A disabled Delta passenger has accused the airline of not providing him with boarding assistance on a recent flight, forcing him to crawl to his seat.
Sean Chang, who is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, said he had difficulty with his request for an aisle seat and special assistance for his Nov. 3 flight at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, USA Today reported.
“I was told, ‘Hey, there is no aisle chair ready for you,’” Chang told USA Today.
When he arrived at the gate with 10 minutes to spare until departure after being delayed on the security line, he was informed that the airline never received his request for special assistance.
He said the airline offered to put him on another flight, but that option was not feasible because he stops eating and drinking about 24 hours before flying, so delaying his travel would stretch that period for too long.
Chang said the gate agent told him he could board any way he wanted to still make the flight.
“Am I really going to have to crawl to get to my seat?” he said, according to the outlet. “It’s extremely humiliating, especially being on the floor and everybody’s above you looking down.”
But he felt he had no choice so he went ahead and crawled.
Delta, which acknowledged the incident, told USA Today that its policy allows passengers to decide how to board if assistance isn’t available.
“Although Delta employees offered to move the customer to a direct flight less than 1.5 hours later to allow for proper boarding assistance, the customer opted to board himself,” the airline told the outlet in a statement.
“To provide you with the best service, we recommend customers in need of mobility assistance share this information ahead of their journey, a feature available on delta.com and in the Fly Delta App,” it added.
Delta said it has staff at every airport to help disabled passengers resolve complaints, but insisted that no violation occurred because Chang chose how to board the flight.
“We need to make sure disabled people have rights, equal rights,” Chang told USA Today.
Delta refunded Chang’s ticket and gave him additional miles and vouchers, but he argued that airlines must face harsher fines when disabled customers are inconvenienced.
“I wanted to be compensated for something you can’t put a price on,” Chang said.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said his agency is considering new rules involving people with disabilities.
The agency said it has created four focus areas to be more inclusive of people with disabilities, including “enabling safe and accessible air travel; enabling multimodal accessibility of public transportation facilities, vehicles, and rights-of-way; enabling access to good-paying jobs and business opportunities for people with disabilities and enabling accessibility of electric vehicles and automated vehicles,” according to The Hill.
