James Scholes3d ago

Do you think that passengers who have purchased or been upgraded to a more expensive class of travel, such as business or first with an airline, should also receive a better class of #disability/#health assistance? Why or why not?

Please only vote if you are or have been a user of such assistance.

#accessibility

Yes, unequivocally.
8.3%
Only if such an assistance tier is itself a paid extra.
8.3%
Only if it doesn't disadvantage other passengers who can't afford it.
16.7%
No, absolutely not.
66.7%
Poll ended at .
Show threadSimon Jaeger2d ago
@jscholes Disability assistance is meant to make up for the deficit that comes from trying to use the service with said disability, essentially trying to get the traveler's experience back to baseline. At least, that's how I see it. It's an accommodation, not a luxury. I'm not opposed to having something extra as a perk of paying for a higher seat class, but it would really have to be 100% extra, never something that was required by anyone, otherwise it immediately becomes gatekeeping to those who need it. It would be interesting to have this conversation with examples. I wonder what inspired this question.
Show threadJames Scholes2d ago

@simon Let's say you were flying business class, and your ticket included complementary access to a lounge with a gym, showers, and a self-service buffet.

The baseline experience for other passengers with a similar ticket, but who did not require assistance, would be an ability to use those facilities as much and as frequently as they liked. But expecting a member of assistance staff to help you do the same would probably place a disproportionate burden on the system.

What is the solution here? Is it for the Lounge staff to take over? Better assistance capacity? A tiered assistance approach?

What about if you wish to visit multiple duty-free shops and a restaurant outside of a lounge, with or without an upgraded ticket?

Show threadFlorian2d ago
@jscholes @simon That's a tricky one. I personally rarely get tickets above coach/economy because the benefits often don't seem worth the expense, but I could see how someone who does shell out for such a ticket would want to get the most out of it. I'd say, at the very least, having the assistance personnel direct you to the specific lounge would be what I would expect, but this gets tricky in some places. At Schiphol, for example, it's policy that particularly visually impaired passengers should not ever be left alone; you get placed in a waiting room at the assistance reception until about an hour before departure, at which point someone whisks you through security and passport control until you get to the gate at which point they wait until they can board you. In that flow, a lounge doesn't seem feasible at all, whereas in the US it's anyone's guess when you get dropped where by who, at which point I could see it working
Show threadJames Scholes2d ago

@zersiax @simon On this most recent trip:

When departing from Mexico City on a business class ticket, they automatically suggested the premium lounge, took us straight there after security, left us in the hands of the lounge staff, and returned bang on time to pick us up so we could be some of the first passengers boarding.

When returning from Heathrow on a premium economy ticket, there was no included lounge access so it's impossible to say how they would've handled it, but we did feel more like anonymous cases in their system.

They got us through security extremely efficiently, and asked if we wanted to grab a coffee or something. But we were then just left in the waiting area for over an hour, before being rushed onto a buggy with other passengers. If we'd needed to use the bathroom or something, we would've been out of luck.

After dropping the other passengers off at their gates, there was only about 15 minutes before the scheduled takeoff time. They had already boarded five groups of passengers and we were some of the last people to get on the plane.

So... it could've been worse— we could've missed the flight, for example. But it could've also been a lot better.

Show threadSimon Jaeger
@jscholes @zersiax Oh, yeah, so when I originally read this post I thought you meant "disability assistance that wasn't directly related to the additional perks but still went beyond what economy class travelers would get". I wouldn't be surprised if that accounts for a lot of the no votes here.
I think the answer is obviously complicated, but I do think if you buy an upgrade to business class, the airline should be able and willing to accommodate that upgrade to the best of their ability. I wouldn't expect constant one-on-one assistance but I would expect to be able to get help finding a lounge/shop/whatever, because that's part of the baseline experience.
I used to travel around Canada and the US a lot on buses and sometimes trains. I also have to take ferries quite often to get to and from the island where I live. There's less of an established system when you're not dealing with airlines, so I had to advocate a lot, but I wasn't generally met with any problems. Staff would point me in the direction of food cars and convenience stores and whatever else. I figure if a single bus driver can find a couple of minutes to help a passenger find something as part of a dirt cheap Greyhound trip, an entire airport full of people can probably figure out how to do the same for a paying business class traveler. In the case of shops and cafes and such, I would try to outsource to the people working there, unless I only needed a couple of minutes to get what I needed.
Apr 10 at 12:50amWeb
Show threadJames Scholes2d ago
@simon @zersiax A part of me thinks we should be able to expect constant one-on-one assistance to take advantage of what the airport is offering. If they're bringing in a bunch of money from their shopping, food, and lounge tenants, and want passengers to engage with those things, they should be able to do better than pointing someone in the right direction.
Show threadTara Owton18h ago
@jscholes @simon @zersiax Yeah, constant one-to-one Assistance wouldn’t be a bad idea. Especially if you’re stuck in an airport, and you need the toilet, and there’s actually no one around that you can quickly grab and ask for help. Assistance varies between countries and Airports. I used to travel to Norway quite a bit, and the Assistance there is really really good, Heathrow is quite good, but sometimes it can be chaotic.