San Gottardo

Following a little accident I have been “mobility reduced” for the past 15 weeks: for 2 months, I had a cast and used crutches, after that it was a so-called little “air cast”, no more crutches, but still unable to walk more than several minutes. I reduced my travel significantly, but couldn’t stop it altogether. Thus, when flying, I relied upon airports to provide me with a wheelchair assistance and airlines to accommodate me.

Procedure was the same every time: for every booking, I told the airline beforehand that I required assistance (“WCHR”). I turned up at CKI desks between 90 and 75 minutes before departure, like that allowing for sufficient time to be picked up and brought to the plane. About 60% of my flights were in Business, the remainder in Economy (sign of the crisis I guess…).

Comparing what I experienced I use a grading system from A (exceeding expectations and what is needed) to F (I could not travel because of the assistance provided).


Airports (just a few – I did really restrict my travel):

Beirut: C: just smaller issues

• On arrival, wheelchair was available, but agent also had to take care of UMs and was completely overwhelmed. Couldn't help with luggage. Stopped numerous times to chat to other people and just abandoned me and the UMs. Didn't speak any other language than Arabic.
• On departure, wheelchair came out to the car, no wait whatsoever. Helpful inside the terminal, dropped me off in lounge and came rightly timed for departure. Language problem

Frankfurt: B: good, no issues

• Always some confusion as who was supposed to pick me up, "medical assistance" or LH HON agent. But always resolved within seconds
• Very flexible in responding to special requests, eg. when asking to spend 2 hour layover in lounge, I was dropped there and picked up on time. When asking not to board through the gate and the bus, a special van was made available within 2 minutes
• Didn't happen to me because I intervened, but the overall concept of having mobility-reduced passengers use bus gates and the stairs involved in them is not very smart. Hadn't I found about this in time, this would have been a D

Munich: B: good, no issues

• At departure, quick response time to have wheelchair service pick me up. Given choice where to go: lounge, gate.
• Pick-up from lounge perfectly timed
• On arrival, wheelchair service always on time and expecting arrival
• Only quirk: it is much faster to hop through security oneself and board the wheelchair after the security check. Taking the wheelchair through security adds a lot of time. Fortunately the CKI counters are right next to the security control. However, had I been a pax in need for wheelchair right from the CKI counters, this would have added time (and it would have been a C)

Paris CDG: F: systematic and repeated process failure

• I missed planes twice because of failure of assistance service to get me to plane on time
• On two occasions, arrival took so long (1h15 mins from plane arriving at terminal to exit, with only hand luggage) that I missed my subsequent appointments
• On one occasion, I was dumped on tarmac level between garbage containers for 20 minutes, waiting for the van to pick me up
• Upon departure, wait time between 30 and 60 minutes for wheelchair assistant to turn up, never without airline staff having to follow up between two and three times
• Agents not always equipped with the necessary badges to access lifts
• Agents sometimes lost, taking detours, not knowing where to go
• Security staff demands to take off cast
• On arrival, no one single occasion of wheelchair assistant meeting flight. Sometimes delay of 45 minutes
• On arrival, assistants sometimes arrive without wheelchair although service request clearly states WCHR
• On arrival, when needing to use elevator from within departure area, security staff refused me through because I had no boarding pass for a flight leaving from Paris
• On arrival, when waiting since 30 minutes on board of plane to be picked up, an assistant dropping a pax departing on that plane refused to pick me up but rather departs without any pax and lets me sit there waiting even longer
• Assistance agents can't reach their operations centre in case of issues
• Little kiosks at entrance of terminal buildings do not work or wait time for assistance exceeds 30 minutes (don't know how long, I stopped waiting after 30 minutes)

Salzburg: B: good, no issues

• At departure, quick response time to have wheelchair service pick me up from CKI counter.
• On arrival, wheelchair service always on time and expecting arrival

Zurich: B: good, no issues

• At departure, quick response time to have wheelchair service pick me up from CKI counter. Choice to go to lounge or to gate. Planes parked on the tarmac were boarded through van, which was always readily available.
• On arrival, wheelchair service always on time and expecting arrival
• Only quirk: they have a tendency to pick up pax way to soon from the lounge, which would result in 45 minutes idle time at the gate. But just say so and they'll accomodate to one's personal time preferences (within reasonable limits)

Airlines

Air France (my status: FB Platinum, highest tier in that program): C: just smaller issues

• At CKI, I always had to insist and negotiate to block the neighbouring seat (if the plane wasn’t full) so that I could stretch my leg
• Upon boarding, FAs insisted on their habit to see boarding pass before letting me on board – even though I had both hands full with my crutches and my BP was with the airport employee right behind me.
• On board, usually attentionate and helpful.
• Just two instances of FAs watching with curiosity how I was hauling my hand luggage to the overhead bin without falling over – and then, when I was done, asking me whether I needed help
• At one instance in Zurich, AF flight manager pushed wheelchair assistant to get me to the gate early – although the plane hadn’t landed yet. Resulted in a 30 minute wait on board the van somewhere on the tarmac (instead of time spent in the lounge for instance)

Austrian (my status: HON Circle, highest tier in that program): B: good, no issues

