Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Melbourne to Hobart Tasmania

I spent a couple days in Melbourne doing mostly nothing but eating. Then this morning I flew to Hobart on Tiger Air. I made it and survived but the entire ordeal of getting on the plane sucked.

I have a very difficult time walking more than about 100 yards a day. Airports require much more than that amount. Therefore I am required to use wheelchair assistance to get around in an airport. I called the airline and informed them like I am supposed to do in advance. They told me they would transport me but not until I checked in. I took an airporter van to the airport and it dropped me off about 8 or 900 yards from the checkin counter. I asked the driver to try to get me closer but he told me they are only allowed to drop passengers in this designated area. How was I supposed to get to the checkin counter? The airport building itself was almost 500 yards away and then another 3 to 400 yards to the counter????? There were no options at all for mobility impaired passengers like myself. I struggled and it took me a long time but I made it to the counter without having a seizure or falling down and hurting myself both of which are common things that happen to me when I walk too far. The other thing that happens when I walk too far is I get outrageously high pain later that night when I go to bed. That pain is kicking in right now. They did transport me to the plane after big arguments with each other about who had to take me. The dispute was right in front of me like I did not matter. Sure they were talking calmly and with smiles on their faces but they were all making it clear that none of them wanted to have to do the chair. In the end one of the females agreed to transport me to the plane. She assured me on the way out that when I got to Hobart there would be a chair waiting for me at the plane because I was the only person that requested a chair. Well when I arrived in Hobart and got off the plane out on the runway there was no chair waiting for me but I did see a person being transported from our plane in a chair way up ahead of me. I asked about my transport and was told there is none because only one chair was requested and that was gone. So I was forced to again walk way more than I am able to to get to the curb and get in my airporter to get to my hostel. It was a horrible day for me and I doubt if I will be able to sleep at all tonight because my pain level is going to be very high. Such is life. The lesson here is do not fly Tiger Air again. I did file a complaint with the airport about the shoddy way mobility impaired people are treated but I doubt if anything will come of that. Here are some pics from the flight...you can see the snow on the ground in the first pic