tuono07

Is there anyway to find out the Airport, gate, GA and crew.
I want to send my mother in law on a trip😉

Jane42

We truly have no idea what the facts are at this point, so waiting to see...

My father would never have agreed to go on a trip alone, especially with a connection, BUT we have no idea what kind of shape this woman was in when she started her journey. It could have been that she only needed wheelchair help, but with whatever happened (missed connection?), left on her own and not sure what to do, no food or drink - these are all things that can cause an elderly person to become confused. I would not be so quick to blame the son if, in fact, his mother is usually quite coherent.

And with people that do not fly often, they do not always realize what the downfalls are and have thought of every single thing that could go wrong and how would their relative handle it. He may have thought getting her from one gate to the other would be the biggest hurdle, so he arranged wheelchair help.

I am anxious to hear the whole story.

Lomapaseo

I take it that we all assume that she was in the custody of United after leaving DC and that she was documented as being unable to make changes between flights without UAL assistance.

On the other hand in my travels I note lots of senior passengers using wheel chairs to get them to the gate and then are able to beat me to the immigration lines when overseas when we both walk off the plane and down the corridors of some hell like FRA.

Baze

(Bolding mine)

What is she? An unaccompanied Senior? Did not know there was such a program. You arrange for wheelchairs, that is about all I have ever heard of for people that are not minors. And I don't know of any airport, other than maybe a tiny regional airport, where the airline is the one pushing the wheelchairs around, especially at at one the size of EWR.

wolf72

You are talking specifically about the non existent customer service in American airports with American airliners I presume?

Which is why incidents like these happen.

Have you not learned anything about the non existent customer service experience missing in your neck of the woods?

In Asia, all major airliners provide ground handling services for elderly folks who require assistance and wheel chairs from arrival through immigration, collection of bags and then to the exit where relatives are waiting. Same for departure though you generally get picked up at the check in desk by a member of staff after you have checked in and zipped through the same process of immigration, customs and so forth to your gate.

They usually get priority boarding first but are last out of the aircraft.

FlyngSvyr

That is EXACTLY the level of assistance that happens at airports in the States.
The porters are there to assist the elderly/infirm. However, they do not treat them like unaccompanied minors who cannot take care of themselves. If an elderly person is at that level, then they need family or a paid professional to accompany them throughout their travel.

Lots of facts missing in this story, but I would not be surprised if a tight connection was scheduled. Probably exacerbated by a delayed first flight due to weather. In the end. the connection was probably tight or near impossible for an able bodied person, but an elderly person (even assisted) had no chance of making the connection.

The only reason I can see the son routing his Mother through EWR was to save a buck & this is the result. Of course it's easier to throw mud at United, then take responsibility for the decisions he made regarding the planning of his Mother's travel.

skylady

I'm going to take a wild guess, price!

wolf72

agreed. We need facts about this case which are missing at this point

FlyingNone

Hmm, my guess is she was wheeled off the DCA flight (in Newark) by a wheelchair pusher - once again those infamous THIRD PARTY workers at minimum wage and probably limited English (and I mean that with no malice)......Probably left her at the wrong gate and there she sat oblivious as well as everyone else around her.
Even on my busiest days at a gate, it's not hard to spot trouble. How hard is it for a gate agent to spot and an elderly passenger (or anyone) who looked out of it or confused or was just sitting there alone, ( !!! ) to react ? I would at least go up to them and ask them questions or have them give me their ticket or itinerary or something they probably have in hand with travel information. WTH is wrong with people ????. Wake UP.

ermintrude

Making some assumptions based on limited info:

1) looks like a mis-connect however It doesn't seem like there was any special effort to get her to the gate. (Back in the days of inherited status we would have my fly mum GS where a UA rep would meet her etc....).

2) It would be interesting to see how how tight the mis-connect was. interesting to see if Kirby's D0 comes into play.

3) UA apparently gave her an ETC for 1K. Nice gesture but I suspect she would have rather had someone accompany her to and from the hotel which would have been a fraction of the cost to UA (although the ETC is UA funny money and not $).

4) Elderly people even when disabled can often travel alone without incident. Every person is different and there isn't enough information for me to comment on whether she needed to be professionally accompanied. However agree with others that a direct flight if available obviously should have been booked.

5) I don't know how frequently similar situations like this occur, but it sounds to me like the UA EWR supervisor should have been informed. There is no way a 77 year old lady in a wheelchair should be sitting at a gate for 12 hrs and the supervisor should realize this and sort it out.

usbusinesstraveller

Live and Let's Fly has had its say and includes a news report video.

http://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.c...474.1480462469


In that report (ironically from IAD) there's an iPhone supposedly with the SMS from the minicab driver to son. It's dated "Saturday" which points to a Friday evening DCA-EWR-LHR. Assuming it was this past weekend some sleuthing could determine which flights these were.

Baze

Not quite sure what you are referring to about "your neck of the woods". Do you mean America? I am most certainly not from EWR, I live in California and SFO is my most used airport.

minnyfly

Friday's #3459 DCA-EWR had some kind of taxi hold in DCA and landed in EWR 43 minutes late, leaving just 42 minutes between gate arrival and door closing of flight 16 on the opposite end of Terminal C. Yep, not happening with a wheelie. I suspect those are the two flights in question.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/R...215Z/KDCA/KEWR

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/U...105Z/KEWR/EGLL

jsloan

You may well be right. If so, there are two later UA departures. Flight 77, with a 9:35 PM departure, may well not have been viable. According to the seat map, it departed with three empty seats. Flight 940, a 10:05 PM departure, should have been easy to make, however. According to the seat map, it went out with one empty seat (27C). While it's possible that there was no positive space available for rebooking, she certainly should have been able to stand by for it. The flight times do mesh with the story, but this still just speculation.

Artpen100

By the way, if she did not have a cellphone, how was she going to connect with the driver at LHR? I suppose he could be standing somewhere in T2 with a sign with her name on it, but with a woman in a wheelchair who is easily confused and following an overnight flight, how likely is that going to work? I have a feeling the driver would be calling the son's cell asking where the mother was even if she'd made the flight.