• Neighbouring seat blocked also for flights in Economy thanks to HON status. Flights never full, so it worked (on one flight the only free seat was the one next to me)
• FAs helpful when needed, but no further special care

Lufthansa (my status: HON Circle, highest tier in that program): B: good, no issues

• Neighbouring seat blocked also for flights in Economy thanks to HON status. Flights never 100% full, so it worked (on one flight the only free seat was the one next to me)
• FAs helpful when needed, but no further special care
• Upgraded from Eco to Business cabin to have more space on one occasion

Middle East Airlines (my status: none with them, but FB Platinum on AF with whom they run a joint venture on CDG-BEY): D, making travel difficult

• Assigned seat changed and given to someone else by CKI staff
• On board, quite reckless (no assistance with hand luggage, pushed me around when standing on my crutches in front of WC)

Swiss (my status: HON Circle, highest tier in that program): A: extra care and assistance on top of just making things work

• At CKI, neighbouring seat blocked on all flights
• For about one third of my Economy flights, I was upgraded to Business already at CKI and the entire seat row blocked for me
• Upon boarding, cabin crew always already knew who I was (they seemed to be the only airline looking at the pre-manifest before people board).
• On those Eco flights where I hadn’t been upgraded by ground staff, I was by cabin staff right upon boarding. Usually – when occupancy allowed for it – entire seat row blocked
• They went out of their way to carry and stow my hand luggage, ask me whether I needed anything like pillows, water

Cassolato

Hi creber,
nobody commented yet on your report but I liked it and I'm sure it'll be a usefull reference in the future here on ft.com!
Well done!

Braniff

Thankl you for this report. Your experience at CDG does not surprise me.

In general, I wonder how much of the ground issues are due to the airport authority and how much is due to the respective airlines.

San Gottardo

In my experience, and at these airports where assistance lies in the hands of handling firms or the airport itself, I would say 90%. The only difference an airline can make is to communicate to the airport your need for assistance, and they can follow up in case something goes wrong.

San Gottardo

To complete my above posting, I'd like to report here a call I received today.

Swiss Airlines called me, saying "they had heard from their Paris CDG station manager that there had been repeated issues with providing wheelchair assistance". They wanted to apologize - I told them they don't need to, they did everything right - and to learn more about what was happening to report it back to Paris Airport.

Signs of care like these are really appreciated, and they underline the "A" ranking I already gave Swiss above. Now the "A" airline suggesting improvements to the "F" airport, that will be fun...

I am afraid I know what the outcome will be (if Roger Federer gives Tennis lessons to me who hasn't played in two years - will I win Wimbledon, or will I remain a lousy Tennis player?).

tff

Very interesting post, creber. I wonder what would be the result for "mobility reduced" pax without status...

San Gottardo

At airports: no difference. True, at FRA Lufthansa's HON Circle turned up in parallel to the airport's assistance service, but even without this it would have worked OK.

Airlines: Surely Swiss would merely have been a "B". They do not upgrade people because they have difficulties walking. They do it because they see that one of their good customers has difficulties, and they make an extra effort to make things easier for him.

Lufthansa: no difference. Privileges for status pax are usually the "written ones" - which are generous, and usually delivered without failure. But LH is so predictable, you know you won't have a bad suprise (which is good), but neither will you experience them doing something super extra on a regular basis (that's the downside of hit-and-miss).

Air France: no difference. They don't care if you're status. They see the different coloured cards as a barometer for how many miles a pax has flown, but they do not react and think "he's Platinum, so that means he's a good customer, so we should treat him nicely". Thus, without my card I would have gotten the same treatment, which after all was OK, so no complaints.

RCyyz

I think the degree of your play post Federer will largely depend on your own ability to learn and apply said learning. Safe to say you won't win Wimbledon, but you could at least be a better player.

I'd like to think that ADP can learn, but sadly their willingness to apply is a different matter.

Nice report BTW. Thanks! ^

MatthewLAX

Interesting report. I am glad LX took care of you. CDG sounds like...business as usual.

You're a harsh grader, BTW.

Adelaide_Matthew

You may have already done this, but there is an old trick with getting wheelchair assistance - whatever you do, do not leave the aircraft until your onward transport has arrived. The flight crew cannot leave until you are off, and this ensures creative assistance from them to get the wheelchair to you!

CJ99

Great report that will no-doubt prove useful to many.

barberio

Lufthansa get a downgrade in my opinion, as someone who's full-time disabled.

The Lufthansa interpretation of the EU regulations requires disabled passengers to submit to a Lufthansa doctor for a medical examination 48 hours before every flight, or sign up to their 'medical card' and have regular checks by their doctors. And this applies to every disabled person requiring even the minimum assistance, ie, if you only have problems with stairs. No other airline I've considered flying with have had such a blanket requirement on all disabled passengers.

Their service when you do get to fly with them doesn't matter much if they put me to extra expense and hassle prior to the flight.

MJLogan

I can confirm the awfulness of CDG in this regard--they very nearly lost my friend's mother when we were all transiting at CDG a few months ago. Absolutely everything went wrong, starting before we got off the plane and not ending until we were in the jetway of our connecting flight.