Airplanes & Electric Wheelchairs: why is it STILL so difficult?

“You cannot board this plane, madam”

Six words everyone loathes to hear at the airport at 9 AM. Even more so when you find out the reason is because of your electric wheelchair. I am no stranger to travelling and yet last year I still run into this issue when trying to get home from Florence with dwindling funds and a low supply of underwear. However, it does beg the question as to how I ended up in the situation in the first place? Which led to the further question of: why is plane travel so difficult as a disabled person in 2024?

Every airline makes it far too complicated to travel with an electric wheelchair. Last year I travelled twice and I experienced difficulties both times. There is an expectation that the passenger will provide all the information about the wheelchair and the battery type before they travel – I completely understand this and respect it because it’s an electrical item going in to hold of an airplane. However, what doesn’t make sense is that I then arrive at the airport and I’m told by the check-in staff that all the information I spent 30 minutes providing over the phone does not show up on their system so we have to go through everything again. At one point, the staff themselves were questioning what I was telling them because apparently they knew more about my wheelchair than I did. The worst experience I’ve heard is coming back from Florence where I was denied boarding because the staff said my electric wheelchair would not fit in the hold and that they would not arrange a new flight for me and I had to sort myself out. It was frustrating because I had informed them of my wheelchair’s dimensions and ask them multiple times if it would be okay because I knew it was a smaller aircraft. I feel like that trip in particular requires its own blog post but for now I will just say that it was not fun and I’m grateful for credit cards. (I was refunded eventually)

The chaos that is boarding a plane is at times laughable. I use an on-board aisle chair to get to my seat on the plane because I can’t walk very well. This usually means that two or three staff from the Assistance Team at the airport should be able to help me board in a calm and civilised manner. Yet, for some reason it always ends up being a situation where people board before me so then it’s a struggle to get through the aisle. Constantly bumping into mums and kids or the stray suitcase. No one is really patient for me to disengage my electric wheelchair (which I admit can take a little bit of time because the battery is very well hidden) but we always tell the staff that in advance so it’s not news to them.

And then we are on the plane and then I’m left with the conundrum of… the toilet. The toilet, I here you say? Yes, every wheelchair user’s arch nemesis on planes. If you are not disabled or know someone who is disabled, you may not have realised that airplanes do not have a disabled toilet. But Mary, then how do you use the toilet? The answer: with extreme difficulty. As I cannot walk very far, I need to use the on-board aisle chair (our old friend) to get from my seat to the toilet. Transferring is tricky but not impossible but the fun part is that airplane toilets are minuscule. I mean they are the smallest things you would ever see. So small that my trusty aisle chair cannot get into them which leads to an awkward transfer from the chair to the toilet. That’s the first hurdle (yes there’s more). I need to help when I’m in the bathroom because my disability has affected how much mobility I have in my upper arms so somehow I have to fit myself and another person in said minuscule toilet. It’s a weird game of limb Jenga – move my foot here, squeeze your side hip there, ooh you elbowed me – just to try and get everyone in and the door closed. And then we do the whole thing again in reverse.

I do not know if there is a specific safety reason but I strongly believe airplanes need to have an accessible toilet on board. It does not have to be the same size as a standard one but it should be big enough for the aisle chair to fit in plus one other person. There is a massive community of disabled people who need assistance in the loo and airlines do not cater for them. I was on a nine-hour flight to Florida last year and I knew that I had to watch my liquid intake before the plane (and during my flight) because I did not want to have to do the Toilet Tango more than once. It’s terrible though because I should be able to travel without having to worry about these things. I should be able to enjoy my flight and drink all of my complementary cocktails without dreading Mother Nature’s call.

Now you’re probably thinking well that has to be everything, right? Getting on the plane is chaotic, using the toilet can be problematic but once I’ve landed, everything should be great? Oh, only if that were true. I haven’t mentioned the frustration that is off-boarding a plane. Do you remember when I mentioned I need assistance? Well, it turns out that getting off a plane with an electric wheelchair… can take forever. This can be for a few reasons but the ones that I’ve experienced recently are: 1) delays getting the wheelchair out of hold or 2) they didn’t know you were arriving and needed assistance. The former, I easily forgive because most electric wheelchairs, (or at least mine) are extremely heavy and usually need a special lift to get them out safely. I’d prefer they do so safely because I’ve seen the horror stories online of electric wheelchairs being absolutely wrecked when they are being moved by staff and fortunately that’s never happened to me.

The latter, however, is atrociously bad. I have never understood how it happens because the airlines must talk to the airport staff about who was on board the aircraft before it leaves the ground so how do they not know that there are passengers who need assistance on board when we land? I remember landing in Gatwick and a whole group of us just waiting with the cabin crew for assistance to arrive and then being told that they did not know we were meant to be there. It was an awkward and unnecessary situation for everyone involved. It’s for this reason that I don’t make any reservations for restaurants or attractions, regardless of when I’m supposed to land because I just don’t know how long it will take me to get off the plane. And this isn’t just when I’ve been forgotten. It’s just common practice but I think it lacks common sense. At the end of the day, I’m a passenger paying for a service and I think it’s not fair that there is an expectation that disabled passengers are just going to have to wait until help arrives and deal with it.

This is probably a very left of field blog post because I usually try and put a positive spin on everything. However, I do think it needs to be said that whilst I’d love travelling I strongly dislike getting on a plane. I think airlines need to do a lot more to make it appealing and easier for people travelling with a disability. There always seems to be an air of “if they are choosing to fly, they know what to expect” but I think it’s just an excuse for complacency.

I hate to end on a negative note so I will say this: I will never stop travelling. The feeling of touching down in a new country far outweighs my dislike of flying. I just came back from a trip to Disneyland Paris (we drove) and I’m already looking at where I would like to go next! Being on the move is in my bones, all I’m asking is we start looking at what can be done to make it a nicer experience.

Let me know how plane travel has been for you? Better experiences, or dare I say, worse experiences compared to mine? Let me know in the comment section or drop me an email at diaryofahopefulcook@gmail.com