Virgin grounds blind woman's guide dog
 

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.


:rolleyes:

WTF??????????? Not good VB!

Yes. Well. We are only allowed to critisise QF on this forum though, right? Even when VB has 'in your face screwed up', the VB spin doctors will come in and tell you that 'yes but we didnt crash on a golf course'.

Very poor.

There was a thread on here a few years ago discussing just this scenario. Spooky.

If only you got Virgin Blue service everywhere!

:yuk:

And so much for never touch anything beginning with a Q (Or something similar to that)

:rolleyes:

I have to agree with everyone on this one. It is completely indefensible. VB supply mats and the staff member should be sacked. If it is a training issue then the trainer should be sacked.
It makes all in VB look like a bunch of f*#@wits.

I thought VB was the "cheaper" alternative.

i witnessed a funny thing with VB V's QF a few weeks ago

A few buddies of mine planned a weekend in surfers, gambling and whatnot, I booked my Stravel flight on QF, SYD to OOL and my buddies booked VB, SYD to OOL. My flight was sheduled 30mins later then the VB flight,(aprox 9pm) I joined my friends for a drink in the VB terminal and watched them board, then i wandered across to QF, had a drink, then boarded my flight. apon arrival in OOL i expected to see my friends waiting with the hire car for me, not to be, I arrived, collected my baggage, and wondered why the terminal looked a little empty, 20 Min LATER then my arrival time, the VB 737 showed up! not only that, they lostthe baggage of one of our group. the VB 737 was behind by 50 MINS! (it was suppost to depart 30 mind before my flight!)

not only that, with the lost baggage, my friend showed VB $7000 worth of receipts ( he earns well over 250K) but all VB would reimburse was $500.

It pays not to have expensive brand luggage on VB.

I'm still amazed that after 4yrs of Virgin Blue operating as a so called " Low cost carrier " that most people haven't quite twigged yet that they are anything but! :rolleyes:

and I'm amazed how quickly people forget how much we had to pay before they came along. Only reason Q are cheaper now.

Right on the money 2b2.
Try Sydney to Hamilton Island as an example where the "old" Qantas system of charging exists.

They may be the first in the world to groundschool Clearway, Stopway and Fairway in performance but they will never be the first to lower fares.

Ahab's 2 bobs worth :D

2b2 n Captahab

How about dealing with the subject of the thread. Tell us about how to really handle disable passengers? From what has been said it looks like there are two ways? VB's way and everyone elses way. Your both very sad people.

NS Driver:

Not defending the VB staff member involved in this particular incident, but to answer your question I seem to recall a disabled QF passenger in the somewhat recent past who got a $5000 taxi from Brisbane to Adelaide after being denied passage by QF, due to him not travelling with a carer....

and again I will say that I am not defending VB in this circumstance, but its a bit of food for thought

And further to this, the Guide Dogs Association of QLD commented in todays (Saturday 13th November) Courier Mail: Hardly an ongoing theme?

And once again I will say I am not defending the staff member involved, but one incident is hardly a trend is it??

Edited for clarity

I think LCC in this neck-o-the woods means Low Cost to Operate.:(

Its on the website FFS, surely the dog could have read this before he came onboard.

:ok:

Where?

How much space is left in front of your seat?

No spare adjacent seat perhaps?

Perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye! How much space was available on the flight? Maybe it had nothing to do with her not supplying her own absorbent mat...

Wonder if there will be any legal action?

Cheers, HH.

:ok:

PS: How about a bit of lateral thinking, she had a beach towel, surely if this was laid over a bin liner (freely available from catering) this would have been acceptable. Is there an Australian standard for absorbent mats?

Little hard to read the conditions on your ticket if you're blind. I've got 6/6 vision and can't read the bloody things.

Surely this woman has flown before. Didn't she know it was normal policy that she should bring her own mat?

Sounds like she got wrong info, hoped for the best anyway knowing it was unusual for them to offer to supply the mat and got caught out. What to do? Ring the media and play the "minority card"...

I think Howard has got to the heart of the issue. Would the CSO only be satisfied with a mat that had " Moisture Absorbent Animal Mat" printed on it?

Use some famous Australian ingenuity and find something, anything. How long was the flight for goodness sake? These guide dogs are very well trained and resist doing what comes naturally until they reach a welcoming patch of grass.

A spilt can of beer or cola would do more damage as it seeped under the carpet into the floor panels. Maybe we should place children on an absorbent mat. A child absorbent mat!

I agree. The guide dog should be sacked.