Help
I'm a complete C6 tetra who loves to travel & so a frequent flyer and very used to all the usual procedures different airlines & airports go through with us that are unable to walk. The "are you sure you can't walk, not even a few steps?" question is still one of my favourites.
Anyway, these last few days I flew with my husband & 2 kids from Birmingham International to Paris (Charles de Gaulle) on Air France - a flight that is operated for them by CityJet although very much under Air France control.
CityJet have a rule that non ambulatory passengers have to sit in a window seat for other passengers safety - the example they gave me was if there was a crash that people could not get past me if I was sat in an aisle seat. If in a crash I believe an aisle seat would give me my only chance of getting out, although realistically I think even if there were survivors I am done for.
Whilst I loved the view from the window, getting me, someone who can't transfer themselves and with a tetra belly, biggish bum & crap balance across 2 other seats and onto a third on a roho with extremely limited access is not easy. I had a male & female helper supplied at B'ham who with my husband just about managed the job but I was very wary with me made to slide over seat belt buckles & fittings which could of easily torn my bum.
A window seat gives no access if you need adjusting or a bag emptying during a flight.
Then in CDG they only supplied one helper. My husband slid me himself across the 3 seats and then a member of the crew helped me off under my knees, the French helper under my arms and my husband lifting my bum up and safely over the 6" high fixed arm rest. Ask someone to lift you vertically up 6" off your wheelchair seat and over a fixed object & you'll understand it realistically needs 3 people.
In small planes you can't have the bulk head seats because of door access regulations, the gangway is a mere 14" to squeeze down and in this flight you enter at the front and exit at the rear so have to go down the full length of the plane.
On the return trip, the unorganised CDG/Air France assistance team delayed me so much that we were the last ones onto a full plane. Infact if I hadn't of been so adamant in my school level French they would of left me at CDG for the next plane even though I was checked in & waiting over 2 hours before the flight. They requested my single French helper to get me into the window seat - obviously expecting help from my husband - with a full row sat infront and behind my seat. The French guy just shook his head and said he couldn't do that.
The plane was ready to go, and the rule about me sitting next to a window, which had previously been so important that they wouldn't have let me fly, was waived and I was sat in the significantly easier aisle seat.
Our flight adventure didn't stop there as I got off the plane with 2 really good helpers, they also managed to tip me out of the aisle chair I was fortunately strapped into and onto the floor. That was all to do with the steepness of the airbridge on the step off the horizontal plane and not their competenancy. It was a near impossible manourve demanded of them using the small aisle chair.
However, no member of the cabin crew came to see if I was OK as I lay on the floor of the airbridge waiting for my chair which I thought was very rude & inconsiderate. I guess it wasn't even written up in an accident book but even now 2 days later my neck & shoulders ache where I landed badly and unknown to them as they didn't check at all I may have done something more serious.
Is this level of competancy what we are to expect in the future? Who do you think I should write to as I think I ought to complain or at least put my input in with this poorly conceived window rule. Am I just becoming a grumpy old tetra in my advancing years or I should expect to get sores or hurt every time I fly?
4 days in Disneyland Paris with my 2 kids was fab btw, the whole reason for going to Paris. The actual TGV transfer from CDG to Disneyland was only 10 minutes & a breeze too. Would I go through it all again? Of course, tomorrow!!!
L xx
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BUT, flying out of Mallorca the guy bashed him into the side of the tunnel and then nearly let him fall off the aisle seat. Hope your next experience is much better. 
