Disabled passengers and too much make-up blamed for airport delays and cancellations!

Airports are hardly passenger friendly even for those who are fully fit. When I travelled from Gatwick with my mother who was in her mid nineties, I did request assistance because although Mum was not disabled and could walk quite well, there was no way she could walk the enormous distances to reach a gate at Gatwick. The bigger the airport, the more assistance should be provided.

All airports should have lifts to enable less able passengers to avoid having to negotiate stairs carrying their cabin baggage, but this is not always the case.

"The chaos has not been caused by passengers". I agree, Gagajo. The chaos has been caused partly by the pandemic and lockdowns and all that crap, and then airports not getting up to speed again quickly enough.

BUT what the article linked to in the OP (by you) is about is what passengers can do to alleviate the chaos because, although they may not be primary causers of it, things like having too many liquids in bottles and faking disability, only make it worse.

We know news media go in for plenty of exaggeration so I feel if one just reads what the CEO says at face value, there's nothing wrong with it. And if it encourages people to think a bit more carefully about their little bottles and the rules that have been in place since 9/11, and discourages those few who fake disability, etc, etc, then that's all to the good.

Isn't it? So worth mentioning those things, without blaming disabled people, which he didn't.

To the poster with too much make up. Why? We’ve known about the restrictions since 9/11. My son recently witness many people kicking off because they couldn’t take their precious shampoo as it was too big or mountains of make up. It just holds everyone up.

On the disabled note. We are probably going to have to ask for assistance given the long queues as my bloke has an orthoststic tremor which means he can walk but can NOT stand without support so shuffling along in a security queue is impossible, so as they say not every disability is visible

My mother used wheelchairs and disabled support at airports for many years. She could walk but used a walker when she went out any distance. With a history of falls, broken bones, and a number of spine fractures she really wasn't capable of walking long distances or of climbing steps. She did get out of the chair and walk across to a waiting car. I wonder if people thought she was faking it?

Georgesgran

At least Frank Gardner got his wheelchair. BA ‘forgot’ to load DD2’s on the plane!

That is terrible, Georgesgran.
When we saw Frank Gardner I think they had lost his wheelchair because he was being pushed in an airport one by a porter.

A lovely porter was returning a wheelchair from car park to arrivals as I hobbled along with a stick and offered to take me in. Yes, I could walk slowly but I was very grateful for his help. He offered to stay with me but I declined.

If people are jumping queues by pretending to be disabled then they need to be told to go back to the end of the queue.

They remove the facilities from others who might need some support but are not obviously disabled.

At least Frank Gardner got his wheelchair. BA ‘forgot’ to load DD2’s on the plane!

I agree icanhandthemback. My mother, in her latter years, really needed disability support when travelling, but wasn't regarded as being disabled enough.

Plus, the real point is, that he is trying to deflect blame for understaffed airports. Including his own.

The chaos this summer hasn't been caused by passengers.

Some people need wheelchairs for fatigue, joint hyper mobility, etc. Yes, they can walk around but need that extra bit of help over long distances which are usual when walking to the Gate. People's perspective about what constitutes a disabled person is often completely at odds with the reality. You also get people whose condition varies substantially daily but as this doesn't always follow a pattern, you need to book up the assistance in advance so you may well look as if you don't need the assistance on that particular day but you may well need it on return. If you don't turn up for it on the outward journey, then you may find you don't have it on the return.

This may not sound like anything if you are not disabled but for those that are, they have been through years of abuse by the Benefits assessments, targeted by people in the street who don't believe them and discrimination on a fairly large scale by retailers, etc. Yes, idiots do take advantage but I bet that there are quite a lot of people who are considered not to be disabled because they are not paralysed or the like.

GagaJo

Do any of us know anyone who is able bodied, pretending to be disabled? Of course not
The golf buggies are handy to go on if someone is not actually needing a wheelchair but finds difficulty in walking due to several conditions including breathlessness.
There are varying degrees of disability

A security guard questioned me this week at Arrivals because I was sitting on a chair which someone (other than me) had borrowed and left there from the coffee shop 10 yards away. She was not a bit interested in the unattended luggage which was around.
As we had to wait for 3 hours yes, I needed a chair.

It's not very disabled friendly nor geared up to people who might be slightly less able than an Olympic athlete.

