Dealing with "handicapped" pax
 

And firstly, my apologies for using "handicapped" because I'm not sure what the current PC word is, but this was what we experienced at LAX a couple of days ago.

Mrs Haz and I were early for 792, which was delayed by de-icing at YYZ (we had 95F, what's the problem?) and were sitting for a couple of hours at the gate with a spare seat beside us. At boarding -1hr a heavily be-badged and presumably AC manager came up to our location, accompanied by a lady with obviously serious vision impairment. He asked us whether we could take care of seeing this lady boarded safely, and upon receiving a "yes, of course" answer, told her to sit down beside my wife and left.

(Background info: I'm a retired fire chief and my wife is in the emergency business also so being helpful to others is engrained in both of us.) So this was no problem - we were glad to help. However, looking around others waiting at the gate we saw families with kids, non-English speakers, the usual wheelchair fakers, and others whom it would have been inappropriate to leave this lady with. What if we hadn't been there?

We were glad to help this pax both at the LAX and at the YYZ end, but now embarrassing was it for her? She told us that usually she gets taken on-board by AC personnel, not by fellow-pax, and how embarrassed she was to be a "burden" on us (which we never felt.)

At the YYZ-end she told us that normally there would be an AC agent to help her a bit, then offload her to another one, and so on, as if each AC helper had their own bit of turf. Apparently we saved her nearly 2 hours just to help her get to Customs...

I'm just wondering if this is SOP or just an aberration. I know that when my wife was in a wheelchair due to a broken foot she was treated with respect and dignity by AC staff all the way through YYC to her rental car.

What are your experiences / thoughts?

Perhaps you just look extremely competent and trustworthy. ;)

I'm glad you were able to help someone out. I'm surprised the airline asked you, though.

Terribly poor of AC to ask random passengers to discharge what is their responsibility to their disabled passengers.

What next? AC short of flight attendants so they request that a passenger do the drink service?

I wonder what AC's employee unions would say if they found out that a manager was requesting that customers perform work that is normally the exclusive responsibility of their paid staff?

Don't know what to say. You could probably write "Customer Solutions". Maybe they'll fling you a 10% off coupon (fuel surcharges and taxes excluded!). I know you probably don't desire "compensation" for your experience, but if AC management doesn't perceive a 'cost' to under-staffing, they'll continue at it indefinitely.

Paging rehoult! Best FA ever ;)

Nah, that's not who we are. We're not looking for compensation, just for a way to cause less embarrassment to people who need help in the travel process.

OMG that is outrageous.

Dumping the passenger onto another passenger? How undignified for her. They asked YOU if it was okay for you to watch her, but did they ask HER if it was okay if she was "minded" by a perfect stranger with no accountability?

What is she, a FedEx delivery for a neighbour that wasn't home?

What if you were an ax murderer?

You were very gracious and kind to cover for the airline but the airline owes you/Mrs Hazcaddy AND Mrs. FedEx both a giant apology.


(In response to the preamble, the currently preferred term is "people with disabilities" as the aggregate (or passengers with disabilities, in the specific case of travel), but specific descriptions are also good in specific cases, e.g., passengers who are blind or partially sighted, because there are practical differences among disabilities. It's not a matter of "PC" but just of sensitivity to how people prefer to be described.)

He indeed does have many talents.

Wow, it will be interesting to see how my son, who has a significant physical disability, gets treated the first time he travels on his own. No idea when that will be, and it will be challenging, I'm sure.

He's flown AC a number of times but always with a parent (or both), and we take a fair bit of responsibility for him (as we should). But AC has always been terrific in helping make our travels as easy as possible in the circumstances - and that includes before I had status. The fact he's not quite an adult yet may help, as does the fact we are there to advocate for him.

Thank you. I know one is a product of one's generation, so I appreciate you putting me straight.

No offense intended from the start :)

AC help in Toronto airport
 

I have a disability and can't walk too far so AC had a wheelchair for me and they kept taking me to a certain spot and leaving me for the next person to help. It took a long time to get from point A to point B with all the waiting and changing personnel. I now have a mobility scooter and it's much quicker to navigate the airport by myself.

This happened to a friend of mine about 10 years ago. Also on AC.

From YVR-NAN (via somewhere I think) - she helped a blind man. It did not go unnoticed as as the GA allocated her an entire row to herself directly behind the man she assisted.

She said they just dumped him at the gate with a wave of the hand saying it is over - very specific for a vision-impaired person.

In answer to this portion, yes, this is SOP. There was an article in the newspapers a few weeks/months ago posted on here, where it was clarified that yes, each AC helper is assigned to specific areas and cannot leave them, otherwise it would leave an area unserviced.

As such, a person will indeed have multiple AC helpers throughout their YYZ journey.

Honestly, how they expect having a person stay in one "area" lest it not have someone available to help out made no sense to me - wouldn't it be better to have a single person help out, and have someone waiting to take their place at the appropriate point they leave with them?

As mexico8 attested to (welcome to FT!), this means you can have a long journey where you're just waiting for a handoff.

Understood. I think sometimes people are nervous about direct descriptions as though it would cause offence to the individuals to be described as deaf or blind or paraplegic, and so euphemisms ran rampant in the generation of delicate descriptions. (I used to be sent to school with a note to the teacher asking to have me seated discreetly in the front row due to my "hearing problem"). Believe me, someone who is deaf, blind, or paraplegic knows it. I am extremely uncomfortable with deaf being used as a metaphor for unreasonableness or obstinacy (e.g. "the mean old company was deaf to their pleas"), much prefer to be called deaf not "hearing impaired" (by a long shot) or worse, "special needs".

I agree with Absolute: if they're assigned by zone, fair enough but there needs to be hand-to-hand transfer from employee to employee, not just dumping in the receiving area. There should not be difficulty planning appropriate staffing on a shift by shift basis because we disclose disability specifically by type when booking, checking in, or both, and they know when the passenger is expected to present at the airport and when the flight will depart and what type of accommodation corresponds to their specific condition. This is the type of task a 3rd year Industrial Engineering co-op could figure out.

And if airlines/airports are short of people for accommodation assistance, cutting down on the stupidness would help. There is no need for me to be met on the jetway by a porter with a wheelchair and a sign with my name, for example (I think it was LAX.)

The alternative would have been a porter with a wheelchair and a sign in braille.

I have been offered the braille safety card on AC, so that is not much of a stretch.