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13 Jul 19, 12:58 PM |
#61
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Imagineer
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Thats terrible. I hope MCO get their act together, it makes you not want to go and I thought they needed tourism.
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DisneyJulie |
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13 Jul 19, 06:00 PM |
#62
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VIP Dibber
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Shocking behaviour from all staff involved. I would most definitely be on to someone be it solicitors or the papers with this incident. Absolutely ludicrous treatment against someone with a disability.
If you have anything on video(which you probably don’t because of the obnoxious security guard) it would be great to pass on. If you have witnesses that also would work well for you. I’ve been in a god awful situation with regards to security guards not knowing how to handle people, a young teenager in my case. It was a nightmare stateside. So fully understand how it feels for people watching on and no help from those at the airport. I really hope you are enjoying your holiday now.
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Find a positive in every day,that way you'll always have a reason to smile |
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13 Jul 19, 08:16 PM |
#63
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Imagineer
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that's just awful,i hope your health improves so you can enjoy some of your holiday xxx
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15 Jul 19, 11:42 AM |
#64
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VIP Dibber
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Hope your health has improved even a wee bit
we had the same treatment last week at Sanford. ground staff were so rude and unhelpful the captain got involved. refused to bring up the specialised wheelchairs . we flew in with TUI and have to say they crew were just marvellous, 3 hours to get off the plane, get luggage and car crew said to them none of us are moving off this plane until you get those 2 specialist wheelchairs. both needing the wheelchairs were paralised didn't even bring the transfer seat. the dad of the other boy litterly carried him off, no idea how the poor man did this but the boy was crying , was awful the crew had a small seat thing on board so they all helped get my son off tui head stewardess said she was putting in a formal complaint. cannot praise TUI enough really disappointed with Sanford as never experienced this before
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ali |
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15 Jul 19, 06:57 PM |
#65
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 14
Location: The Tiki Room.
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Ali. Dreadful treatment. I hope you get some feedback on this as I know it's always your nightmare that you face this type of thing with your Son. Hope you are having a great time now you have put it behind you.
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"PAGING MR MORROW, MR TOM MORROW..." ''I drink Wine and know things'' DVC Owners at SSR since 2003. Multiple annual visits to America since 1976 |
25 Jul 19, 09:15 AM |
#66
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Thread Starter
Proud to wear my Ears
Join Date: Jul 12
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Well we arrived back safe & sound. Ourselves & the other wheelchair passengers on board had all been upgraded to PE.
Within 24 hours of our complaint, we were having a telephone call with Christoph Debus, who took immediate & full responsibility for the situation we were put in. He told us the crew would be brought in for a debrief that week. We felt that he went out of his way to make amends. He offered to fly out anything we many need from the UK & to provide us with any park tickets, show tickets or anything else we would like in Florida. He immediately told us that he would be organising a replacement holiday for us at his request, but that we should try to put everything out of our minds until we got back to the UK & we would sort it out then. We were unable to take him up on any special treats in Florida. We had 2 week passes for Seaworld, Aquatica & Busch gardens & only managed a total of 3 x 2 hour visits to Seaworld, so any extra tickets would have just been taken for the sake of it & we were not interested in taking stuff just for the sake of it. We were allocated a crisis manager, who we had access to 24/7, she made it clear we could ask anything. She especially helped my Husband through the first few days. He was beating himself up badly that he had not been able to get us out of the situation & was responsible for a sick wife, a 16 year old boy & a pensioner father-in-law. He was amazing, but he didn't know it x She told him that she would happily be his sounding board lol & after a couple of days, we sucked it up & managed on our own again. Orlando Airport did not respond until the final days of our holiday. They said that they would like to meet us at the airport to discuss what had happened. Perhaps they were more wary of putting anything in writing! We were met at check in by an operations manager. His boss was the one that wanted to speak to us but had been called away to a fire at Burger King! He told us that his boss would meet us at the gate, but wanted to make sure we were escorted the whole way through the airport & had provided a TSA guard to do just that. the operation manager knew most of the details but was curious to know if it was the border security guard that he suspected. He described him to us & we confirmed that it was. He said he knew it would be him & that he had a reputation for throwing his weight around. The airport