Disabled woman slams Jetstar for “extremely humiliating” treatment
<p dir="ltr">A woman has said she was humiliated at the end of her flight after Jetstar staff couldn’t provide her with a wheelchair for her, forcing her to leave the plane by crawling.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Natalie Curtis has been in a wheelchair since high school but said she has never been as humiliated as she was left to crawl to her wheelchair after flying from Singapore to Bangkok.</p>
<p dir="ltr">While she was provided a standard “aisle” wheelchair to board the plane, Ms Curtis was told she would have to pay to use another chair to get off the plane - a service which is usually free.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I didn’t really comprehend it and I was like, ‘No, I’m not paying to be able to get off this plane’,” Ms Curtis told <em>Sunrise</em>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">With her friend Natasha Elford unable to carry her due to a knee injury, Ms Curtis crawled on the floor past eight rows until she could reach her chair.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“It was extremely humiliating,” she said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ms Elford said she was in shock while watching the ordeal and that she was “absolutely gutted”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I was like, ‘Is this actually happening?’” she told the program on Monday.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I couldn’t physically lift her so I felt really hopeless and I couldn’t believe this was really happening.”</p>
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<p dir="ltr">She added that she tried to find out if a wheelchair could be fast tracked to Ms Curtis, but said the flight attendants “didn’t really try to do anything”.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">A spokesperson for the budget airline said Jetstar had sincerely apologised to Ms Curtis and had offered her a refund and additional compensation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We unreservedly apologise to Ms Curtis for her recent experience while travelling with us,” they said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We are committed to providing a safe and comfortable travel experience for all our customers, including those requiring specific assistance.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The spokesperson added that Jetstar staff don’t charge for using a wheelchair, and that an inquiry into the incident had found a language barrier led to the miscommunication of a fee.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“At no point was an aisle chair withheld due to a request for payment,” they said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ms Curtis isn’t the only person to have experienced such an incident over wheelchair use, and her experience comes as disability advocates call for a complete overhaul of the treatment of passengers by airlines.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In August, Brad Wszola had to be carried by his wife and a staff member over the gap between the air bridge and the Jetstar plane he was trying to board to fly from Darwin to Cairns, per <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/06/second-class-citizen-man-lifted-on-to-plane-as-darwin-airport-had-no-ramp-for-wheelchair-users" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian</a></em>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Watching these people having to lift me, to bend down, Jen had to bend down below the level of the floor of the plane, bend over and grab the bottom of the aisle chair to lift me … That put myself at risk, also the staff at risk and Jenny at risk,” Mr Wszola said. </p>
<p dir="ltr">“She was the one helping lift me into the plane.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mr Wszola even encountered issues prior to leaving Darwin, with his wheelchair being sent to the baggage carousel rather than the air bridge on his arrival.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">After his wife made multiple requests via email to Darwin airport and Jetstar, she was told a ramp wasn’t provided to bridge the gap as it was a low-cost airline - but a ramp has since been provided to the airport after <em>The Guardian</em> contacted Jetstar.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Just made a cute little video about how <a href="https://twitter.com/Qantas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Qantas</a> broke my wheelchair and won’t fix it 🙃🙃🙃🙃 <a href="https://t.co/CnFXazJ1ox">pic.twitter.com/CnFXazJ1ox</a></p>
<p>— Zoe Simmons | she/her (@ItbeginswithZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/ItbeginswithZ/status/1577502974796247041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">Earlier this month, Qantas reversed its decision not to refund Zoe Simmons, whose wheelchair was damaged on a flight from Sydney to Canberaa, after she took her complaints to social media.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In a column for <em><a href="https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/flights/disability-advocate-lashes-qantas-over-broken-wheelchair/news-story/72ae759ca7960ab607610c5ebd6c8bca" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news.com.au</a></em>, Simmons explained that damage to her chair brakes had left it “unusable” and was initially told Qantas wouldn’t reimburse her or repair her chair, which she needs as someone living with the nerve disorder fibromyalgia.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I am so angry that this is how wheelchair users are treated by airlines, over and over. And it’s not just Qantas: it’s a systemic issue, because the system is so very broken,” she wrote.</p>
<p dir="ltr">With the airline reaching out to apologise and offering to pay for her wheelchair repairs, Simmons questioned whether she would have received such a response if she hadn’t taken matters into her own hands.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I wonder: would this resolution have occurred, had I not made a fuss about it?” she wrote.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I shouldn’t have to hope to be an exception to the norm. The norm should be that disabled people are looked after, treated well, and able to get the same resolution I’ve been able to get here.”</p>
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<p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Sunrise</em></p>
