Fly2012

Sorry for the rant but I was so upset by what occurred last week on a flight from LHR to Istanbul.
I had never flown Turkish, was looking forward to it and after some planning we were on a trip to the city with a very old friend. When we arrived at Heathrow we had to meet out friend outside. She walks with a stick, suffers from MS, and so we were conscious that she want going to be able to stand for too long. Having asked at the main desk we were directed to the business class queue. Once we made it to the desk the lady looked at us and inferred we were not travelling in business class. My friend mentioned we had been directed to this line.
The lady rolled her eyes and said ok in a tone. My friend mentioned that she would need wheelchair assistance through Heathrow and at the other end. Then the lady on the check in next to us says " it would be easy if we all got a walking stick". I say to my friend do I mishear that comment. She says no it was said and it happens a lot. People make snide comments all the time and she does her best to let it roll off her back.
I was stunned. I couldn't believe someone at an international airline would say something like that. I understand people try it on but really!! Keep it to yourself woman! Shocking. Both of them really were awful, rude and judging my friend.

We left check in went to wheelchair assistance got through and at the gate the same woman was there. When going through to the gate my friend asked if wheelchair assistance was confirmed and he said it want in the system. The lady that checked us in was standing next to him so my friend mentioned that this had been discussed at check in, not mentioning the snide comment. She shrugged and denied she had even checked us in. Just awful!

He added it to the system. We flew , landed and were met by assistance in the other side. In Istanbul they were super helpful, charming and helped us no end.

I was stunned by the attitude in London. I'm a English. It was shocking. I really understand that people try it on. But we really did need help. To hear that at check in was just shameful.

Tomorrow we are flying back to London and I am hoping that we don't have to hear comments and syndical comments as we travel.

First impressions of Turkish. Not so good.

Far Siren

Others with knowledge should weigh in, but I don't think the check-in agents at LHR are TK employees. They're likely contracted by a ground services company like Servisair.

johhenrik

OP should file a complaint anyways, no matter if they are TK employees or contractors. That is just not acceptable behavior. I've had very rude behavior of ground staff from KLM once and I filed a complaint. DIdn't even think whether they were KLM or others, to me they represented KLM first and foremost.

TPJ

Yes - they are handling agency employees. But OP should send official complaint, anyway.

djjaguar64

Lesson learned: Wheelchair requests should have been made way in advance of the flight. These agents see a lot of people who like to scam the system and get ahead in lines so we cannot blame them. As well, none of us were there so non of us can vouch for what he said, she said,

mrblanco

Yeah contracted staff. I do regularly find them fairly grumpy, I guess because they don't belong to the airline they don't care much about service.

Far Siren

It's a miracle to get TK to respond to complaints directly related to them, so I doubt the OP will ever hear back about the behaviour of contract employees.

Perhaps better to file a complaint directly with the ground handling company, LHR operations authority or a UK watchdog?

Fly2012

Thanks for your comments. Totally understand they may not have been TK staff, but they were, or should have been, representing. They had the uniform and badges.
Everything in terms of assistance was booked in advance. But reality is that one has to let them know we are here and we need help.
It really was a terribly rude comment. My friend was very embarrassed in front of the two of us, her friends. She just wants to be treated with respect and not humiliated.
The arrival in Istanbul was superb, the staff on the plane were not particulay nice but that had nothing to do with disability, and the journey back today to London we had no major issues, wheelchairs and staff on both end were fine. As someone able bodied it was an eye opening experience and in the end two people really opened my eyes.
I totally get that people try it on, I get that, but when you are genuine and in need of help to hear comments like that it seemed unnecessary and rude. They should be careful.