Lost luggage is bad, but a lost wheelchair is worse

Airline passengers who use wheelchairs and scooters are finally being paid some due respect. The Department of Transportation (DOT)s Secretary Pete Buttigieg has proposed a rule that would ensure those travelers enhanced safety and courtesy.

This expansion of rights would mandate that airlines meet strict standards for handling passengers with disabilities. If it becomes a rule, airline employees and contractors who physically assist passengers with disabilities and handle passengers wheelchairs will have to undergo new training.

Any airline that damages a wheelchair during boarding, deboarding, or during a flight will have to promptly repair or replacethe damaged wheelchair and, when necessary, offer the passenger a loaner.

The proposed rule would also make it easier for the DOT to hold airlines responsible if they damage or delay the return of a wheelchair by making it an automatic violation of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA).

There are millions of Americans with disabilities who do not travel by plane because of inadequate airline practices and inadequate government regulation, but now we are setting out to change that,Buttigieg said. This new rule would change the way airlines operate to ensure that travelers using wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity.

Wheelchairs are a big issue indeed

When ConsumerAffairs reviewed the latest DOT data available for all disability-oriented travel complaints, wheelchair issues in fact lead the way with an estimated 58% of the total number of complaints submitted.

While Buttigieg or the agency didnt come right out and say it, they might have been mumbling the name Spirit Airlines under their breath.

While the larger carriers have more total complaints in the wheelchair department,the DOT statistics suggest that Spirit and wheelchair travelers arent exactly soulmates.

For the better part of the last year, the airline has been shown to have the highest number of wheelchairs and scooters mishandled per 100 enplaned, often running three times more than the next worst offender, according to DOT data.

One Spirit customer detailed their exasperation with the airline on Reddit, writing that Spirit Airlines lost the author's wheelchair, leaving them without mobility or independence.

After a frustrating 41-hour ordeal involving multiple phone calls, lengthy hold times, and unhelpful customer service representatives, the poster said the wheelchair remained lost. The author said they had documented their experience on Spirit's website, with no response from the airline. Desperate for solutions, they were given conflicting, useless advice about retrieving the wheelchair or securing a temporary replacement.

Are there other airlines that rack up similar complaints? Yes. Look no further than ConsumerAffairs reviews about this issue one flier had with American and their wheelchair one holding a first class ticket, no less.

Paula of Livingston, Tex., booked an American Airlines flight with wheelchair assistance. Delays caused her to miss her connection, and despite her disability, the airline refused a hotel/meal voucher, leaving her stranded overnight.

"I used to hold American Airlines in high regard. No more," Paula wrote. "They have slipped severely the past few years on service. I traveled from Lake Charles to DFW for my connecting flight to Chicago O'Hare to see my daughter and grandson for the first time in fouryears," Paula wrote.

Paula said she had only 20 minutes to get across the terminal to catch a connecting flight but the plane left without her. She said the airline blamed the delay on weather so there was no compensation.

Disability issues overall

Spirits incidence ratio is high for wheelchair-related issues, but cumulatively, there are other airlines thatamass a far larger number of overall complaints related to disability issues simply because they carry more passengers. Those issues include:

• Vision Impairment
• Hearing Impairment
• Paraplegic
• Quadriplegic
• Oxygen
• Stretcher
• Mentally Impaired
• Communicable Disease, and
• Allergies

Heres how those break down for the major domestic carriers according to DOT data:

Behind wheelchair issues and problems with other assistive devices and other disabilities, the number one complaint is related to allergies, followed by hearing and vision complaints.

Service animals complaints abound

Reports of issues tied to service animals in connection with disabilities raise some questions, too most of those coming from people with mental impairment, allergy, wheelchair, and vision difficulties.

Leading that metric is JetBlue, which logged more service animal issues than its domestic peers and more than any other complaint segment besides the general Failure to Provide Assistance category.

As an example, one JetBlue passenger wrote about how their daughter with disabilities was wrongly denied boarding her flight with her service dog, even though the dog a 6-lb. toy poodle is well-behaved and flew successfully with other airlines.

The agents then got on the plane announcing to the pilot and flight attendants in front of all passengers that my daughter was falsely trying to bring a service animal on the plane who is vicious & aggressive, wrote Jennifer from Whitley Calif.

She claimed that JetBlue gate agents were misinformed about service dogs, forcing her family to pay a pet fee and rebook the flight, where the dog flew with no issue.