Category: Travel and Tourism
I'm always very careful whitch airline I fly now, because some are very difficult and often are run by people who have different views of disabled people travelling alone because of their culture.
For this reason, I recommend the following.
alia, and for accessibility, they are quite good, in the sense you can tell them what you need and they will give it to you as well as they can. I always look for this in an airline.
for this reason, I would also avoid the following
Royal Brunei Air
Air China
Royal Brunei Air are worthless, they take a third as long to get to the UK from australia because of the extra stopover and usually have a long wait in brunei. not only that, but they are annoying when it comes to dealing with disabled people, as they like to get you off first rather than last or almost last, whitch means dragging you through standing passingers.
Air China are better, however they only provide a wheelchair service, and are not happy about providing anything else.
also, they usually have 6 or 7 hour waits in Beijing.
budget airlines can often be a problem for blind people, for this reason, I'd never recommend flying Ryanair, if you're wishing to fly within the UK or europe. many of the airports they fly into are in the middle of nowhere, and they are not in a position to provide a lot of assistance.
I would however recomend Easyjet, as they are actually a low priced airline, but can provide good assistance provided you give them good notice when you book.
I'd also recommend for similar reasons:
Swiss Air
Air berlin
Norwegian
and perhaps Flybe, though i'm not so crazy about them anymore.
British Airways
Asiana Airlines
for anyone wishing to travel to destinations within asia or to London and to other destinations inside europe.
British Airways are also very quick when it comes to stopovers if you're heading to or coming from austr
christ, half my first paragraph is missing...
the airlines I recommended where:
British Airways and Asiana airlines for flights to destinations within europe and flights to asia and australia
You know this is a good listing. I travel in America mostly and the airlines here are all decent as far as disabled people go. They do try to get you off first, and that is nice, but as you said difficult, so I just say no thanks I'm patient. Now getting on first is great, and they do try to take you exactly where you need to be if you let them know you are traveling before hand, so I don't have a list of good or bad for us. Thanks for your list however. Smile.
if you wanna use British Airways, between britain, asia, and australia, bare in mind, they are cooperate with Quantas. which means, both airlines sharing flights and cabin cru, so, regardless of either you using BA or QF, they will providing the same service. however, if you flight europe itself using BA, you're basicly getting fully BA service. and sometime, i found, it can be cheeper than barget airlines.
my top list in Australia will be simply VirginBlue for domestic traveling. good to deal with, great service for guidedog user / cane user. second choice will be quantas, well, as the name suggest, they are good in their special need services, no problem there.
for international travel between australia and asia, try to avoid barget airlines such as jetstar, tiger airways and such. they are okay to deal with, but take lots of brainpower and patient.
as far as international airlines, i'll definitely go for either singapore airlines or malaysia airlines if i can help it, won't consider south asia and east asia airlines such as air china, china airlines, royal brunei etc.
to travel within europe, from one to another city, sometime i'll prefer travel on the train instead. it give you a different experience on traveling, and their train, is great. it is another relaxing way of travel. without the hassel of going thru the whole air port process.
i can't speak for america, as i've never been there before.
however, i must say, i agree with post3, as long as you tell them your need, and try to cooperate with their services, also, the fact that you are an experience traveler do help to ease their concern either way you choose.
happy traveling.
I have not had a good experience with AAon domestic flights, especially through JFK (have said this elsewhere), also the worst service I got ever was AA staff in Heathro and AA at JFK, both so bad I complained about it (and I do not complain easily, because I am pretty easy going).
Southwest here in the U.S. have always been excellent.
Iceland Air for flights to Europe are very helpful and personable.
SAS (or Scandinavian Airlines) are very nice but they did lose me at an airport in Frankfurt, which was kind of funny, fortunately I could speak enough German to just find someone to get me to information.
U.S. Airways has been very good but I have not flown with them for a long time now.
Jet Blue were excellent the two times I've flown with them recently.
Here you find the low budget airlines very no non sense but often younger people who seem more upbeat and pleasant, not that old people can't be absolutely awesome but some seem tired and just wanting to get home and get their pay check.
Another good thing about low budget airlines is that you don't have assigned seat number so you can get on board first and sit where you like. Up front if you want to get on and off quickly, or in the back if you want to try and get multiple seats to yourself (on a flight that is not full).
Cheers
-B
For australian travel I'd certainly agree with Season about Virgin Blue. they're cheap but offer good service as far as assistance goes.
Tiger Air are good if you've got a bit of sight like I do, and are capable of navigating an airport on your own if you can take directions.'
I'm not so keen on Jetstar, the last time I checked they fly into melbourn's other airport, whitch is out of the way.
quantas is ok, but they charge a lot more for their flights just because you don't have to pay for your meal and so on, but when you're on a short flight, that matters little to me.
Another bad one in my opinion is BMI [british midlands] I didn't find them helpful and I had to wait a long while for assistance both ways with them.
I'm with Wildebrew on this. I primarily do my traveling in the US.
