Last year, in our guide to less able air travel, we collated the information provided by pretty near all of the major airlines in the UK. The aim of the guide was to start a conversation and to create a more enlightened picture based on the experiences of BBS readers. We tried to make clear that we weren’t necessarily putting it forward as the authoritative guide on what actually happens when less able people fly, but as an outline of what the airlines set out as their own policies. It’s something to use as a way of fact-checking that the airlines are doing what they say they will.
With that in mind, we’re always eager to receive word from readers on any positive or negative airline experience. We’d like to highlight a couple of comments (let’s call them ‘constructive criticism’) that we’ve been sent regarding Ryanair. Some concerns, problems and tips have all come out of the messages that we received.
The first problem we were told about was, from Arturas, regarding the presence, or lack thereof, of an onboard wheelchair. As we saw in our previous guide, Ryanair’s website says: “There are onboard aisle wheelchairs available on all aircraft and crew are trained to provide assistance to reduced mobility passengers in moving to and from the aircraft lavatory door.” But Arturas emailed us to tell us that this is not necessarily quite the case. Here’s his experience with Ryanair, in his own, no holds barred, words:
“I was reading the accessible flying page, as I need information about the disabled toilets on the transatlantic flights. As I can see in the article, American Airlines claim to have the toilets, as well the aisle chairs onboard. I sincerely hope this is the case.
However, my only flying experience so far was with Ryanair. I flew 3 times from Bristol to Lithuania and back, and I can now honestly say I would rather drive across the continent.
I will not be talking about the cramped seats which limit any kind of movement and destroy my spine as much as a 24 hour trip in a car. Everyone who ever flew Ryanair knows that anyway. What I would like to see corrected in the article is their claim about the onboard wheelchair. Bulls**t. All the three times I flew, I was transferred into and out of the aircraft by aisle chairs belonging to respective airports. The aircraft itself does NOT have a chair. This causes enormous stress when you have bladder/bowel incontinence, but nobody, nobody cares.
Every flight I was requesting the chair to be there from every person I came across: starting with the airport check-in staff, and finally with the stewards on-board. Every single staff member would pass me ahead to someone next, and in the end the stewardess would just go ‘sorry, there’s no chair during the flight’. Makes me wonder what would be their course of action if a disabled person soiled him/herself in the plane, or there was an emergency to take place? Since they are legally refusing to lift or carry disabled passengers.
So all in all, they still have the balls to officially claim the complete opposite of reality?”
A very outspoken opinion there from Arturas and not a great review for Ryanair. We apologise for some of the language but we felt it was important to leave it in – he’s clearly very unhappy with the service and considering his experience, probably rightly so. One would like to hope this would be an isolated incident but Arturas says it’s happened on three occasions.
For their part, Ryanair have told us that they do have “aisle wheelchairs installed on every aircraft and all our cabin crew are trained on how to use the chair, which is used to transport disabled customers between their seat and the toilet door. We also reserve specific seats onboard for customers requiring full lift on/off assistance to the aircraft seat. “
They seem to disagree with part of what Arturas said. They told us that although he used the airport’s chair “our customer relations team reviewed the 3 flights taken and can confirm that there was an aisle chair installed and available for use on each of his flights.”
On a more positive note, we received another point of view on flying with Ryanair from Diane. She offers some useful information for those planning to fly more as precaution than as criticism:
“Just an added piece of information regarding Ryanair: They will only accept four disabled passengers per flight. That includes anyone with learning difficulties such as Autism who may be physically able. Therefore very important at the time of booking to let them know you will need assistance.
I travelled with them last summer they were very supportive getting on and off the plane. I was able to take my wheelchair to the cabin door which was really helpful. However, I have powered wheels on a manual chair and they wanted masses of information regarding them at the airport, even though I had emailed through all the details. So get it all in writing and take the email confirmations with you plus your manual for the chair. The seating is very cramped and not ideal if you have mobility issues.”
So Diane had a more positive experience but there are a couple of interesting extra details from her that we didn’t spot in Ryanair’s online accessibility details. It’s good to know as much as possible about what’s going to happen when you fly.
The problems our readers have encountered might not necessarily be limited to Ryanair, whose record for providing a good service for disabled customers is positive according to their research. In a recent survey of over 450 disabled Ryanair customers using special assistance services 96% said they would travel again on Ryanair using special assistance services. 87% of respondents said the Ryanair inflight experience was either very good or good. A further 89% of respondents said the service provided by the cabin crew was very good or good.
So maybe it’s just important to be prepared before you fly. Flying is a stressful and difficult enough thing to organise for able bodied people, when a wheelchair gets involved it becomes a real hassle. It’s good to get opinions out about this sort of thing. If anyone’s had a more positive experience with Ryanair, or any experience with any other airline – budget or otherwise – please don’t hesitate to get in touch and spread the word too!
We have recently flown to Portugal with TAP for a river cruise along the Duoro river.
We were flying from Heathrow with confirmed seats with 2 friends,both of whom had booked assistance getting to the planes- walking long distances is a problem for them. I was in a wheelchair but had my husband as my assistance.
The website would not allow us to reserve our seats as is usual 24 hrs prior to flight so we made our way to check in desk to be told we were on ‘standby’. After a lot of arguments and unproductive phone calls to our tour operator they eventually issued our boarding passes after the gate had closed. We then found they had cancelled our companions assistance leaving us just 15 mins to organise replacement transport for them as well as getting through security and find our way to the other end of the terminal (why is it always the gate farthest away?).
We made the flight and had a wonderful holiday but always at the back of our minds was the worry of the return flight. We asked the staff on our boat if they could book our seats for the return flight which they tried- unsuccessfully. They then said that it is quite usual (in their experience) for TAP to put anyone who pre books assistance on ‘standby’. I asked ‘why is that?’ To be told ‘ those are the passengers who are more likely not to turn up,!’
Do they think that all those with mobility problems are at deaths door and the effort of preparing for a holiday are likely to push them through it?!!
I have to say that at the end of all the arguments and the worry that the staff were all very helpful,within the confines of the company mandate.
I do not know if this is a long term policy or if this has just recently come about because of TAP’s shortage of planes(as noted on their website), either way our experience has made us very wary of using them again.. As your users will be very aware, travelling can be stressful enough when all goes to plan without airlines being unhelpful from the start.
Note, be very wary if you have pre booked assistance with any airline and find that you cannot check in online !
Hope you all have stress free holidays.
Thank you so much for this useful information. Let us know of anymore issues you find with the airlines….I’m sure there are many more to come good or bad.