For completeness I shall park my well-aired feelings here also. I am the owner of one of those powerchairs that costs a darned fortune. I have found a reasonably effective way of stopping people actively throwing it like idiots is to actually TELL them I paid money for it. Most assume they are provided by the NHS (yeah) and that they cost at most about £800. When I asked him how he would feel if I came around and threw his car up against a wall and scratched it whether it would still be "just a little scratch" we finally reached consensus on a repair obligation. Incidentally, this was them trying to use the regulation which I assume is part of Montreal that they are not liable for damage to any of the outside of a luggage article. It's meant to protect them from paying for a busted zip or a smashed suitcase wheel, not for them to be allowed to throw a wheelchair and smash it to pieces.
So on to the next problem. I now travel with an embarassing laminated photo-help tied to the back of my chair stating it should be returned airside (someone once lifted it onto a baggage belt, health and safety became a major problem in trying to remove it from a circulating baggage belt inside the terminal, thank goodness I was there to tell the guy not to attempt to lift it, he didn't realise it would be heavy - chair ignorance again).
But anyway, I do this because despite it being a very large chair when assembled, the Alber has the beauty of being capable of being disassembled without any tools and within the space of 10 minutes and placed into the boot of a standard Group B rental car. Yet they often claim it cannot travel because of its total size and weight. No single piece weighs more than 35kg either. But in any case, there is such a thing as a cargo loading belt. Most airlines now use these for reasons of speed. You push the chair under manual power (circumventing problems with the battery disconnection) onto the belt, apply brake, push it off again at the top, apply brake.
Of course, most do not read the helpful guide, which I will repeat comes with annotated pictures, telling them how to apply and remove the brake.
Thing is, are we disabled passengers located in a sealed room without benefit of communication facilities or are we sitting in a departure lounge about 50m from the aircraft? If you are having a problem then why not pick up the darned PHONE and ask for my help? You don't have to be an expert or a hero or a macho man, radio to the gate and I will tell you which switch to push in order to pull the back off entirely and your problem is solved. Easy. Quick.
And please can wheelchair owners be the inventors of the tilting mechanism? Too many US airlines turn a powerchair on its side and then leave it there in transit. You don't have to be a genius to realise that the wheels are designed to take the weight, the armrest is not. Sadly, you also do not have to be a genius to work in baggage handling!
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Hello
Date: 2010-05-13 11:09 am (UTC)So on to the next problem. I now travel with an embarassing laminated photo-help tied to the back of my chair stating it should be returned airside (someone once lifted it onto a baggage belt, health and safety became a major problem in trying to remove it from a circulating baggage belt inside the terminal, thank goodness I was there to tell the guy not to attempt to lift it, he didn't realise it would be heavy - chair ignorance again).
But anyway, I do this because despite it being a very large chair when assembled, the Alber has the beauty of being capable of being disassembled without any tools and within the space of 10 minutes and placed into the boot of a standard Group B rental car. Yet they often claim it cannot travel because of its total size and weight. No single piece weighs more than 35kg either. But in any case, there is such a thing as a cargo loading belt. Most airlines now use these for reasons of speed. You push the chair under manual power (circumventing problems with the battery disconnection) onto the belt, apply brake, push it off again at the top, apply brake.
Of course, most do not read the helpful guide, which I will repeat comes with annotated pictures, telling them how to apply and remove the brake.
Thing is, are we disabled passengers located in a sealed room without benefit of communication facilities or are we sitting in a departure lounge about 50m from the aircraft? If you are having a problem then why not pick up the darned PHONE and ask for my help? You don't have to be an expert or a hero or a macho man, radio to the gate and I will tell you which switch to push in order to pull the back off entirely and your problem is solved. Easy. Quick.
And please can wheelchair owners be the inventors of the tilting mechanism? Too many US airlines turn a powerchair on its side and then leave it there in transit. You don't have to be a genius to realise that the wheels are designed to take the weight, the armrest is not. Sadly, you also do not have to be a genius to work in baggage handling!