Southwest is absolutely my favorite airline. They usually have the lowest fares, as well as very friendly and helpful staff, who actually listen to me when I tell them things like, I don't need a wheelchair, etc. Midway is their hub, and it's also one of my favorite airports. Frontier Alines aren't as well known, but I've liked them, too. Another airline I've found to be good is Midwest, though they seem to have higher fares.
United is the worst airline I've flown. Almost every time I've flown with them, the flights have been delayed, even cancelled. That, and I hate O'Hare airport. The other airline I've probably had the worst experiences with is Northwest. They did not listen to me when I told them what kind of assistance I did and did not need, and I actually missed a connecting flight in Minneapolis as a result of that, and their screw-up.
Hmmm, I hadn't realized till writing this post just how many of our airlines have the word, West," as part of their name. Weird.
i hate british airways. i don't think i'll be using them again. partly because the service from the airport terminal to the plain was extremely poor, and i don't think the people on the plain are quite with it.
i like easyjet. they are very accessible, and the staff are so accomidating
I am happy with jet blue. They are all great people.
It's interesting though this topic because in my experience, it only takes one bad trip to make a rubbish airline. Take Aer Lingus for example for me. I got left sitting at O'Hare airport by them on a trip back to England. So I had to make my own way onto the aircraft pretty much which is a tough enough proposition at the best of times, but while sitting waiting for the assistance I also discovered quite by chance that there were machines that all departing foreigners had to be fingerprinted by to prove that you had left the country before your visa ran out. nobody from Aer Lingus had bothered to explain that to me never mind help me with the process. So I managed to complete this legal formality before boarding the flight, I then Explained what had happened to the cabin crew only then to be completely forgotten about again when we landed in Dublin where I had a change of planes. I was left sitting on the plane for over an hour before eventually somebody did come and collect me and rush me through because I'd almost missed the connection. Then having stoically endured all of this from them, when I landed at Heathrow the ground staff informed me that it wasn't their job to take me down to the train station in the airport. As you might imagine, by this time I was jetlagged, tired and highly disgruntled and left nobody in any doubt as to that fact. Needless to say I did make it to the train station, never the less, that one awful trip has made me swear off of Aer Lingus ever since and yet, I lived in Ireland for several years and some times used Aer Lingus with no difficulties what so ever.
Somebody else said that BMI were very poor but I have to say I had completely the opposite experience with them. When I first came to the states to meet my now wife Shea I managed, through my own total incompetence I should add, to book myself on a flight to the states just 4 hours after arriving into London from Australia. For those that don't know it is pretty much a 24 hour long journey just to get from Auz to the UK and that's not including any travelling time to get to the airports and check in etc. So you might imagine after that trip, plus 4 hours sitting round at Heathrow and being hopelessly jetlagged, that I was not in the best of shape and certainly not looking forward to another 8 hour flight to America. When I explained all this to the stewardess that was looking after me, she actually came back to me after the meals had been served and said that she thought I'd probably like to stretch my legs and asked if I'd like to go up to the galley with her for a cup of tea and a chat. That woman probably saved my sanity that day and I give silent thanks to her, even now.
I think that I speak for both Shea and I when I say that we'd probably happily never fly with Northwest again. Not that there was actually anything especially wrong with the flight or assistance, though for the record 7-5-7's are in my view too small for that length of a flight, but that's another gripe for another day. What did get our collective goat was the impressive number of times they managed to lose Shea's bag. They managed to lose it on the way over from the states to the UK, partially explained by a quick change of flight when we first started. We were originally supposed to fly to Detroit from our local airport in Peoria to catch a connection to London. However the flight eventually became so delayed that we were going to miss the connecting flight so instead they put us on a flight to Minneapolis where we would still be in time to catch a flight to London. Some how in the resultant confusion they managed to transfer my bag to the new flight, but not hers. So we both made it to London the next morning, but only one bag did. It then took North West 2 days to find the bag which presented a further problem because by the time they had found it and sent it to the place we were staying, we were no longer there, by then having moved on to visit friends in Ireland. So we then had to pay out of our own pocket to have the bag sent onto us in Belfast, and I'm truly not making this up, the company we paid to perform this service lost the bag again. By the time they found it we were in Spain so just decided to have it returned to the people we had stayed with for the first two nights because we were going to be back with them shortly anyway. So that eventually worked out, Shea got her bag back finally just about two weeks into a three week trip. By then broken beyond repair it should be added, but at least she had her clothes at last! But wait dear reader for no, that is not the end of the vanishing bag tale because on our return trip, it went missing yet again in North West's protective custody! It made it as far as Detroit, we know that because we had to collect the damn thing to check it through onto our final flight. But by the time we arrived in Peoria, it was once again a missing bag. It finally made it home about 24 hours after we did. Now of course it should be pointed out that technically Northwest only lost the bag twice, however we wouldn't have had to give it to a shipping company had they have not lost it the first time so northwest gets the blame...
On a brighter note I'd like to throw Air New Zealand into the good airlines list. The first time I flew to Australia in 2002 I went with them, and although it was definitely going the long way round via Las Angeles and Auckland, the service was excellent. At the time the World cup finals was taking place in japan and Korea and during one of our flights quarter final matches were being played. At one point we jokingly asked our steward if he'd get the captain to radio out for us and find out the scores never expecting that he'd do it. But he actually did! Now that's service my friends...
