smmrfld

+1. Yet another example of Pot Kettle Black.

shenon1

Hmmmm, I wonder if my mother might need to fly somewhere? :-)

arollins

I just don't understand why someone will leave their elderly parent who needs special attention at the mercy of others and expect them to be taken care for just because you gave the skycap at $5 tip.

Airline employees are not caretakers, they are in the business of moving people, luggage, and cargo around, plain and simple. There are special services and fees that will cover "extra" services, but none of this was asked for.

Skycaps are not employed by the airline, they are airport employees. I've seen numerous occasions where skycaps are spending their time texting, listening to music, talking or playing games on their cell phone, and not paying much attention to what they are doing. Granted, pushing people around in a wheelchair might be boring, it is still a responsibility of the skycap to get the person to the gate, carousel, club etc.

I just do not feel that I can trust anyone to wheel my loved one who needs special attention and make sure they get to their destination, that is my responsibility, and I will make the necessary arrangements to make sure that this is meet. If, for some reason, I can not fly or get a pass, I will make arrangements to have a friend of mine do that for me and compensate him/her.

Having a parent that has Alzheimer, and lives in another state, I have in numerous occasions in the past done this. I understand there is a financial burden, but it is the price to pay for peace of mind. The daughter could have easily flown with her parent, and it would have made for a comfortable experience.

Dianne47

I was waiting for a flight recently at the LAS airport. A woman who was "slightly forgetful" was waiting in a wheelchair for her flight. She kept getting up and wandering around, she said she had to "go get somebody." The harried Southwest employees couldn't keep track of her. I tried to take care of her and keep her in the chair, but my flight boarded first and I have no idea if the poor lady ever made her flight.

I can see how this thread's family has a problem with granny traveling. She is diabetic and "forgetful." The trip originated in Newark. TWO family members would be needed to take granny to the airport.

Helper #1 gets out of the car with granny and gets a skycap to check the luggage and find a wheelchair. Meanwhile, Helper #2 goes to park the car (or waits somewhere nearby, perhaps the cellphone lot - I'm not familiar with EWR ground side). Helper #1 goes to the ticket counter (after waiting in who-know-how-long-a line) and gets a gate pass. Perhaps the skycap can issue a gate pass, I have no idea. They get granny through security and to the gate. Helper #1 waits until the flight boards and for half an hour after departure to be sure the flight doesn't come back to the gate.

If granny has her own wheelchair it might only take one person to take her to the airport, but it would be difficult. Checking baggage with a skycap while granny waits in the car curbside (IF she can be trusted to stay in the car), then going to park, then wheeling granny to the ticket counter to get the gate pass, etc.

The bottom line here is Southwest did NOTHING wrong and the family did EVERYTHING wrong. From now on someone is going to have to fly with granny OR two people have to take her to the airport and pick her up. Anything else is the height of irresponsibility.

TheRoadie

Managing the situation properly wasn't too expensive....they were just too cheap.

Like giving up driving, at some point people fail to remain a suitable solo traveler. There's always Skype.

wbowles

I think the GAs were too busy checking Twitter for disparaging tweets so they could drag the offenders and their kids off their flights to make them delete them.

trini19

Clear case of all parties are at fault here but situations like this might have to happen as it may not be foreseen beforehand.

1) Family is at fault for not notifying the airline at check in that the lady is "slightly forgetful". I am not sure of the extent of her condition but since it could happen, it should be made known so extra oversight can occur. This is following the system as it is not which leads to point 2.

2) The airline should not be responsible for taking care of anyone with a mental condition. The lady might have been in her "slightly forgetful" state as if she wasn't and was just left somewhere, she would of been able to call out to someone saying is anyone going to help me? She did state she thought she would stay there forever so it seems she knew that something was wrong so why did she not call out to anyone?

Currently, airlines do not ask if the person requiring assistance has a mental condition which this situation shows might be a valid question resulting in passengers with mental conditions being required to fly with someone who is responsible for them.

3) Southwest was at fault as they admitted during check-in they did not input that the pax requires a wheelchair. If this had occurred, maybe the GA's would have raised the issue of where is our wheelchair pax and asked the skycaps about her status.

Unfortunate incident, glad nothing bad happened in the end......hope it does not happen again....can see how this can happen a few times.

Bonehead

I think that direct flights can involve aircraft changes. The certainly have in my experiences on other airlines.

Eye of Storm

Per Southwest UM policy:

So it looks like for this purpose, Southwest is defining "direct" more restrictively than usual.

rove312

Yes, I've had that happen on WN with irrops, but the general plan is for flights with the same flight number to be on the same aircraft.

joshua362

^

Bonehead

There was a famous (to us) CO flight DEN--LHR that had a single flight number and that looked for all the world like a nonstop on the search results, but that actually stopped at IAH and changed equipment to a 777 or 762 or something. Time on the ground was only 1+ hours as I recall. On numerous occasions the inbound to IAH would be late, and passengers would miss the connection. I suspect that there were a lot of very unhappy people who thought they were on a nonstop, or at least were on the same plane. Of course since the DEN--IAH equipment was usually a 737 anyone with a lick of sense (or that was paying attention) would know something was up.

pinniped

Southwest is much better than other airlines at keeping "direct" flights on the same plane. Since that's their normal MO, I imagine they are fairly diligent about keeping track of UM's in the event that IRROPs makes them change planes.

I used to fly DEN-SEA every week on a 757 that used a TPAC flight number. The flight "continued on" to NRT...obviously on the 777 that was usually parked a gate or two away.

I don't trust the legacies' "direct" flights at all. I generally do with Southwest.

TomMM

Guess they were slightly forgetful about their mother's forgetfulness.

flyventure

As others have stated, for Southwest a direct flight is one that has stops but no plane change. IRROPS is of course an exception at times, but nothing scheduled. Ops can put out what are coded System or Weather Advisory Messages to alert the stations to not allow UMs to board any direct flights and nonstop only.