b1lanc

Should not happen. I'd like to say that UA was not guilty here, but.... Doesn't surprise me after a recent visit to the hospital where two independent IT systems that didn't talk are used to move patients - Could not get a wheelchair for a lady and then two showed up and duked it out over who was supposed to take her to her destination. Possession being nine tenths, the first to arrive left the other one steaming and calling their supervisor to complain.

The 'mom' referenced below was 77.
United Airlines left mom in wheelchair stranded in New Jersey, son says | Fox News

Ian W

Poor or non-existent wheelchair handling is extremely common and more so at major hubs where it is contracted out via the airport to a 'handling' agency. I have often seen pax in wheelchairs effectively dumped where they cannot see an information screen and edgy about whether they will be taken to their connecting flight. I think FedEx handles packages better. Ideally, wheelchair bound pax should have the same handling as children where they have a bar code/RFID that is read at each step. At least then a departure gate could see that the passenger they are due to get is in a wheelchair and at a remote arrival gate because nobody is bothered to get them to their connection. This failure to handle wheelchair bound pax has in my experience lead to delays in turnarounds due to no-one there to deplane them or board them, that have resulted in aircraft losing departure slots probably costing more for one flight than running a good system for handling disabled pax for the month.

Piper.Classique

Can only talk about Paris CDG, Dubai, and Bangkok on this. At all of them, both ways, my husband used a wheelchair. In every case we were kept informed and moved on in a timely fashion. We were even asked if we need to stop to use toilets, go to any of the shops, get a coffee. Dubai there was even a lounge for passengers using assistance, with a coffee shop.
Only snag was finding where to go to get the pusher, (which had been arranged in advance) as it was never all that close to the entrance.

ExXB

At EU airports it is the Airport's responsibility to handle PRMs. Elsewhere it is the airline's. By all accounts they are equally bad in meeting their responsibilities. My f-i-l waited almost two hours one early morning at Gatwick to be transported through customs and immigration.