Priority for older people
I wish to highlight an incident that occurred recently, with my wheelchair-bound mother who was flying with Emirates. My mother has diabetic foot issues and has to be in a wheelchair all the time to avoid there being too much pressure on her legs.
Flight EK 502 on February 22 was perfectly fine till she was transferred by a wheelchair assistant to a bogey car with the intention of taking her to the departure gate.
At the last minute, the gate number got changed and she was put in a bus that took her to her designated flight without a wheelchair. You can imagine the plight of an old lady with foot problems climbing nearly 25 stairs of an aircraft with the support of crew members. She somehow managed to climb the stairs and got to her seat.
Once the flight landed at Mumbai airport, she was told her name was not there in the list provided by Emirates for wheelchair assistance. Just imagine a senior citizen arguing with the wheelchair assistants for such a basic necessity. She had to wait a long time inside the aircraft until it was sorted out.
The only reason I prefer to travel with Emirates is because of their support services towards senior citizens. However, this particular incident has really left me surprised and I hope Emirates will take steps to ensure such incidents are not repeated in the future.
From Mr Raghavendra G. Kulkarni
Dubai
A spokesperson from Emirates responds:
We are sorry to hear about his mother’s experience on her recent flight. In order to investigate this matter further, our customer affairs representative will contact her directly to get the full details.
Mr Kulkarni updates:
Thanks very much to Gulf News for this wonderful initiative, which affects the daily lives of common people. Emirates has started an inquiry to get deeper insight into this particular incident and promised they would revert to me as soon as possible. Meanwhile, as a goodwill gesture, they have given me a few Skywards Miles for this unfortunate incident. Once again, I would like to thank Gulf News profusely for taking up my complaint with Emirates and constantly following up for a faster response.
(Process initiation: March 5. Response from organisation: March 10. Process completed: March 25.)
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