A disabled Delta passenger accused the airline of failing to provide him with boarding assistance on a recent flight, forcing him to crawl to his seat.
Sean Chang, who is a paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, said he had difficulty with his request for an aisle seat and special assistance for his Nov. 3 flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, USA Today reported.
“They told me, ‘Hey, there’s no aisle chair ready for you,’” Chang told USA Today.
When he arrived at the gate with 10 minutes left after departure after being delayed in the security line, he was informed that the airline never received his request for special assistance.
He said the airline offered to put him on another flight, but that option was not feasible because he stops eating and drinking about 24 hours before the flight, so delaying his trip would extend that period too much.
Chang said the gate agent told him he could board however he wanted to make the flight.
Sean Chang, who uses a wheelchair, said he did not receive boarding assistance during a recent flight from Hartsfield-Jackson. Atlanta International Airport Courtesy of Sean Chang
“Am I really going to have to crawl to get to my seat?” she said, according to the outlet. “It’s extremely humiliating, especially being on the ground and everyone is on top of you looking down.”
But he felt he had no choice, so he went ahead and crawled.
Delta, which acknowledged the incident, told USA Today that its policy allows passengers to decide how to board if assistance is not available.
“Although Delta employees offered to transfer the customer to a direct flight less than 1.5 hours later to allow for proper boarding assistance, the customer elected to board himself,” the airline told the outlet in a statement.
“To provide you with the best service, we encourage customers who need mobility assistance to share this information before their trip, a feature available on delta.com and in the Fly Delta app,” he added.
Delta said it has staff at each airport to help disabled passengers resolve complaints, but insisted that no violation occurred because Chang chose how to board the flight.
“We need to make sure that disabled people have rights, equal rights,” Chang told USA Today.
Delta refunded Chang’s ticket and gave him additional miles and vouchers, but he argued that airlines should face stiffer fines when disabled customers are inconvenienced.
“I wanted to be compensated for something you can’t put a price on,” Chang said.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said his agency is considering new rules involving people with disabilities.
The agency said it has created four focus areas to be more inclusive of people with disabilities, including “enabling safe and accessible air travel; enable multimodal accessibility of public transportation facilities, vehicles and rights-of-way; enable access to well-paying jobs and business opportunities for people with disabilities and enable accessibility of electric and automated vehicles,” according to The Hill.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn