First of all, I’d like to apologize for my poor English. I asked Ben about this in the Daily Discussion, and he replied:
Could you explain a bit more about what made it so bad? Or any interest in writing a Community Stories post about this?
So I’ll try my best to describe our experience.
This is our experience flying with Turkish Airlines through Istanbul Airport in early August. There were two of us traveling together. My travel companion has been suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee for many years and needs a wheelchair at the airport.
The outbound leg
Our outbound leg involves a 1 hour and 45 minute layover at IST. After the plane arrived at IST, the staff used an electric wheelchair to take the wheelchair passenger through the jet bridge, then they dropped us at a bench at the jet bridge door and told us to wait. There’s a bench like this at almost every arrival gate. No one told us what to wait for — another wheelchair or something. I did go ask him what we needed to wait for when that staff was helping another wheelchair passenger out. The answer was: next staff.
Thirty minutes later, a buggy that could seat 8 to 9 people arrived. But the problem was after picking up wheelchair passengers from two or three gates, there were no seats left on the buggy for companions like me. The employee driving the buggy told us to go to the end of the corridor and meet them there. I basically jogged with my luggage to the end of the corridor, where the transfer security checkpoint was. All wheelchair passengers need to get off here, go up a ramp by themselves, and then go through security. The employee driving the buggy told us that his colleague would be waiting on the other side.
I have to say that these employees are all very helpful. The driver helped one of those wheelchair passengers walk up the ramp, and the employee at the security checkpoint helped her with her luggage. But this also gives you a picture of what that situation was like.
Once we passed through security, we were in the departure hall; no one was waiting for us at the security checkpoint. Then we saw a counter about 50 meters away, and the employees there were waving at us. All the wheelchair passengers need to get there on their own. Fifty meters doesn’t sound like much, but the slowest person on the same buggy arrived at this counter nearly 10 minutes after us. We call this place the wheelchair passengers transfer area. (You’ll see this term used frequently later on.)
The wheelchair passengers handed their boarding passes to the counter staff here and then sat on the benches waiting. Finally, a buggy showed up. The counter staff started calling out names, and the wheelchair passengers traveling with me were among them. Once again, the buggy was full. All the companions had to walk to the gate on their own.
I knew where the boarding gate was so I hurried toward the escalator. But at the same time, I saw an elderly gentleman who was also accompanying a wheelchair passenger call over a passing airport employee to show him his boarding pass. By the time we all got to the boarding gate, boarding was just starting. Once again, wheelchair passengers need to walk over the jet bridge to board on their own.
Arriving on the return leg
We were going to spend four days in Istanbul on the return leg, so we thought things would be a little better. Well, the only improvement was that I was able to ride in the buggy.
The plane landed at IST, the electric wheelchair transported the wheelchair passenger through the jet bridge, dropped us at a bench, and we waited — exactly the same. This time, the buggy arrived after about 20 minutes, and we both got on. The buggy then began picking up wheelchair passengers and their companions from different gates until it was full.
Then we began our long journey through the arrivals level. The first to get off were international transfer passengers at the transfer security checkpoint. Next, passengers transferring to domestic flights got off at a passport control. After that, the buggy stopped at a wheelchair passenger transfer area, and everyone got off.
At this point, an elderly woman refused to get off because she thought this was another transfer area and that the buggy was supposed to take her to immigration passport control. After another wait, an employee came with a wheelchair to push my companion and guiding us through passport control all the way to the taxi stand.
The day of departure
On the day of departure, we checked in at the dedicated business class area. After waiting about 10 minutes, a staff member arrived with a wheelchair to escort my traveling companion and me through security and passport control all the way to the business class lounge. This seemed no different from other airports.
But the interesting part began when it was time to board. A staff member came to find us and asked us to follow her out of the lounge. It turned out there was a small wheelchair passenger transfer area just outside the lounge. We waited there for a while until another staff member came and asked some wheelchair passengers and their companions to follow him. We took the elevator down to the departure level, got on a buggy, and started a long ride around the departures level. After dropping off a few groups of passengers, he left us at another wheelchair passenger transfer area. More waiting.
