bullshit just doesnt have much of and edge.
I agree that 35 minutes between flights is not enough, but according to the article, her first flight was delayed. It doesn’t say how long the delay was; it could easily have been more than an hour.
That said, anyone who expects decent customer service from an airline anymore (except maybe Southwest), hasn’t been paying attention.
What makes you think she didn’t book a trip on Delta.com or Hotwire or something, which assigned the connecting flight for her?
Good GRIEF! What’s wrong with these morons.
I’ve flown with a service dog with NW, Air Canada and United on a regular basis since 1998. I’ve never had a problem with any of them – in fact, Air Canada/United always bend over BACKWARDS to help. I don’t need an escort from point A to point B, seeing as my dog is not a guide, but they provide one anyway. There’s always someone awaiting my arrival at check-in, someone to walk us through security all the way to the gate, someone to walk us through connections and terminal switches (which sometimes involve customs, and that can be a pain)… all the way through to baggage claim.
I’ve traveled alongside other disabled patrons, some wheelchair users, others with service animals (blinks and folks with varying degrees of hearing loss) and we were always well taken care of.
I just can’t imagine what that poor lady had to go through!
My wife and I flew from Denver to Indianapolis on April 15, 2008. I was walking with a cane at the time, due to a badly infected leg. At baggage check-in, I was told how to get a ride to my faraway gate. The Northwest guy was there with a golf cart, and though he said it wasn’t his job, he cheerfully took us to our gate, along with a lady who was getting around with a walker.
Northwest took care of us.
That was my initial thought, but I didn’t know that Delta operated any of these out of Atlanta.
It wasn’t long ago that a plane that was going to board switched gates at the last minute. The new gate was quite some distance away, and people pretty much had to run to get there on time. Someone in a wheelchair was not being taken care of at all. I ended up pushing her to the new gate.
I don’t remember which airline it was. Probably Delta or United.
We’ve had experiences with wheelchairs not arriving despite literally 10 calls to the dispatch center by airline and airport personnel. We almost missed a flight where we had a 3-hour connection because nobody would send a chair, which we had ordered in advance and began asking for immediately. At one point, an Alaska Air rep actually commandeered a chair that was sent to someone who arrived two hours after we did and had a big argument with the guy who brought it. He reluctantly wheeled my family member away…around a corner, where he tried to get rid of her so he wouldn’t be in trouble with his supervisor. Only beginning the process of taking his employee number, and his supervisor’s, and the threat of calling CNN, got us the use of the chair for 10 minutes. Thanks, LAX.
Yes they do, but it’s more likely it was a Canadair Regional Jet, which I’ve flown on with Delta innumerable times, and which has stairs as well (although at some gates, they can bring out a little mini-bridge and let you get in that way from the conventional jetway…not so at Atlanta, I think).
That’s what I mean, they aren’t usually run by Delta. Many of those small carriers used to be affiliated with Delta, but most (like ASA) were liquidated & have been bought by other airlines.
One would think the reporter would have mentioned the name of the actual carrier if it was anyone other than Delta, and I’ve never seen a Delta flight at Hartsfield-Jackson that didn’t include a jetway. It doesn’t mean that they don’t exist, but it would be news to me.
Don’t think I’m trying to defend Delta (r any other airline), b/c I hate the company as much as any red-blooded Atlanta traveler.
Nor am I, although my earlier post reads as over-harsh. But you’ll admit there’s a fine line between supporting Consumer Rights (which I do) and defending Consumerism (which I can’t)
And I also admit my view on the topic was permanently formed one sunny afternoon trudging through Dallas airport in a soft foot cast, wearing a dress blue Navy uniform and being laughingly denied a ride on one of those precious golf carts.
The news just keeps getting better for Delta:
Delta says body found in plane’s restroom. Flight attendants found woman’s corpse in plane that landed in Atlanta.
I can hardly wait for the merger to be done so that NWA’s service improves to this level…
They’re all just about as bad. Research has pretty much shown that, under the business model run by most of the large airlines, the only way to remain competitive is to reduce fares. That’s the only thing the customers care about when it come time to book a ticket.
When asked which airlines sucks the hardest, most travelers will give the ones they use the most often as their answer.
I guess I’m not most travelers, because ‘Delta’ would be my answer, and I haven’t flown with them in 7 years. (I mostly fly Southwest, but I’ve also flown United, and British Airways, during that time, and probably US Airways and AirTran once or twice.)
My flight on Delta in 2001 was memorable because I’ve never, before or since, had such a tight seat pitch. (That’s the distance from your seatback to the seatback in front of you.) I barely had enough room to hold a book in front of me. And I was just in some random row in the middle of the coach cabin - no bulkhead behind me or anything like that.
I think that was the same flight (this was in August, from Baltimore to Atlanta) where we were stuck at the gate for an hour or so after boarding, and the A/C gave out early. After 45 minutes or so, I asked if we could go back into the gate area to cool off, if we weren’t leaving right away.
I will add that in some airports, the wheelchairs are managed by the airport - not the airline.
I do not know if this is the case in Atlanta, btw.
I have a nephew who is mentally handicapped who works the wheelchairs in Arizona. He gets great tips because he is so happy to have a job that also lets him get cheap flights. He is always hustling at the airport, which is very different from what I have seen from some of his coworkers.