[ad_1]
Deanna Vaillancourt-Thompson told USA TODAY over the summer that she was worried about flying again after her manual wheelchair broke on an American Airlines flight in April, but her concerns were well-founded. It turned out that there was a basis for this.
In December, she flew from San Francisco to Orlando, Florida, and returned on Delta Airlines, but her new power chair broke during the trip.
“My wheelchair was really new,” she said.
Vaillancourt-Thompson said her wheelchair was handled perfectly on the third of four legs of the trip. As she drove from San Francisco to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Orlando, and back from Orlando to Salt Lake City, “Delta put white gloves on my wheelchair the entire time,” she said. “There wasn’t a single scratch on the wheelchair.”
But when she arrived in San Francisco on Dec. 7, at the end of her trip, her wheelchair was no longer operable.
She said the joystick was hanging from the harness and cracked, and the frame was bent, making the chair virtually unusable.
Vaillancourt-Thompson made numerous calls to Delta Air Lines and its equipment repair contractor, Scoot Around, to replace the chair and Apple AirTag that were lost in transit, and by Jan. 24, it took a month. He said it took more than that. She said the airline agreed to give her and her husband a $500 credit each for future travel, and a customer service representative said the company had spoken with a baggage agent in San Francisco to carefully arrange their wheelchairs. He promised to emphasize the importance of
Delta confirmed the incident in a statement to USA TODAY.
“Although the majority of scooters and wheelchairs that Delta transports are treated with care, we understand the frustration that can arise when that is not done well. We apologize for this customer’s experience. , we have since delivered a replacement wheelchair and provided additional compensation to make things right,” it said in a statement.
Two accidents in less than a year that damaged her wheelchair have made Vaillancourt-Thompson even more anxious about traveling and is especially cautious about bringing her new power wheelchair on planes.
She is preparing for a trip to a service dog convention this spring and said she is already worried about what will happen during the trip.
“I wish airlines were a little more educated and a little more considerate when handling medical devices like this,” she says. “If we didn’t have to use the chairs in South Carolina, we probably wouldn’t use them.”
In 2023, more than 30 disabled travelers shared their stories of damaged mobility devices with USA TODAY, even as airlines continue to damage more than 10,000 devices per year on average. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has promised improved handling of wheelchairs.
Zach Wictor is a travel writer for USA TODAY based in New York. Please contact us at zwichter@usatoday.com.
[ad_2]
Source link