Our plane was at a remote stand. A staff member pushed my companion in a wheelchair to the boarding gate for the remote stand and left us there. More waiting. Until boarding started, no one told us what we should do. I had no choice but to ask the boarding agent what wheelchair passengers were supposed to do. “The bus for wheelchair will come,” he said. After two buses had departed with the passengers of our flight, the disabled and incapacitated passenger boarding vehicle finally arrived. While other passengers boarded via the stairs, we entered the plane through the opposite door from them.
After this experience, we think that if you’re a wheelchair passenger or traveling with someone in a wheelchair, you should do your best to avoid connecting through IST.
ACAA is not applicable to the IST transfer process. It’s applicability ends on that first bench they are taking you to after the jet bridge.
From what I understand, that worked well.
The rest of the description sounds like the transfer process was tedious and involved a fair bit of waiting, so I guess it’s like a typical experience of anybody’s transfer process in IST.
Surely they would make allowances, if someone...
ACAA is not applicable to the IST transfer process. It’s applicability ends on that first bench they are taking you to after the jet bridge.
From what I understand, that worked well.
The rest of the description sounds like the transfer process was tedious and involved a fair bit of waiting, so I guess it’s like a typical experience of anybody’s transfer process in IST.
Surely they would make allowances, if someone seriously could not walk at all?
But as was mentioned before, some abuse the wheelchair service in order to obtain a smoother and more comfortable transfer experience or hoping to cut short lines and waiting time…
Sorry, but I think what you said is a bit unfair.
"It’s applicability ends on that first bench they are taking you to after the jet bridge."
If that's the case, then what's the point of wheelchair services at the airport? Or is it that most airports misunderstand the concept of wheelchair services? They should just drop passengers with mobility issues off at the nearest bench.
"sounds like the transfer process was...
Sorry, but I think what you said is a bit unfair.
"It’s applicability ends on that first bench they are taking you to after the jet bridge."
If that's the case, then what's the point of wheelchair services at the airport? Or is it that most airports misunderstand the concept of wheelchair services? They should just drop passengers with mobility issues off at the nearest bench.
"sounds like the transfer process was tedious and involved a fair bit of waiting, "
These aren't the real issues. The real problem is that wheelchair passengers are forced to keep getting on and off, sitting down and standing up, and moving around. The point of wheelchair service should be to let passengers with limited mobility move as little as possible.If you think those movements are no big deal, try sticking a small metal plate behind your knee and see how it feels.
Sadly, this does not surprise me at all, and problems like this are not limited to Istanbul. My husband is an ambulatory wheelchair user with cerebral palsy who travels with his own travel wheelchair (that weighs about 27 lbs when the battery is removed and is no larger than a large stroller). Even though the ACAA (which applies to flights to and from the USA even when arriving in the EU) requires that personal assistive...
Sadly, this does not surprise me at all, and problems like this are not limited to Istanbul. My husband is an ambulatory wheelchair user with cerebral palsy who travels with his own travel wheelchair (that weighs about 27 lbs when the battery is removed and is no larger than a large stroller). Even though the ACAA (which applies to flights to and from the USA even when arriving in the EU) requires that personal assistive devices be brought planeside, in practice this has never occurred when flying to Europe for us.
Instead, in Barcelona, my husband had to use the airline provided wheelchair with an attendant pushing him despite us gate checking his walker (at the time, he was still using a walker instead of a power wheelchair). His walker was checked by United through to the checked baggage. Despite flying business class, we had to wait nearly an hour to get off the plane, after everyone else had deplaned for assistive services to come get him off the plane. We nearly missed our prebooked transportation into Barcelona due to the delay.
In Paris, it was much worse, flying Business class on Air France, and no wheelchair was provided for quite a long part of our journey. He had to walk all the way down the jet bridge and through a security screening before he was provided with an airline provided wheelchair, pushed by an attendant. They kept telling us that we would have a wheelchair as soon as we went through the next door, but he had to walking down the jet bridge, from the waiting area down an elevator, outside to a van, from the van to the security area, back into a van, and then to the customs area before he was provided with a wheelchair. At no point in time did personnel let me stop and get out his cane once we realized that the promised wheelchair was not available at the next step. We had flown business class and had a layover in Paris so then we had to arrange for a wheelchair attendant to get us from the lounge and take us to our gate. All this when my husband should have had his own wheelchair so that he did not have to rely on other people or walk.
