I own my own
ECV. I want it to get there & back safe. So, Please tell me any tips & experiences please for my little REVO
to make a safe trip,
I do know that if it is damaged during flight the airline has to replace it the full cost of the scooter.
I fly UK to Disney with my Invacare powerchair every couple of years. I always remove everything I can. Last trip, however the airline broke the backrest. The airline paid for the repair in full, but that was only a relatively small part of my problem.
Day 1
My own chair is usually brought to the gate at Orlando. We land at about 2pm. After a very long wait on the aircraft (1 hr plus) I am told there is a 'problem' with my chair and it has been taken to baggage reclaim. They bring a manual chair to the door. It has fixed armrests and I cannot make my usual sliding transfer from the aircraft's aisle wheelchair. I am manhandled up & over the armrests. On through baggage reclaim (my wheelchair nowhere to be found). Find out my chair is at dammaged baggage office. Talk our way through customs (where's you own wheelchair?). Find broken wheelchair.
Now 5pm. (I should be at Boardwalk by now). Airline rep examines my broken chair and agrees it cannot be used. Talks to offsite wheelchair repair & rental company by phone. By now they are shutting up shop for the delay and can do nothing until tomorrow. Airline say they will lift me into a taxi, and that hotel will lift me out their end & put me in hotel chair. I explain Disney staff cannot lift guests. Airline agrees to call wheelchair taxi so I can stay in airport wheelchair.
Cannot get in taxi, because airport taxis have a flagpole to stop them being removed from airport. Skycap spots an airline (not my airline) chair without a pole and I am lifted into it. (up & over the armrests again) Wheelchair taxi arrives, I am loaded. Luggage is loaded, wife gets in. Airport security spots us and demands I be unloaded. I cannot take wheelchair out of the terminal. By now it is getting late and I am getting desparate, frustrated and a little angry. I get out all my dollar bills and wave them in security's face and offer to BUY the *£!*ing wheelchair. No go - back into terminal building. Wife continues to Boardwalk in taxi with luggage.
Airline finds one of its own wheelcairs and I am transferred yet again. Fixed armrests, so up & over again. Now, how do we remove pole. Airline staff finally find someone with a leatherman & pole is removed. Second wheelchair taxi called and I am taken to hotel. I arrive around 9pm instead of 4-5pm as expected.
Because of a mix-up the 1 bed handicap acessible villa I had booked is not available, and it is too late in the day to find another. I am offered a 1 bed for the first night. Because I am in an airline chair with fixed armrests, I cannot get out of the chair. I cannot transfer to the toilet, I cannot shower, I cannot get into bed. I elect to sleep sitting up in the chair. At 3am, I wake up with a dreadful pain in my neck. RCFD (Disney's fire department) are summoned to lift me from chair to bed.
Day 2
RCFD summond to lift me back into airline wheelchair. Move to 1 bed villa which is now free. Repair/rental company collects my own chair from airport and brings me rental chair to use while they make temporary repairs to my chair (cannot get spare parts for several weeks). RCFD summoned to lift me into rental powerchair. Morning wasted waiting in room for rental wheelchair. Rental wheelchair (Jazzy) has a seat which is much higher than my own, too high to transfer to toilet. Get into bed by 'falling' sideways onto bed. Use bedpan.
Days 3 to 5.
Call RCFD every morning to lift me into wheelchair which, unlike my own, does not have power seat height adjustment. Fall into bed sideways at night. Cannot shower, cannot use toilet. Use bedpan.
Day 5.
Because I am not used to rental chair and it is somewhat higher than I am used to; and because Friendship boat is fully loaded and riding in the water much lower than usual, I get catapulted onto the floor of a the boat as I ride on at the Boardwalk dock. With my agreement boat captain radios ahead to Epcot dock to have RCFD waiting for me. Arrive at Epcot to be met by dock captain, 2 person EMS crew who put band-aid on my elbow and 4 person fire crew who lift me back onto wheelchair. Entire line waiting for boat to resorts, clap and cheer.
Airline has paid for my repair and rental in full but have so far made only a token offer (vouchers to buy duty free alchohol (seldom drink spirits), tobacco (don't smoke) or perfume (I would rather take showers) to be used on my next flight to compensate me for the lost five days of my vacation. (Is there going to be a next flight?)
The matter is now with my lawyer.
I am sure that peemagg is correct in that the airline is responsible for damage, but that is not necessarily the only loss you could suffer.
Andrew
next to a man who works in luggage services for Delta. When he described the size of the opening into the aircraft hold that they have to work with, the complete lack of follow-through with information about the wheelchairs and ECV's that we give the gate agents upstairs and never making it to the luggage handlers that actually need the information, I am surprised that any power wheelchairs and ECV's survive being put in the hold of any airplane.