It's worth remembering that the word "blame" is applied by the newspaper, not by the Heathrow CEO. He is simply telling people some of the things that cause delays and they are all things that air travellers have under their own control and are not the airport's fault.

Worth listening to when you think about it.

Would that be wheelchair using British journalist Frank Gardner, stuck on a plane at Heathrow for the fifth time?

Oh, not again!!
We saw him in arrivals the first time it happened; he was naturally very angry but restrained and still polite. He'd been sitting waiting on the plane for an hour and a half until they brought his wheelchair to the plane.

Perhaps John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow CEO, thinks that Heathrow would be a wonderful, well-run airport if it were not for the passengers.

GagaJo

Do any of us know anyone who is able bodied, pretending to be disabled? Of course not .

I know more than one person who tries to tell people that their dog is an emotional support dog to get around taking their pet into a no pet space.

These are NOT service animals in any way shape or form, and yes they talk about trying to game the system

We once saw a group of four pension age people literally running to get ahead of us in an airport queue only to see them being smugly wheeled out to the plane later. The sort of people that set back the cause of genuinely disabled people. DH being DH accosted them and they just shrugged and grinned.

The worst experience we have ever had was at Manchester airport. Took well over an hour to get through the baggage check because they checked everything and I mean everything and you had to put everything, pills, potions etc in these stupid little plastic bags. Nonsense. Needless to say, I’ll never go there again, Glasgow sounds better in the unlikely event we travel to the UK.

Hasn’t this been a Tiktok challenge or similar, to pretend to have a disability in order to queue jump? I don’t think it’s aimed at people genuinely in need.

There are limits on the liquids that you can carry in the cabin so we can hardly blame staff for enforcing the rules.

Sadly, I’ve seen the pretenders too, but it’s stupid, because it’s first on, but last off and they take up places on the Ambulift when they are capable of using the air bridge (maybe not, if it steps up to a smaller plane). DD2 waited over an hour for the Ambulift at Newcastle last week. A ‘Helpful’ air crew asked her what she’d done to herself on holiday to which DD said she’d suffered a stroke when she was 12. ‘Oh well, you’ll be used to a wheelchair then’ was the reply.

I could tell you tales you wouldn’t believe.
It beggars belief at times.

I thought it was a well known thing

Beckettt
I too have an acquaintance that does the same thing. She boasts of it. ?

There are disabled people who need help , but others who aren't take advantage to pretend to be ... my cousin has witnessed this at an airport ... person walking about no problem ... as soon as they have to go through check in etc rush to get to their wheelchair , so it does happen

Sassanach512

Jeremy Vine showed an idiot pretending to be disabled in a wheelchair on his show the other day. This guy was telling everyone how to beat the queues in airports and putting it online thinking he was being hilarious, what a plank

I suspect this is what the Heathrow CEO was talking about.

I am surprised that posters say they don’t know anyone who requests assistance and gets about by wheelchair at airports.
I certainly do.
As an older member I find people of my age boast about it.
They can walk distances at home perhaps needing a stick but they could certainly manage.
The same thing applies at railway stations.

Seriously the Airports are being ridiculous! what by enforcing the rules? The rules on luggage restrictions, and especially those that apply to cabin luggage are easily accessible. You may think the rules are wrong, but enforcing them is obligatory. We can all make mistakes, I forgot I hadn't drunk a bottle of water in a side pocket of my husband's carry on bag. I apologised and felt guilty for the unnecessary holdup. They weren't being ridiculous they were being thorough.

I don't see any criticism of disabled people, just criticism of those who pretend a disability to avoid queues. While it in no way excuses the poor treatment some disabled have received, an increase in numbers requiring assistance will strain the system, and if that increase is because people are scamming the system that is avoidable and reprehensible.

I need to apologise to those passengers above - my holiday make up bag a bit bulky!
Seriously the Airports are being ridiculous!

GagaJo

Do any of us know anyone who is able bodied, pretending to be disabled? Of course not .

Yes - a neighbour (who does have a weak ankle but well able to walk to the local pub) always requests "special assistance" at airports to avoid the queues. I have explained this could be causing someone who genuinely requires assistance to be delayed - he just shrugged his shoulders and said it wasn't his problem!