braddev

I agree completely with everyone on this board.

I'm not sure I'd put my wife on that itinerary without a cell phone and she speaks English and gets around quite well.

Blumie

Earth to TrajanHorse: While I agree with the responses that it is not fair to have expected AA to care for the grandmother, there are many, many non-English speaking 84-year-olds who could have handled a situation like this with little difficulty.

brp

As I said, the fault was with the OP (as all have said). However, it should not take a rocket scientist to find a little time to explain to an older woman who, undoubtedly, looked confused just what was going on. I didn't blame AA, but I felt they could have done a little more here with very little effort.

Geez, now I'm being criticized for not being an AApologist (vail, are you listening?)

Cheers.

gemac

While I agree that there are many non-English speaking 84-year-olds who could have handled a situation like this with little difficulty, Abuela apparently wasn't one of those, and OP knew this but expected AA to care for his grandmother.

Colin

on a free ticket too! Shhessh. I bet it was a coach saver award

c_stanley

Actually he expected them to fly her on the dates she was ticketed. That's not an insane request is it? Yes, yes, yes I know it was weather, totally understood. But he wasn't asking for anything special besides a wheelchair (totally reasonable) until things went wrong. And when things went wrong the airline does have some minor obligation to sort it out effectively.

I think one of two things is at work here though. Either the OP needs to teach his grandmother how to be more proactive in asking for assistance (which I suspect is the real root of this entire fiasco) or AA really does need to do a better job. IF she was actively asking for help and AA couldn't find a Spanish speaker to give her a hand explaining things in Spanish at an huge, international airport when she is on an itin heading to South America then they do need to work on their customer service.

There's a reason we have things like the ADA. It's because we've decided that people with reduced abilities should still be able to participate and do things others can do, and we're all expected to be mindful and make that possible. We have made a cultural decision that people who are both mentally and physically disabled should be given a hand.

Reading all these harsh posts against the OP makes me wonder. Tickets from MVD to BOS aren't really cheap, not everyone has the means to buy another ticket for someone to fly with an older relative.

I am visualizing an older and clearly confused woman trying to visit family and stuck in a disrupted travel situation unable to get help -- and thinking that's not really acceptable, we should be able to do better than that to care for our collective grandparents and others less able to help themselves.

All of that said, however my suspicion remains that grandma may be the cause of this one all by herself. The way this story read it *screams* out the interpretation that she wasn't comfortable enough to start asking around in Spanish until she found someone who could translate for her (which should have been almost instantly as mentioned, given a cancelled MIA flight) and getting assistance. I suspect she would have found at least one person very eager and willing to do a good deed.

We don't have enough info from the OP. If, as I would be willing to bet, the grandmother didn't ask for assistance or worse yet sort of played along as if she was OK (and I think we've all seen an older relative do this once or twice) then you just can't really blame AA. How on earth would they have known?

But if she was actively asking for help and clearly in distress and was ignored, or told to pound sand (and we don't know which story is closer to the truth, and likely never will) then in my opinion the criticism of AA is highly valid.

shadesofgrey1x

So let me get this right.

You, a blood relative, dump a mobility challenged, elderly relative, who is a non-native speaker, off by herself on the Airline and that's ok?

But, the Airline drops her off without a sufficient level of assistance and now it is all the airlines fault.

I think the greater burden of responsibility lies with the relatives not a company whose primary responsibility is transport (barring weather and mech issues).

gemac

My experience in this situation has been this:

AA announces flight cancelled over the gate PA, asks everybody to go to XXX location where they will be given hotel and food vouchers. All passengers go to XXX location, the wheelchair guy pushes Abuela there. At XXX location, there is a substantial delay - an hour or more. Finally, somebody shows up, hands out vouchers, announces that buses pick people up in front of the terminal. The wheelchair guy leaves Abuela in the back of the crowd, takes her boarding pass, and goes up and gets the vouchers for her, so the AAgent doesn't notice that she is looking lost. Wheelchair guy gives Abuela the vouchers, and pushes her to the bus. In my experience, these busses have been large, Greyhound-type busses, not smaller hotel shuttles. The bus stops at each hotel being used until it is empty. The driver apparently took her to the hotel, and let her off the bus in front of it. He may even have taken her back to the hotel, having been there earlier and she didn't get off. OP called AA, got the name of the hotel, and called her there.

Anyway, I can easily see how this might have happened, and don't necessarily think it was lack of effort on AA's part.

Blumie

Why does that make a difference?

It appears that we all agree that the OP expected too much from the airline. Live and learn. It's not clear to me why everyone feels the need to dump on him, too. Those who know me know that I'm not shy about dumping on people, but the OP made a mistake that I suspect s/he will not make again. No reason to keep kicking him/her in the head.

gemac

While I agree totally with the rest of your post (and this part also), I would point out that the responsibility lies with the disabled person (or, if they are unable to do so, with their friends or relatives) to communicate the nature of the disability and the assistance required. In this case, the mobility disability was communicated and wheelchair assistance was provided. There was additional assistance available, but it was not provided because it was not asked for (or paid for).

pauleeepaul

Surely you jest- this is after all the AA board on FT.

(and i won't call you Shirley again )

UncleDude

6 NON-Stops a Day between BOS-MIA and OP books AAwards via JFK

Also there is no need for a Mobile Phone with IDT http://www.idt.net/personal/cards/gc/ You can use any 1-800 Public/Hotel/Airline/Private Phone...there is even a Spanish Help Line.

No worrys about Mobile Network Connections ETC.

brp

OP seems logged in, but I wouldn't be surprised if s/he doesn't want to come back to this thread given the extra helpings of abuse heaped on, long after the point had been made.

Cheers.

jakuda

No, it isn't. Your [sic] wrong.

3Cforme

Others have unloaded on the OP. I take issue with the statement above. It's patently ridiculous to expect AA or any other airline to have an open commitment to overcome infirmities, confusion and/or language barriers.

U.S. society has extended help - it's defined by the ADA. I suspect AA complied with requirements, and in fact has regular training and compliance efforts.

The OP couldn't bother, or couldn't afford - to travel with Grandma, and secured a ticket with clear deficiencies based on her needs. That's not AA's problem.