An Unfortunate Incident

[Sandeep G 1]

This has been circulating the world and I only picked up on it just now.

 

What are your comments:

 

In a nutshell:

 

A family travelling from Darwin to Greece via SIN had paid AUD$15,000 for the party of 6 - 2 parents and 4 children. One of the children is disabled.

 

The family and their travel agent had asked for explicit consent from the airline to be able to take along the disabled pax to which the airline in question replied from their head office in Singapore that it would be ok given that other members in the travelling party would be able to assist the disabled pax - i.e. not to expect any assistance from the crew.

 

The travelling party were checked in and then refused boarding at the gate by an airline employee, apparently speaking on the behalf of the Captain of the flight. According to the article enclosed, the pax were "ridiculed" in front of other passengers when asked to give a demonstration of the disabled persons walking capabilities.

 

In the end, all did not board and were denied refunds, instead being told that they would have to take it to court.

 

Spokesman from the airline have related this as "an unfortunate incident".

[Ivan L. 0]

The airlines' actions are unacceptable and ridiculous. Wonder what kind of airlines are involved.

[Sandeep G 1]

Wonder what kind of airlines are involved.

 

See the link here:

 

the link is also the first word in my post above

[Ivan L. 0]

Oops... sorry... Didn't realised the word this is actually a link.

[razlan 0]

Would like to ask commercial pilot, is this caption true?

"We told him that we had special permission from Tiger Airways in Singapore, and he said even if we did have the ok from the airline, the captain does whatever he likes.

 

Does it really mean the captain does whatever he likes or the final decision is by the captain (who has the duty to safeguard other passengers).

 

just would like to know as i'm not a pilot. thanks

[Sim Lim Shen 0]

Such a shameful event on the part of the airline. I think the least they could do is refund the money, because they made the decision not to board the passangers, and not the other way round. Heck, even when I cancelled my flight, I still get a certain amount of refund from the airline for my unused journey.

[Peter Smith 1]

This is an utter disgrace. This is becoming a more and more practice by LCC's worldwide, and everytime it happens there is always extensive media coverage and the victims always get more than a refund from the airline (and so they should!). This Captain should take a long hard look at the asshole staring back at him in the mirror and be grateful that he himself is not disabled. Shame, shame, shame on that Captain as it reflects back across Tiger Airways.

 

Razlan, the Captain has full authority to kick anyone or anything off the a/c.

[Mohd Idham 0]

Shame....at least give their money back..

[Adrian M 0]

Gawd! This news makes me boiled up! Darn Tiger Airways!!

 

I strive for a fair treatment from airlines to disable pax, my younger bro is disabled and if I was treated like that, I will make sure this incident will go up till CNN, BBC and all the major media! I'll try to skin the airline alive and put a big black ugly dot on their reputation. I hate it when people start all narcissus on themself because they think they are all perfect and push the crippled aside.

 

I hope AirAsia won't become like this. But so far until now I heard nothing but good comments from my mom. The steward/ess even carry and/or assisting going up the stair, allow first/last priority disembarking with assistants and my bro's trolley was put at the side of the stair after disembark and also are allowed to leave the trolley at the side of the stair when boarding so the staff will put it to the cargo hold down below.

 

From that, it still a MAS-like treatment that came from AK.

 

Sorry guys for all this angry bragging.

Edited December 12, 2006 by Adrian M

[Sandeep G 1]

Well it definately is not a good reflection on the Airline.. Hopefully some good will come out of this.. the pax did afterall have a consent letter from the airlines HQ in SIngapore.

[Keith T 2]

This is beyond description... Shame on Tiger Airways!

 

 

[Sandeep G 1]

This is beyond description... Shame on Tiger Airways!

 

Yeah, but let's hope the politicians don't try and use this as a platform for winning votes. The family should stick to the media and lawyers to settle this one.

[Peter Smith 1]

I knew this was going to happen. You can hardly judge a whole airline based on the actions of one employee. I say this is a wake up call to his colleagues...Shame on the captain for being a such a heartless bastard.