Southwest Airlines has apologized to two blind women who were left behind at their gate while waiting for their flight to Orlando, but only offered them a paltry $100 for the inconvenience.
Friends Camille Tate and Sherri Brun were planning to fly home from New Orleans on July 14, but their flight was delayed by five hours, leaving them temporarily stranded after the airline rebooked all other passengers on another, earlier flight.
When they eventually boarded the plane at their original gate, they were the only two passengers on board, The Guardian reported.
“Nobody … told us anything,” Brun said, according to WSVN and WOFL. “Nobody came to get us … The time passed.”
The women said they had no idea there was an earlier option because nobody told them and they were unable to read any signage announcing the gate change.
Brun said she and Tate were told, “You’re the only two people on this flight because they forgot about you.”
“That airplane took off and our boarding pass had not been swiped,” Tate said, according to the outlets.
Brun and Tate said they told their story to the media to highlight some of the struggles faced by travelers with disabilities that the broader population often isn’t aware of.
Southwest offered the women a $100 travel voucher, saying they weren’t eligible for a full refund because they had technically completed their originally scheduled flight, a spokesperson for the airline said in a statement.
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” the spokesperson said. “Southwest is always looking for ways to improve our customers’ travel experiences, and we’re active in the airline industry in sharing best practices about how to best accommodate passengers with disabilities.”
The airline said customers are responsible for identifying themselves and any special assistance they require to a Southwest employee once they arrive at the airport. However, in the event of a gate change, the airline noted, “employees are responsible for ensuring all customers who need assistance reach the new gate.”
Brun told Fox 35 in an interview that the airline should do more to avoid similar incidents in the future.
“The way they help their customers that require additional assistance needs to change. There needs to be follow through,” she said.
Tate agreed, adding there “needs to be some improvement” in how the airline conveys information to passengers, “especially those that have disabilities.”
Unfortunately, airlines failing to adequately accommodate passengers with disabilities is somewhat common.
In April, a paralyzed man was left without his wheelchair when he returned home from a Hawaiian vacation because American Airlines didn’t load it on the aircraft, he claims.
That same month, a 79-year-old British man who uses a wheelchair was reportedly booted from an easyJet flight from Manchester, England to Athens, Greece because he couldn’t walk to the lavatory.
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