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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Oxygen On Planes or Why We Are Boycotting AA

Dave and I have been going back and forth about getting Ellie oxygen whenever she has to fly anywhere but especially to Advance for therapy. Flying is hard on her as it is on everyone at a high altitude with low oxygen. Every time we arrive at Advance or in Ireland it takes Ellie at least 2 weeks to recover. She is tired and pale and needs to sleep a lot and is not as bright and interactive as she usually is. Linda has been telling us that if we get her oxygen it will reduce her jetlag and will allow her to better assess Ellie as well as help Ellie get more out of the therapy. Linda prescribes exercises based on her evaluation of Ellie and it's hard to evaluate one who is exhausted from jet lag. Linda, as with all the things she recommends, takes her own advice. She uses oxygen every time she flys. She is opening up centers in South Africa and the Philippines and sees many families when she goes there with no extra time for fatigue and jetlag. After our big Scare with Ellie having a seizure as I described here, this time we decided that for our flight back we would request to buy some oxygen for her on the plane. We were flying American Airlines.

Dave called the English branch of American Airlines 2 days before we were to leave. They told him that they needed 72 hours notice for oxygen on planes and that since we had broached the subject at all they would now have to have one of their doctors examine Ellie to determine if they should let us fly at all. Dave tried explaining that it wasn’t medically necessary for Ellie to have oxygen on the plane but that it would help her with the jet lag at home. The airline representative he spoke with said that they would want one of their doctors to examine Ellie at check in, in order for her to fly. Dave said this was ok.

Great huh!

We arrived at Heathrow 3 hours before our flight and went to the check in. Alice, the American employee at the desk, started the check in process. In under a minute there was a problem. She asked for our medical release form. We asked what medical release form. She then, looking very put out, informed us that we needed one from a doctor for American to let Ellie on the flight. We said we didn't have one and that on the phone American Airline personnel told us if they needed to examine Ellie there would be a doctor here at the airport. Her response was, "Well I don’t know anything about that but, you're not flying today." We explained that we were only visiting England and did not have a doctor here. We tried explaining that it wasn't medically necessary for Ellie to have oxygen but only nice to have it in order to speed her recovery at home.

Alice was unmoved and by the pinched sour expression on her face getting more annoyed by the minute. She told us that we would not be flying today again. At this point I, ah, kind of lost it. I told her I wanted to speak to her supervisor immediatley. And I mentioned that if we were stranded in Heathrow with limited medication, diapers, and food for Ellie I would sue the airline for all it was worth.

Her supervisor came out pretty quickly and after a rather heated discussion took our case to their medical people whom we never saw. We cooled our heals by the check in desk and waited for 20 minutes. The supervisor came back and asked us a little about Ellie’s condition and we assured her Ellie had never had any trouble flying. She came back 10 minutes later and said we had been cleared to fly. She also informed us that if Ellie needed oxygen on the plane while in the air they would have to divert the flight.

This whole story was unbelievable to our friends at Advance as British Airways understands the need for oxygen on the plane and will gladly sell it to you. Virgin Atlantic gives it to you for free.

After this incident this same supervisor was very kind to us getting us on the plane first and out of her hair. That said, we won't be flying American Airlines again. Clearly the fact that one AA employee could tell us on the phone that there would be a doctor at the check in and then Alice never having heard of this shows that they did not have a policy in place to deal with this. Had they told Dave on the phone that we needed a medical release form from a doctor, at that point, two days before our flight we would have been able to get one. This is not the first time I have experienced their very poor customer service when it comes to someone needing physical assistance. On this trip for instance, we let them know that though we had Ellie in a stroller versus her wheelchair that she can’t walk and that we need to bring her stroller to the gate. This was fine but upon deplaning in Boston there was no stroller at the door and the employees on the ramp told us we had to go down stairs to get it. As it turns out down stairs meant baggage claim. We had to walk miles and wait in a long passport check line with no stroller. The stroller arrived in the baggage claim. What’s up with that?! When I was 6 months pregnant with Ellie I was flying for my company. I was having trouble lifting my case into the overhead. There was an airhostess coming down the aisle towards me. I asked her if she could give me a hand - I had my case midway there. She said if I was unable to manage my carry on I would have to get off the plane. And then proceeded not to help me but stare at me as if I had two heads. It was humiliating.

So you see, I have had it with them and won't fly with them again. Not to mention that on the way there we were in some sort of twilight zone of a seating arrangement such that when the person in front of us put back their chair the seat was literally 3 inches from your face. Very difficult to hold a Hypotonic child in this position.


So, sorry American, but you won't be getting our business anymore. And for the record, Alice should really go to customer service training.

4 comments:

Jacqui said...

I don't blame you.

A lot of the parents here have been complaining about the service they get from Qantas and will only fly Singapore Airlines when they go to Singapore for ABR. Qantas doesn't want to help with wheelchairs or strollers either, whereas apparently Singapore Airlines fall over themselves to help and look after your child during the flight. The other problem the parents have with is seating on the plane as apparently, if your over 2 years old and or 11kg, you have to sit in your own chair. That would be okay if a lot of the kids could sit unassisted. I've heard of families having to take their car seats on the planes for the kids to sit in.

Kathryn said...

Jacqui,

Yes - American does the same regarding not letting you hold your kid if they are over 2. The first time this happened to us Ellie was 3 but only weighed 20 pounds. We did not know this rule existed. Ellie could not sit on her own and was very floppy. We told them this and that she could not sit on her own even though we had had to buy her a seat. The pilot, via the air hostess, told us that if Ellie couldn't sit that way we could not fly American. See, yet another incident. They just suck, suck, suck.

Access for the disabled is just such a spectacularly HUGE issue. I just had this conversation with another mother of a disabled kid about how you always have to fight. Here is just one more battle ground. Thanks for the input on Quantas too. They will be on our do not fly list.

Hope you are doing great! Can't wait to hear the good news.
Kathryn

Anonymous said...

What saddens me most about this is the fact that it doesn't surprise me. Flying is a very very dependent on the staff experience. I've had some nightmare flights and I've had some great flights. I think the only reason I've had great flights is because I and whoever I am with are always very vocal about the fact that I have a disability, I have requested X or Y and I will complain if it doesn't happen.

I've never flown American but I have flown Qantas several times (I spent a month in Australia some years ago and our flights to and from and four? internal flights were all them) and never had any issues. I've been to your part of the world once (well, to Washington) and probably my most vivid memory of that is the sheer amount of disability related f*** up's United managed to commit in just my flight home. Let's just say that if I wrote them here you would have a whole essay and that starting at check in and continuing until I deplaned they embarrassed me and my family several times. And didn't respond to letters of complaint. So no more united for me. Another airline I won't fly with is Monarch - told me that disabled people can only sit in window seats because they might prevent others getting off the plane in event of emergency and even when the only other people in that row were my family wouldn't allow it.

Kathryn said...

Emma,

God! That sucks. It must be a US thing, though I don't know if Monarch is British or not. The whole thing just stinks of world wide insensitivity to access for people who are different and may need different things for the masses. This issue is pissing me off the more I understand about it from the whole Ashley X thing to our recent experiences flying.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Kathryn