That said I can't attest to how they are with disabled people because on that occasion I was with my brother so had no need of assistance. I did read recently incidentally that Air New Zealand were one of the first, if not the first airline to offer beds in economy class. Now that, is a brilliant idea!
Dan.
I don't know if this would make a difference now but the airline is suppose to pay you back because it was there mistake and if your wife had to purchasevnew cloth and such do to there mistake they're suppose to pay you back for that as well as long as you have all the recetes. I say this because this happened to be on american airlines and they payed as back.
Dan, you are a far more patient person than I. I would have absolutely refused to sit on a plane for an hour , waiting for assistance. Believe me, if you get up and start making your way toward the front of the aircraft and/or out of it altogether, you'll get their attention, and there's no way they'll forget you then. Smile.
I'm the same, SD and Dan. I point blank refuse to wait that long, and have ended up making my way through the reboarding in thailand on my own.
Dan, i totally understand how you feel about the ground transport some offer in heathrow. and that's a reason why I try to find an airline who will provide a good ground service. hense why airchina won't be getting my money ever again.
This is why BA were one of my favourites. not only did they take me to the train station when I needed it, but when I left the UK once, the woman guiding me even took me to get some last minute galaxy chocolate and a gift for my landlady's little boy.
It is true we generally get such small sampling of each airline it only takes one bad impression to ruin it for us.
My AA and JFK experience is consistently awful though as I have had issues 3 times with them out of 3 flights in the last year.
After landing, when people are disembarking, I always move to the very first row and sit there if they tell me to wait, trying to look quietly patient but also eager to get off the plane (and I do not have to fake it much).
It has always worked for me.
Incidentally though it was AA who got me on a flight from JFK to Seattle 20 minutes after I showd up at the ticket counter, a week after 9/11, that did impress me. It was their fault though, for some reason they gave me the wrong terminal for my flight, nevertheless, it was impressive, but it was also 9 years ago.
I wish we could pay $5 extra for, say, 15 minutes of service, thus ensuring quality and the people dropping of where we want to go within the airport premises. I know there's a widespreadc opposition to such an idea since diabled people should not have to pay more fo travelling, but, say, we can call it a premium service. I've heard that if you are rich enough there is a service that will take your luggage before departure and make sure it shows up at your hotel upon arrival, now if I ahd ridiclous amount of money to burn I'd use that every time.
I totally agree with Sister Dawn about United. While I did find them somewhat helpful once I got on the plane, I found that they often have maintenance issues with their planes, weather delays and cancelations, and their communication with their staff who provide asistance also leaves a lot to be desired. Also, there was a time when I was almost denied boarding because there was a mix up with seating arrangements, twice, I might add. When I flew from Chicago to Jacksonville in December, they were having such serious maintenance issues that they had to reset the computer system of the plane. Every five minutes, the captain said it would be resolved within the next five minutes. Well, that happened for two hours, at which point they said it could not be fixed, and that we had to change planes. The thing that bothered me is that they had the aditude of...you have no reason to be angry. Just deal with it. If not for that, I would have been quite understanding, because these things do happen.
American Airlines is really good about their flight schedules, I find, but the connections with them are often really short, making efficient and quick asistance very necessary.
I've only flown with Continental Airlines once, but their service was quite good as far as I've been able to determine.
I've heard both good and bad things about Delta.
I find Air Canada nothing special. No complaints, but nothing to rave about either.
Air Transat is awesome, because they do a lot of Chartered flights to a lot of tropical vacation spots. No connections.
Has anyone travelled with Thomas Cook airlines before? I travelled with them a couple of years ago, but don't find their website very accessible, so just got someone to book my flight for me in the end.
Hmm. I've never heard of them.
I'd like to say that Singapore Airlines were absolutely fantastic and the transfir from the flight from sydney to the zurich flight was like a dream.
I'd also like to say that china eastern sucked big time.
actually, any flight that takes you through china is going to suck. not so much the airline, but your transet.
china have too many securety checks, their staff speak so little english that finding out where the bathroom is is an issue.
china eastern have almost no in flight entertainment but they do have a big screen at the front of the plane that is always on, so if you want any sleep without the bright flashing thing, if you have sight of course, you need to sit at the back, and they always put disabled people at the front.
I love united. Every time I've flown with them so far has been pleasant and enjoyable. Of course, there is the stupid movie we must watcch about safety. I much prefer the flight attendant speel.
Southwest is a great airline. Very kind people and accomodating.
US air sucks. I've had three bad experiences with them.
The only thing that I don't like about southwest is their fees. To be honest, all the flights I've checked out, the price was fantastic at first, but once you piled on the fees, it was more expensive. I'm flying with midwest next month. I'll let you know how it goes. As for Delta, I've not had a problem with them; however, I've only flown with them once.
I would like to reiterate that china eastern are a big no-no if you want a pleasant journey to anywhere.
I just flew with them to frankfurt.