hello
i am new to this site -
me and my partner have travelled in the last two years twice with AA, first time from cancun via dallas to honolulu, second time cancun via dallas to frankfurt germany. my partner needed wheelchair assistance both times (first time before a hip surgery, second time right after the hip replacement surgery). i do realize that it is not the air carrier which is responsible but the airport - but nevertheless both times there was a problem. the worst was in dallas on our way to frankfurt. the wheelchair was there but there was nobody to help us (i have an injury myself but i walk but could not push the wheelchair myself) - actually after having waited long enough (20 minutes) the captain himself pushed my partners wheelchair! the cabin crew had told us that they had tried to call several times for personell to help us, but that nobody would be coming to help us out. when we complained to AA later, they told us that we had not waited enough and somebody showed up later! we had been waiting enough and we had a connection to catch. although it is not AA responsibility, dallas airport is their hub and the terminal is AA s terminal in the airport. i thiink AA should have some kind of responsibility - flying in Europe with Lufthansa and Olympic airways, at check in our luggage was tagged 'priority' - when i asked why, i was told that is because of my partner being disabled! i pointed out to AA that this would be a good way of making connections faster (when one has to pick the luggage and has personel to push the wheelchair, this would be more efficient for the personel as well - shorter waiting time would free the personel and more disabled passengers could be attended) but the reply from AA was that they only prioritize business class passengers and not disabled when it comes to priority luggage. personally i find it apalling that a task regarding disabled passengers should be dismissed or carried on in such a way without any consideration. it makes travelling through dallas on connection an impossibility for a disabled person. and it makes us better off flying via canada instead (cancun - toronto- europe) the next time
thanks and kind regards