To expect to be able to sit next to my DH on a night out even though he uses a wheelchair?

[thelittlebluepills]

DH uses a wheelchair so when we wanted to see Peter Kay at theMEN Arena last night I booked two tickets: one for wheelchair and for companion/carer. Only when we got there were we told that as they were fully booked I would have to sit on a different row to DH. This happened to all the wheelchair uses and their companions. I was gutted. It was supposed to be fun night out for DH who has had a crap year. Instead we were split up like naughty children. It totally ruined the night. It's not like they are short of room at the MEN to be able to accommodate people together

I think he does but maybe one of his reps post on it for him, but I've been a follower for a little while and it appears he does. At the very least it would be brought to his attention quickly, whereas a letter would take a very long time to even be read you'd assume. Worth a shot imo, nothing to lose is there? He updates tours, small trial shows, after shows etc so I'm fairly sure he reads it.

I am a bit confused here. What exactly was fully booked? Was it the DP? Did your DH have a ticket for the DP and was your seat in the row immediately behind? Or were the spaces on the DP which should be reserved for carers repaced by more wheelchairs? Exactly how far away from the wheelchair patrons were the carers sat? Just trying to understand the situation.

JodieO, seems that he may well, then.

Sorry, did not mean to be rude at all...I have not followed PK on fb.

So seeing that he does look at it, OP posting on there would be a brilliant idea. Any way and every way - I think Mr Kay should be made aware of how this particular venue treats their patrons (Ha! just remembered the word!)

Numberfour no problems, I didn't take it as rude at all

Venus:

They said that the whole venue was fully booked so there were no spare seats anywhere. We both had tickets for the disabled platform - there was basically a platform for wheelchairs then a row of fixed seats in front of that but my seat was several seats away from DH's "slot" on the platform so I couldn't have communicated with him or seen him during the performance. The sickening thing is that most of the corporate and hospitality boxes were empty. And there were other areas where they could have removed fixed seating to allow for more wheelchairs and carers to sit - and it wouldn't affect the number of tickets they could sell.

there were also several hundred seats on the floor in the centre of the arena and you could easily have fitted a wheelchair on the end of each one but wheelchair users were only allowed to have tickets on the Disabled Platform - I have my own opinions on why we were kept tucked away

littleblue, the more you tell, the worse the situation sounds.

I'm shocked.

I bought El Divo tickets for my mum at MEN.

She's wheelchair bound too and dad was able to sit with her on the platform no worries.

How can the "rules" differ so much between perfomances/artists?

Idiots.

Write and complain to all concerned.

Littleblue -. I am surprised that you were not allocated a seat in the row near your dh's slot on the DP. However it does seem that all venues appear to have a restriction on the number of wheelchairs that can be allowed into that venue at any one time. So that would prevent seats being removed or placing more wheelchairs on the floor of the venue once the DP ramps were full. I have just had a quick google about this and as an example for instance (if I have read it correctly) I found that Madame Tussauds is not allowed to have more than three wheelchairs in the building at any one time. These are probably some rules about this. Maybe someone knows more about this.