CHRONIC TONIC posts on Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST, it is a place to share stories, advice, and information and to connect with others with chronic health conditions and those who care for them. Our diarists will report on research, alternative treatments, clinical trials, and health insurance issues through personal stories. You are invited to share in comments (and note if you'd like to be a future diarist).
Sometimes I feel like I'm always complaining here. I really don't mean to. I guess it's the way life has gone that last while. Sorry.
Thanks to some amazing Kossacks who helped out at the last minute, I was able to attend Netroots Nation last week. I am grateful with my whole heart to everyone who made it possible. I learned a lot and made some extremely helpful connections. Spending time with Una and Kitsap River and BFS was excellent :) I miss them already.
What I need to talk about tonight is the actual experience of travelling, because, especially as an unaccompanied woman with multiple disabilities, it, to put it baldly, was horrible, because of United Airlines and the Intercontinental Hotel in Chicago.
I know what you are saying, "Chicago ? but NN11 was in Minneapolis." Yes, you are absolutely right, it was. I live in Ottawa, and I was scheduled to change planes in Chicago, O'Hare, going both ways.
Heading to NN, when we landed at O'Hare they didn't pull up to a jetway, instead they pulled up the stairs. They did not ask the crew if there was anyone who used a wheelchair on the flight, or anyone who might have difficulty using the stairs because of a disability. As most of you know, I use a walker, because of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, especially in my hips, so stairs are painful, and can be dangerous for me. It was pouring rain, which made the stairs slippery. I did get down the stairs in one piece, but could easily not have, and was in huge pain afterwards. As we were standing in the plane waiting for the stairs, the flight attendant and I looked out the door and gasped. The baggage handler had brought my walker to the uncovered area by the stairs, opened it up, and walked away. It sat in the rain for about ten minutes, until I was able to get off.
Unfortunately, my former housemate's husband (she died April 10th), decided to have her funeral, of all days, on Saturday, June 18th, the Saturday of NN, so I had to fly back on Friday afternoon/evening.
When we got to Chicago, I looked at the gate and walked to the gate it indicated. Finally arriving there, I was told to go to an entirely different gate most of the way across the enormous O'Hare airport. I was in a lot of pain when I finally arrived. As the passengers arrived, we were told that the United Airlines computer was down so out flight would be late, that we needed to wait. About two/two and half hours later we were told the flight was cancelled.
I was one of the first in line to speak with the United people after the flight was cancelled. The woman handed me a coupon good for half price at local hotels, and told me to phone one of them and make a reservation. I explained that I couldn't because of my hearing. She just looked at me. I tried to get her to understand. I tooked three or four times and another passenger getting involved for her to say she would phone for me. After she had secured the reservation, she stated that I would have to pay $65 up front and United would reimburse me. When I explained this was unacceptable, she went back to just looking at me. Finally, I asked to speak with a supervisor.
The supervisor lead me away from the gate and phoned the hotel and told them my room would be completely paid for by them. She also had another employee pick me up in one of their motorized carts and take me to the door nearest the shuttles. The signs for the shuttles were completely inadequate, so I took me 45 minutes to find them and a while to wait for the right one to arrive.
Oh, and the supervisor told me to come back to the airport in the morning and I would be rebooked at that time.
I finally got to the hotel around 2am. I got to the front of the line about 2:30am. The night manager looked me up on his computer and asked for a credit. I told him I didn't have one. He said that in that case I would have to pay cash up front. I told him about the supervisor calling and giving the okay, but I didn't have the supervisor's name. He looked through the faxes United had sent to confirm their bookings, but my name was nowhere on them. He called United but noone answered, because it was 2:30 - 3am. Finally, he asked me to wait and dealt with an aircrew.
After waiting while he gave the aircrew their room assignments and keys, he told me that he had decided to let me stay. I was grateful for that. However, he then decided to give me a lecture on what I should have done to prevent the problem with checking in. I was in horrible pain and exhausted, so I told him that and that I didn't need a lecture. I had to tell him three times before he finally allowed the security guy to help me up to my room. The security guy apologized for the manager's behaviour. At long last, I took pain meds and feel fast asleep, around 3am.
I was woken out of a deep sleep at 7am by two men, strangers, standing beside my bed. It was the night manager and a different security guy. I was scared and disoriented. I also, of course, had my hearing aids out, because I had been asleep and sleeping with your aids in HURTS. The night manager tried to talk to me. I had to tell him to stop three times or so, and order them out of my room, before they finally left. I told them I would meet them downstairs. While I was getting dressed and packing, he knocked on my door again.
When I got downstairs, the night manager refused to listen to me. Apparently, without my knowledge, United had rebooked my flight for 9am and had called the hotel to get them to tell me. The night manager and the security guy had knocked on my door but I couldn't hear them because I had my aids out, so they decided to opent he door. The night manager knew I used hearing aids, because I had told him so when he had checked me in.
Because the night manager would not listen to me, I finally had the staff call the police, so I could make a report. The officers were very professional, took statements from all of us and supported my decision to call them.
While dealing with the police, we all realized that time was getting short for me to make the flight, and I would not make it if I took the shuttle. The hotel offered to pay for a taxi, and I accepted that offer.
I had missed my housemate's funeral, the reason for leaving Netroots Nation early.
Landing in Ottawa, when I got off the plane in the jetway, my walker was nowhere to be seen. One of the unformed staff pointed down the jetway, and said it as down there. I walked down the hall a long way, in fact all the way to the baggage claim area. I waited ten minutes and finally the United baggage guy came through the door with my walker. When I told him that I needed to talk with him about what had happened, he literally did the "Talk to the Hand" gesture and walked up the jetway.
I waited for my checked suitcase and it never arrived, only being finally delivered on Monday afternoon.
I tried to get the baggage guy to call his supervisor, but apparently no supervisors for United are on duty in Ottawa on the weekends. I finally went to the ticketing place and got the supervisor's email address from the ticketting staff.
So, it was pretty much a nightmare of a travel experience.
I will always treasure my time and the experiences I had in Minneapolis, but I will never fly United or stay at an Intercontinental Hotel.
Some notes:
1) NO WOMAN deserves to be woken out of a deep sleep by two strange men beside her hotel bed, unless it is an EMERGENCY. Missing a flight is NOT an emergency, except in VERY rare circumstances.
2) I had taken off all of my undergarments and my pants when I got into the hotel bed, because I knew I would not have a change of clothing before I flew. I could easily have been completely nude.
3) There was a woman on duty at the front desk. If they needed to wake me up, they could easily have asked her to do it. I would have been startled, but I would not have felt as vulnerable as I did.
4) The hotel owed me, and any customer, two things: privacy and protection. They gave me neither.
5) Yes, I should have put the latch on the door, but I forgot because it was 2:30-3am in the morning.
6) Just because I have multiple disabilities does not mean I do not deserve privacy and protection.
7) United needs to have policies which accomodate passengers with different disabilities, and they need to train their staff in those policies. It was very evident that many of their staff members have no clue how to serve someone with a disability.
Here's the thing that I came away from this whole mess with though: How bloody hard it is to keep having to fight for what you need, as someone with a disability. I want to use my energy to fight against torture, and I do, but too much of my energy has to keep being used to get what I need because of my disabilities. I wish people would listen and open their hearts and minds, instead of making me fight every inch.
SO, how have your experiences been when travelling. Have you had any really great experiences ? Any really bad experiences ?
Pull up a chair and let's chat about travelling
as a person with disabilities,
Hugs,
Heather