Wheelchair user and Ryanair...

spurious wrote: »

While it is of course a nonsensical case for her to be taking, I wouldn't think it is beyond the boffins at Ryanair to create a pop up on rebooking explaining if you need special assistance you need to rebook it too.

Stoner wrote: »

She said it was untrue and then went on an developed it out and it ended up sounding more accurate than her initial position, she said she knew they boarded people in wheelchairs last so she waited until the end, but they were not in the airport particularly early. She was with a big gang of students.

She said she'd originally booked on a different flight with a request for assistance, but changed flights and didn't select the option on the revised flight.

I don't know, I kept wondering about how she appeared. By that, if by looking at her did she look like someone who might have the ability to walk up the stairs or by her appearance was it an unreasonable request.

She said that she was "very open" to "any" suggestion or workaround to getting her on the flight, yet said that you should never ask someone in a wheelchair if they can walk for a distance.

Mostly she spoke about how upset she was and how nobody would help her. She was with a gang of friends, they all went on the first flight and waited for her (she went in the second flight for free, they wouldn't have). Regardless I'm not sure how well that looks for the staff. Possibly allowing someone to stay with her and giving them both a free flight was an answer.

She suggested that she spoke to operators in the UK that said the flight should not have left without her, that they have a contingency plan for such situations for every flight.

It sounded like a difficult situation for her, yet she also sounded sheltered and didn't really seem to grasp the significance of her own actions, like being later for a flight to the UK than say I've even been. She spoke about not getting tea or coffee at the airport like as if it was a significant act that demonstrated how seriously she took the flight, but to me it sounded a little bit off. She could certainly have done more IMO. I've seen people walk onto planes before that were helped to the stairs.

I don't know if it's reasonable to ask someone to do that, but I've seen people do it many times, so before yesterday I thought it was a reasonable question to ask. I don't know how it was asked though.

However following her line of argument, the request for assistance should follow automatically with a change of flight, but she knew it didn't, just thinks it should (I agree with her) she never told the ground staff until late enough into the process, (yet she should have been obvious in the boarding area). IMO she definitely expected the flight to be delayed to board her as she offered that as a reasonable policy at other airports.

It was sad because it sounded like she was with a group of able-bodied friends all of whom made the flight. However it sounded a little entitled at the same time with some poor planning on her part that she didn't really seem to recognize. It could have been smoother, she knew she hadn't notified the staff, but expected everything to fall into place.

Overall she was a very capable communicator and sounded fairly intelligent.