Yes, there may be very isolated circumstances where passengers abuse the special assistance requests but 9/10 of people seeking special assistance need this service for departure, arrival, flight connections.

In this specific Jet2 incident, the boy is 10 years old and he has
The medical condition and it's effects are very obvious at age 10 and particularly if his parents went to the effort of requesting special assistance when booking with Jet2 and their booking confirmation will have been issued including special assistance requests then Jet2 have a contractual duty of care to ensure the passengers requiring special assistance needs are handled accordingly. It is Jet2's responsibility to review the passenger manifest and identify passengers presenting for boarding as requiring special assistance are provided the required assistance at the boarding gate by collaboration with the despatcher and ground handling agents. I do not accept an airline can absolve their duty of care particularly towards vulnerable passengers who have specifically requested special assistance, especially in cases where there is a medical necessity.

If the handling agent are responsible then this shouldn't have been allowed develop had the cabin manager checked to ensure special assistance passengers were on the manifest and taken direct responsibility to ensure the passenger was provided dignity and respect in the provision of services.

End of. Jet2 have questions to answer, as too does the handling partner in their processes and procedures.

Surely the Cabin Manager was at 37,000ft en route when the passenger was checking in. Just how could it be his responsibility?

Apologies, typo error, meant Swissport ..still awful

But the parents have to go running to the media. Regrettably this is becoming a regular occurrence with the disability sector of the population. 99.9% of the population would have accepted the apology.

I read the article and wondered... what is it the parents want.

Jet2 clearly made a mistake, admitted it, apologised and offered a generous gift voucher.

Parents highly offended and said its not about money... well what is it about?

They had an apology.

What on earth do you mean by the disability sector of the population?

These days with Twitter, everybody having a reasonable quality stills/movie camera on their phone it's pretty easy for the media to pick up stories and the pictures to back them up. Even if the parents did wilfully chase media coverage it's hardly behaviour unique to those with disabilities or their carers. Getting it in the public eye emphasises the message to this airline to up its game and will be a salutatory reminder to the others too.

Did Jet2 'fes up and apologise/compensate before the headlines were hit ?

I'd say the most egregious chasers of media coverage are 'wronged' motorists:

Roofer fined by London council for having a rubbish bag in his van | London - ITV News

As ever the 'wronged' is in his head. He works in a field, roofing, that generates trade waste; he needs a permit.

I'm not convinced, unless they weren't paid for their story.

Basically, Jet2 need to improve and make sure a repeat occurrence never happens again. That means Jet2 need to improve their processes, procedures and human factors revolving around these sensitive matters or risk being found to potentially have processes and procedures which do not protect against passenger discriminatory behaviours which could potentially invite a legal suit against the airline plus all the negative public relations that will generate. Over to Jet2 to get on top of this matter and sort it out fast. All it takes is a couple of random mystery passengers with special assistance requests to establish if Jet2 have their house in order. I will not be surprised if that type of watchdog random effort is planned now. Time will tell.

A mistake was made, an apology issued and a discount of £300 offered off the families next booking with Jet2. That should have been the end of the matter.

mik3bravo You clearly have an issue with low cost carriers which may be clouding the issue:-

Wrong! I have no issue with LCA at all. You are jumping to conclusions which are your opinion but you are wrong. In this specific scenario a mistake was made, apology issued, token gesture compensation provided so all good. However, lessons learned are needed here and procedural checks examined to ensure Jet2 have the right procedures and checks in place to ensure it doesn't happen again. You seem uber sensitive to any critism. Perhaps play the ball, not the man, eh!

Please, Everyone, can we drop this now.

Jet2 have apologised and offered compensation (money off next booking). Out of all the UK airlines, i would imagine Jet2 would be the best suited to take this on board and learn from it. If this happened on FR/U2 for example, nothing would get done
Simple errors occur every day, and yes it's a shame they've run to the media. If only everyone else kept their problems to themselves as well.

A quick phone call from the Croacian handling agent to Leeds would have resolved this within half an hour.
Even if the family hadn't pre-advised of the EMD there is a procedure to accept them "on the day".
Jet2 take all reasonable steps to make sure the people representing them in airports where they do not have their own staff are trained in and follow the Jet2 procedures. If the handling agent did not do so then they must accept the bulk of the blame in this case.
It is perfectly normal practice for airlines to use third party handling and those agents have a responsibility to fully carry out their obligations to their customers i.e. the airlines.

Whats the big deal with Jet2's new 738s ? Newcastle one of the bigger bases that just never see them. We had JZHU for about 5 days then its ended up back at LBA. Would of thought they would of been based everywhere by now.

Newcastle one of the smaller bases now

Jet2 the future