manager met us at the gate. He was sincere in his apology. He explained that he was working that night & that for whatever reason, Swissport would not provide anyone to unload the plane. He said that airports across the USA were running out of patience with them as they had taken on more contracts than they could handle. He also confirmed what we knew, that although Swissport were to blame, it was Thomas Cook that chose to hire them & Thomas Cook who our contract was with. A KLM flight that had come in at the same time as us, did not have a contract with anyone & paid the airport to unload. They were parked up & unloaded in good time. He told us that he was getting the messages that we needed to speak to someone from the airport, but that he & one other available guy were down at the aircraft, trying to locate the wheelchairs themselves & that they in fact unloaded the plane between them. We certainly believed at the time that it was being unloaded by 2 people, since when the luggage did come, 6 cases would appear then a long gap, never getting faster at all. He told us that he was aware of the identity of the border security guard & assured me that he had been "sent back to charm school" & would not be working at the airport anymore. He told us that he did not understand the attitude of these officials, he had travelled the world & found that in every country, immigration was taken very seriously, but without the menace that he found prevalent among USA border police. The incident has been discussed with the Aviation Authority & is going to be used as a test case. He told us that the airport themselves & other bodies wanted to use it as a training exercise, without using names he said. He gave us his card & asked that if we ever returned to MCO, to give him a call & he would arrange for us to be escorted through again. The crew on the return flight had been briefed & apologised on behalf of the outgoing crew. I told them that it was not necessary but they insisted that it had shown all crew in a bad light & they did not want me to think that this was the way they acted. For those who think I exaggerated or moaned or was trying to get something for nothing, I had 2 free drinks from PE, the same as I bought on the way out & the sound on my screen did not work unless I held my headset jack in a very strange way, but I put up with it. It did not effect my health or wellbeing, only my enjoyment of the flight. Since arriving home, we have been offered any Thomas Cook holiday with PE seats or cash compensation. After excitedly looking at stupidly expensive holidays, we have decided to take the cash. We only do pretty late bookings, so that we can be as sure as possible that I am going to be well enough & have no hospital visits. This trip itself was originally supposed to have been in September for our 25th wedding anniversary but had to be postponed when I got taken in for an operation, so it will give us more flexibility. I could certainly pick up every supposition that was made about me through this thread & shoot each one of them down with evidence, however, in my opinion, the outcome backs me up & I will not waste my time in explaining where each of these assumptions went wrong, they just were lol! There is also a lot more behind my health issues than I allowed into the public domain, I was never presenting it as evidence. 1 more thing that some people may not know, we have put in a flight delay claim. Although we landed just before the 3 hour window closed, the aircraft is not deemed to have arrived until the doors are opened. Which means the long wait on the tarmac does take us over that 3 hour mark. I want to thank everyone for their kind words & messages. I did get upset by the first wave of judgement on my personality, but I shook it off when my husband read me your messages of support, thank you all so much, I only wanted to give people information that might help them in the future |
25 Jul 19, 10:01 AM |
#67
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Imagineer
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Well said and thank you for sharing, I hope that you don't have to go through anything like this again.
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25 Jul 19, 10:18 AM |
#68
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VIP Dibber
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Glad you got some satisfactory apologies and I hope that lessons are learned from this and that no one else has to suffer. I am finding it quite hard to believe that people with disabilities are being treated this way in 2019! Shocking.
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ALISON 1998 Villa in Kissimmee 2009 Animal Kingdom Lodge 2011 Animal Kingdom Lodge 2014 Villa Lake Berkeley 2016 Villa Bass Lakes 2017 Villa on Solana and Vero Beach 2018 Villa on Highlands Reserve and St Pete Beach 2019 SLC, Cabana Bay, Highlands Reserve & Coronado Springs, 2020 Feb half term villa chilling. 2022 villa on Calabay Park and a trip Clearwater beach. 2023 Orlando and Clearwater |
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25 Jul 19, 10:26 AM |
#69
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Imagineer
Join Date: Sep 03
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Glad they are taking it seriously.
I hope as part of the crew debrief that they explore the culture within the company that either allowed or forced the crew to depart with 2 lavs inoperable and put them in that position in the first place. |
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25 Jul 19, 10:32 AM |
#70
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Guest
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This is the best outcome of any complaint procedure I have ever seen since being a member of the Dibb.
Let's hope this paves the way for a better experience for people in similar circumstances in the future. |
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