AIBU to expect some help from easyjet?

[Luggagenightmare]

Hello,

I am a long time lurker but have shamelessly signed up for traffic as we are in a desperate situation and I can't seem to get any help from anywhere.

I flew from Valencia to Gatwick with easyjet on Thursday to get home from holiday with my husband and disabled son who uses a wheelchair. My son is 3 and the wheelchair looks similar to a buggy but we explained several times to the staff that it is a wheelchair and he cannot walk. It has a 4 point chest harness and a lap belt so is pretty obvious in my opinion. We had also pre booked special assistance so they knew we had additional needs.

When we arrived at Gatwick we were sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes as lo and behold - the wheelchair had been tagged incorrectly and they couldn't find it. Eventually it was found on the carousel and we used an electric buggy car thing to get to the carousel. This was an hour after everyone else so the carousel was deserted. We put our son in the chair then realised our hold bag was nowhere to be seen. I filed a lost luggage form and we went home after buying toothbrushes etc at the airport.

I was tracking the bag online which was meant to be coming on a flight back yesterday evening but the system now does not recognise our log in details so we can't even track it now.

I have rung easyjet 5 times and no one will help. I've completed their online query form. There is a complaints email which I have emailed but it says to expect a long wait for a response. Ive messaged them on Facebook with no answer. They keep saying they are a digital airline so everyone has to be done online.

My son's medication that we need is also in the hold bag - it was a liquid over 100ml so I thought it would be easier but will never make that mistake again. Luckily I had the sense to keep my car keys in my hand luggage.

I am so angry not only about the bag but how we were treated by the staff getting us onto the plane. We held the whole plane up when we arrived as they had ignored us saying that his 'buggy' is a wheelchair and hadn't put the right assistance in place.

Does anyone have any idea of where we can go from here? I wondered about the consumer help on the guardian but that will probably take ages.

Twitter? Or other forms of naming and shaming? It might depend on how public you’re prepared to go.

@SisterMichaelsHabit

What an uncessaarily terse response.

Lacking in warmth and understanding of the additional worries op has agaisnt a faceless company.

Op I would spam a load it things, twitter, Facebook, email ceo Etc.
It's unacceptable.
Yes mistakes happen but one would hope they do everything they can to help you with a son who has dilities when they fucked up.

You lost a bag. It happens when you’re flying. Don’t take anything of ultra importance in the hold. Medication is allowed on the plane; wouldn’t have been an issue with the right documents. But since you were flying home and can easily get a replacement from the pharmacy or doctor then it actually isn’t that big a deal; your kid has his medicine. If you were flying out the way then that would be worse.
And what’s the comment about car keys about? Would you seriously consider putting things like keys and purses etc into hold luggage? When you know it can get lost?

You lost a bag. It’ll turn up. If not, you’ll get compensation for it.

The wheelchair stuff is different; and you should make a complaint about how stuff handled that as it is dehumanising for your son to be stuck on the plane and have his wheelchair taken from him as if it wasn’t important. Treating it like a buggy after they were told it was a wheelchair was very wrong. It was sorted in the end, but if the stage were rude and dismisses then let the airline and airport know.

I use a wheelchair and fly a lot.

Special assistance is usually organised chaos. It works, and they will get you on the plane, and off the plane, but delays and misunderstandings are standard.

They've mislaid my wheelchair a few times, I just either wait on the plane for them to find it (creates a lot of pressure as holding up planes is quite expensive) or they find an airport one and wheel me through while searching for mine. Personal record so far is about an hour.

They might apologise but frankly probably not.

I deliberately fly with a relatively cheap, easily replaceable chair, as some get destroyed. My daughter who has a custom chair won't fly for fear of if it gets broken.

Re the hold bag, a surprisingly large number of bags go missing - on average something like 2 per flight. Best advice is don't put anything important in there - all drugs and keys and important documents in hand luggage. Carry the prescription for your drugs and that generally sorts out and security problems.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, I'm giving this advice so that if you fly again hopefully you are better prepared.

@SisterMichaelsHabit

I believe the relevance is the EasyJet mislabelled the buggy/wheelchair so on arrival it couldn't be found.
The family also pre-booked special assistance at Gatwick which wasn't in place.
End result, massive delays for the family to get to the baggage carousel by which time their bags had gone walkabout.

So no Daily Mail sad face here & by the way, your comment is completely unjustified.
Just a disabled family getting really shit service from EasyJet & Gatwick.

OP - I suggest tweeting EasyJet & seeing how that goes. Name & shame & all that.
Good luck.

Two issues here.
Lost bag issue. Not lost due to delay with wheelchair if it was arriving on a flight next day. Normal lost bag procedure - wait and then claim if it doesn't turn up. Also never leave anything you absolutely need like meds in a hold bag.
Second issue is a complaint for what seems to be poor customer service. You won't get compensation for this as there is no monetary loss but definitely worth pursuing an acknowledgement and apology as it may help you and other in the future.

I think a couple of the ignorant ableist asrsey responses here are not taking into account the extra stress and hassle you've experienced by the failure to provide proper assistance to a wheelchair user.

I recommend

Ignoring these people
Raising it on twitter
If that doesn't work continue to raise on twitter but also start to tag journalists and media outlets

Sorry this has happened to you. Airlines and airports keep failure passengers with disabilities and need to get their act together.

Tip on shaming on Twitter - put the @easyjet in the middle somewhere, not just first word, then all their followers see it. Also tag any consumer rights people to raise profile

Thank you for the advice and kind messages - and thanks @mnhq for removing that nasty ableist post. Its shocking that some people actually feel that way towards people with disabilities.

I still haven't heard anything but have seen there is an online chat from Monday at 9am where you can contact Gatwick directly so I will give that a go. Will also tweet them - thanks for the tips on that @Bunnyfuller1

Could try the papers - has worked well for me previously and wasn't that slow