Marissa Bode says the airline that recently kept her from boarding a flight because she was disabled has reached out to her.
“Before there’s any more media coverage on this situation, I wanted to make an update video,” the “Wicked” star said in a TikTok video posted Sunday. “I was contacted by the director of Southern [Airways] within the mobility department.”
According to Bode, who played Elphaba’s sister Nessarose in Jon M. Chu’s musical duology, the airline’s director “was mortified” about what happened and was also “very apologetic” and “very understanding.” The actor was informed that the company is conducting an internal review of the situation, especially since, as Bode has repeatedly mentioned, her manager had called the airline in advance to confirm accommodations could be made before booking her travel.
Bode added that the airline is staying in contact with her to figure out how it can improve in the future.
“I told [the director] on the phone, I don’t want money out of this,” Bode said. “I truly, truly just want it to be better for disabled fliers in the future. Aside from just me. … They’re doing the right thing in terms of figuring out how to rectify it.”
In her TikTok video on Thursday, Bode called out Southern Airways. She said it barred her from boarding a flight to a speaking engagement in a small town in Pennsylvania.
“I was denied boarding a flight because I’m disabled,” she said. “I wish that were clickbait. I wish that were false, but that is what happened.”
Bode explained that she had been unable to locate her virtual boarding pass for her connecting flight, so she approached the crew at the gate for assistance. The two agents at the gate saw that she was in a wheelchair and asked if she could stand.
“I said ‘No,’” Bode said in the video. “And they said, ‘I’m sorry, but because of that we’re going to have to deny your boarding.’”
According to the actor, the employees told her that passengers were required to be able to climb stairs to board the small plane used for the flight. They even added that some elderly passengers struggle with the stairs.
The Air Carrier Access Act prohibits commercial airlines from discriminating against passengers with disabilities. Southern Airways states in its contract of carriage that “customers must be able to ascend and descend several steps to board the aircraft” and that they are “not required … to provide mechanical lift devices for enplaning or deplaning” as outlined in the ACAA because their planes “hold 28 or fewer passengers.”
Bode called it “blatant segregation” that airlines use the age or size of their aircraft to justify why a flight is inaccessible instead of making changes.
“Why are we, once again, waiting around for a disabled person to be present to even think about changing things or accommodating things,” Bode said in her initial video. “Disabled people are not an afterthought. Why, knowing that disabled people exist, which y’all clearly often forget, do you choose not to update your planes?”
In her update, Bode commended Southern Airways for its handling of the situation since the initial incident. She also called on other airlines to “do better,” not just by reaching out to disabled people to discuss “how to rectify the situation” after something happens, but also by “hiring them … to figure out how we can make things accessible.”
“I just want things better for disabled people in the future,” said Bode. “At the very least, it looks like Southern, so far, is dedicated to doing so. … I really do appreciate how receptive they’ve been.”
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