The Age
By Liz Gooch
November 13, 2004
Virgin Blue refused to allow a blind woman to board a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne yesterday because she did not have a mat for her guide dog to sit on.
The airline admitted it made "significant errors" after Katrina Stewart was forced to book a Qantas flight for herself and her two young children because Virgin would not help them find a mat for her dog, Nari.
The airline has offered her a refund and a credit but Ms Stewart and her husband Martin, who is also blind, are still angry at the insensitive manner in which she was treated and say they will never fly with Virgin again.
"It's indescribable contempt for humanity," Mr Stewart said.
"They had more than one chance to fix the problem . . . but the madness continued."
When Ms Stewart booked the Virgin flights, worth $933, a staff member told her the airline would supply the mat. However, Virgin was forced to concede that the staff member had made a mistake and the company's policy was for people to supply their own mats.
Ms Stewart bought a beach towel in the terminal but the airline would not permit her on the plane.
Her husband, who was in Melbourne, spoke to Virgin staff by phone and was told there was a shop in the terminal that sold the mats. But when Mr Stewart requested that staff take his wife to the shop, he was told they "had other jobs to do".
Ms Stewart said it was an extremely stressful situation.
"They said I'd have to get on a bus," she said.
After paying $541 for another set of tickets, Ms Stewart left Brisbane on a Qantas flight, with a mat supplied by the airline.
Virgin spokesman David Huttner said the incident was an "anomaly" and the airline would review the staff member's training.