Most recently, we flew to Reykjavik on Iceland Air, and our friends (also wheelchair users) flew on Delta. Again, my husband's wheelchair was checked through to baggage claim, but at least this time, Icelandair had accessibility services meet us planeside and use an ambulift to get us off the plane. Our friend on a Delta flight was not so lucky. Since they were seated at the back and Delta deplanes from both the front and back in Reykjavik, the flight attendant made our friend walk down the stairs. When she reached the bottom and it was clear that she could not continue without a wheelchair, they tried to tell her she had to go back up the stairs to get the Ambulift, but she literally could not do so. Ultimately someone retrieved her wheelchair from the plane so that she could ride it on the regular shuttle.
It doesn't stop us from flying to Europe, but I have come to accept that the ACAA will not be followed by personnel at European airports. That is just how it is when we fly to Europe. We have never had an issue receiving my husband's wheelchair at the boarding door when flying within the USA.
You should fly Southwest to Las Vegas or Orlando.
They have this Jetway Jesus who seems to perform miracles very often.
It's a medical marvel. It's a miracle.
No place on earth has cured people in a wheelchair more than this. Not even all the best hospitals combined.
It sounds like it wasn't "bad", eg the passenger wasn't abandoned? But just not great?
It's an enormous airport (it is) and every transfer has multiple steps. I think that's to be expected - you might do better scheduling transfers at physically smaller airports (not megahubs)? Eg, if some flights leave from remote stands, that can't be helped...
Also your inexperience in not knowing "what's next" - everybody has a first time, but that's not...
It sounds like it wasn't "bad", eg the passenger wasn't abandoned? But just not great?
It's an enormous airport (it is) and every transfer has multiple steps. I think that's to be expected - you might do better scheduling transfers at physically smaller airports (not megahubs)? Eg, if some flights leave from remote stands, that can't be helped...
Also your inexperience in not knowing "what's next" - everybody has a first time, but that's not the airport's fault.
Culturally many places won't overexplain, you need to ask. The USA style "talk your ear off" is not the global norm, if you expected that (not sure what your "usual" is).
A few of the steps you describe sound especially onerous AND fixable, like needing to walk 50 meters without their chair. That's obviously a bad design. Narrow down your complaint to specifics that can be remedied (like that one) and I'd suggest sending them to the airport authority.
Well that helps us immensely. Will skip IST unless we have our own means otherwise (electric scooter, or similar)
The problem in IST is that Turkish Airlines simply has too many wheelchair passengers. Look at any TK flight leaving the U.S. There are up to 30-40 wheelchair passengers per flight. Why? Many of those passengers actually don't need a wheelchair. They are worried about the chaos at IST Airport and believe that a wheelchair will give them preferential treatment at Imigrations and Customs.
Unfortunatey, CDG and LGW are also hellholes for wheelchair passengers.
Ben I read your Colin daily because I am a semi retired to director/teacher and still teach a travel class for seniors. My friend and I just experienced similar wheelchair crazy times when we flew Dallas to Madrid to Hamburg Germany for Norwegian cruise in August. On the way home we flew Hamburg Paris Montreal Denver California coast so it was seven flights – short because of back issues – and seven airports with two...
Ben I read your Colin daily because I am a semi retired to director/teacher and still teach a travel class for seniors. My friend and I just experienced similar wheelchair crazy times when we flew Dallas to Madrid to Hamburg Germany for Norwegian cruise in August. On the way home we flew Hamburg Paris Montreal Denver California coast so it was seven flights – short because of back issues – and seven airports with two wheelchairs because Carolyn had hip surgery and I have heart issues and we are both in our 80s! In spite of this we had a wonderful trip and really only the problem with the wheelchairs and the long wait for people with limited mobility was the bad issue! I hope a day will come when accessibility gets more attention in Europe!
Regardless of airport I would also suggest not booking international itineraries with a 1.5 hour layover when a wheelchair is involved.
Ah, the outbound *leg* (that was clever, since this is a story about mobility issues in an airport...) Also, you were being humble; your English was excellent on here. Wish the wheelchair assistance was better at IST. Glad you and your partner made it through!