Air Asia (previously reviewed here) is under fire for poor service—indeed, lack of service—offered to disabled travelers. The low-cost airline offers open-air boarding only, requiring passengers to leave the terminal building and climb up a flight of boarding stairs in order to get to their plane. There are no alternatives for those who are infirm, or, as reported in this newspaper article, those who are disabled:
“Passengers are instead required to walk up a flight of boarding stairs – a daunting task when one is disabled from the waist down,” she said.
Lee said that when booking AirAsia tickets online, a separate icon would appear on the website asking if the ticket purchaser would require “special assistance”.
“If you clicked ‘yes’, then you won’t be able to proceed with your booking.
“That’s when I called AirAsia’s call centre, and was told that they were unable to accept passengers who are completely immobile.
“This is even stipulated in AirAsia’s terms and conditions!” she added.
Budget airlines have their drawbacks, true, but disabled passengers have just as much a right to low-cost travel.
| « "Those People Are Dangerous!" | Mighty Girl on Mighty Baby Travel » |
|