wheelchair in the closet
 

Monday, DEN-BWI:

A320. I pre-board, I see the nice big closet with only a couple of flight attendant bags in it, plenty of room. I say, "I'd like you to stow the wheelchair in the closet," and I start taking my rigid frame chair apart for them.

The purser and the first officer are standing there. The purser gets huge eyes, and she says in a shocked tone, "In the closet?" as if I had asked her to sacrifice her first born child.

"Yes, please."

She starts going on and on about how most airplanes don't have closets any more (huh?) as she takes the wheels and starts angrily stuffing them in. I manage not to point out that it doesn't really matter what most airplanes have; this airplane does have one. I'm starting to think my chair might have been safer in the hold (!).

She tries to cram the frame in sort of weirdly sidewise; I start to say that she can just turn it the other way and it will fit right over the bags when she throws the frame back out on the floor, then picks up a flight attendant bag (hopefully her own) and flings it violently into the galley with a crash. The first officer, who has been looking kind of shocked this whole time, says "That's the one with the breakables".

The chair survived. I'm feeling very proud of myself for staying calm and not arguing with her.

BWI-DEN today, the FA was overjoyed to put it in the closet, and was surprised when I thanked her.

.....

The word "please" often goes a long way to getting a more pleasant response.

Thank you for your suggestion. I was quite calm (at least externally) and polite throughout, that's kind of the point of the story.

I read the part about asking to put it in the closet.

I missed the part about whether they did put it there.

Yes, she did, but she wasn't happy about it. Everything that was already in the closet still fit in along with the wheelchair, with room to spare.

I don't get why she got so upset? What's the big deal about stowing the chair in the closet?

@:-) He didn't say please

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not. :confused:

If you were, then my response would be, "so what?" If this F/A is going nuts because someone didn't say "please" then it's time to find a new line of work.

Have you ever traveled with a chair? It's an instant litmus test for insanity. Some FAs are great, other are like the one described. I often bend myself over backwards with politeness in a blatant quest for an upgrade, but then I am regaled with tales of how I'm "not like most people in wheelchairs" and how I'm "so easy to deal with". It's ridiculous.

Yes, I travel with a wheelchair. I've been using one for 13 years. I'm still wondering what sets people like that FA off? Why is it so hard to stow a chair in the closet. It's such an easy thing for them to do. What is the problem.

Probably the FA was having a bad hair day, nobody can be 100% nice 100% of the time; just our nature as annoying humans. :)

That said, I am not condoning the behaviour exhibited by the FA, and would certainly send a wee complaint note to the airline if it is easy enough to do in case the FA was a bad apple (if there were lots of previous complains) rather than having an "off" day.

I think it's more than a bad hair day. I think most FA's hate the rule about the closet. That's just my feeling from years of travel and from hearing other people's experiences. I'm just wondering why? Is my feeling off?

I have the same feeling.

It's funny, for years I publicized the closet rule, but at some point stopped requesting closet space for my own chair, mostly because it was an emotional battle every time.

I'd almost forgotten about it until I recently had lunch with a friend who is a dancer in an integrated dance company. They're touring pretty much weekly, and she was shocked that I wasn't asking to have my chair stowed in the closet. So I started up again. And lo and behold, it's still an emotional battle. We shouldn't have to grovel to get what's legally required.

Yes, I am shocked at the regular pattern of it, and I hope you were able to raise it with the airline(s) via the complaints channels if it is not too much of a chore to do.