SOC
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Once again we traveled through Miami Airport and is was a miserable experience. It seems to get worse every time. I strongly recommend avoiding it if you need wheelchair assistance -- which many of us will because it is not a compact airport. Today our walk just from the boarding lounge to the airplane was more than 100 yds.
Ft Lauderdale Airport is less than 40 miles from the INIM Kendall office and less than 20 miles from their Davie office. Next trip I'm going to insist on traveling through Ft Lauderdale Airport, even if it costs a bit more.
Just to give you an idea of how bad it is:
1. They wouldn't let us curbside check-in because we had a folding wheelchair to check.
2. We were told we had to walk inside to the wheelchair corral (aka disabled person containment zone) to get wheelchair assistance.
3. When we went inside to the nearest containment zone -- the one they directed us to and nearest the curbside check-in for our airline -- we were told that the corral for our airline was "down there", 50 yds farther and that we had to walk there ourselves with the luggage and personal wheelchair. No assistance allowed from the wheelchair assistants at this corral. Sheesh.
4. When we got to the new corral, we weren't allowed in because we didn't have boarding passes because we weren't checked in yet (apparently wheelchair assistance for the checking in process is unavailable
) So we had to walk another 50 yds with all our stuff and stand in the check-in line.
5. At the check-in counter they checked our luggage but were told we had to check our wheelchair somewhere else, another 25 yds farther down. No, no one at the check-in counter could take it down there. Yes, we told them we needed wheelchair assistance. They pointed us to the wheelchair corral.
6. We checked our wheelchair -- now we're 75-100 yds from the wheelchair corral -- and do our very slow keep-the-HR-under-AT walk back only to find that they've given us one correct boarding pass, but underneath it in the packet is a duplicate rather than a boarding pass for the second passenger. So only one of us can get in the handicapped prison area and the other person has to walk back to the check-in counter because they won't give us a wheelchair assistant to go back to the check-in counter.
7. Now we're sitting the the wheelchair corral (aka disabled person prison), a circle of chairs with a guard at the entrance who takes your boarding pass. Now this is not a pleasant place. It's just a circle of chairs in the middle of the check-in area. It's not quiet, it's not comfortable, no way to put your feet up. There's no access to water or bathrooms or anything else for that matter. They (not you) decide when you get to go to your gate. Planned to stop for something to eat on the way to the gate? Too bad, nope, you sit in prison until it's "time for your flight" by their criteria. Need to go to the bathroom? Too bad, there's not a supply of wheelchairs and assistants there for that purpose -- just the guard. If you're lucky, an assistant sent there specifically for another passenger might take you on a quick bathroom tip if you beg and it won't make the other passenger late for their flight. It's demeaning, to say the least.
8. Unlike at other airports where wheelchair assistants are helpful and polite, the wheelchair assistants at Miami Airport are indifferent at best. No asking if you need to stop at a restroom, for a drink or food, or any other courtesies. They treat you like luggage to be moved from one site to another. They'll stop, grudgingly, if you ask (and can get them to understand, which is another problem). There's minimal assistance/support at security, unlike at other airports.
9. We were dumped at any old seat at the gate, with no guidance on how we were supposed to manage from there. Didn't look too bad, though, a short jetway, so manageable.
10. Then they changed the gate. Are there wheelchair assistants around to help move the disabled passengers to the new gate? No. Is there staff at the counter you can ask to call for wheelchair assistance? No. There is one unattended wheelchair hidden behind the counter. The disabled passengers banded together and hijacked that wheelchair so that an able-bodied co-traveler can move those needing assistance to the new gate one at a time.
11. The elevator necessary to take wheelchairs down to the new gate is broken and cannot be called from the floor where we are. We have to wait until someone happens to come to our floor. I suppose Miami Airport doesn't care about this because people can just take the escalator right next to the elevator, right?
12. The new gate requires that passengers walk over 100 yds outside in the Miami heat from the boarding lounge to the plane. They do have one wheelchair and assistant, though, to take the (at least 4) passengers one at a time to the plane. To the plane. Not up the steep ramp from the ground to the plane. They don't want to do that. It's too hard. Not so bad for daughter and I, although not something we liked after walking more in a couple hours than I have in years, so PEM is already guaranteed. But there was also an elderly woman walking with a cane and a young mother who clearly just had surgery and was carrying an infant trying to get up this steep ramp. No Miami Airport staff member cared in the least. And they expect a healthy tip.
I've traveled with wheelchair assistance through a number of different airports and in every case except for Miami Airport, it has been very easy, pleasant, and comfortable. The staff has been kind, and even more helpful than I expected. In contrast, Miami Airport -- both coming in and going out -- has consistently been difficult, exhausting, and unnecessarily humiliating. The staff has been beyond rude, well into unkind, and even nasty.
That's just the lowlights. The overall experience was even worse than this -- incredibly stressful and frustrating, exhausting, and humiliating. The attitude toward disabled passengers is difficult to describe well, but it's clear if you're experiencing it -- you're a second (or third) class citizen, who is nothing but a pain in the ass, demanding services you don't deserve because you're nothing but a lazy *&%$. You get the idea.
I very strongly recommend that anyone who needs airport wheelchair assistance avoid Miami Airport at all costs.
Ft Lauderdale Airport is less than 40 miles from the INIM Kendall office and less than 20 miles from their Davie office. Next trip I'm going to insist on traveling through Ft Lauderdale Airport, even if it costs a bit more.
Just to give you an idea of how bad it is:
1. They wouldn't let us curbside check-in because we had a folding wheelchair to check.
2. We were told we had to walk inside to the wheelchair corral (aka disabled person containment zone) to get wheelchair assistance.
3. When we went inside to the nearest containment zone -- the one they directed us to and nearest the curbside check-in for our airline -- we were told that the corral for our airline was "down there", 50 yds farther and that we had to walk there ourselves with the luggage and personal wheelchair. No assistance allowed from the wheelchair assistants at this corral. Sheesh.
4. When we got to the new corral, we weren't allowed in because we didn't have boarding passes because we weren't checked in yet (apparently wheelchair assistance for the checking in process is unavailable
) So we had to walk another 50 yds with all our stuff and stand in the check-in line.5. At the check-in counter they checked our luggage but were told we had to check our wheelchair somewhere else, another 25 yds farther down. No, no one at the check-in counter could take it down there. Yes, we told them we needed wheelchair assistance. They pointed us to the wheelchair corral.
6. We checked our wheelchair -- now we're 75-100 yds from the wheelchair corral -- and do our very slow keep-the-HR-under-AT walk back only to find that they've given us one correct boarding pass, but underneath it in the packet is a duplicate rather than a boarding pass for the second passenger. So only one of us can get in the handicapped prison area and the other person has to walk back to the check-in counter because they won't give us a wheelchair assistant to go back to the check-in counter.
7. Now we're sitting the the wheelchair corral (aka disabled person prison), a circle of chairs with a guard at the entrance who takes your boarding pass. Now this is not a pleasant place. It's just a circle of chairs in the middle of the check-in area. It's not quiet, it's not comfortable, no way to put your feet up. There's no access to water or bathrooms or anything else for that matter. They (not you) decide when you get to go to your gate. Planned to stop for something to eat on the way to the gate? Too bad, nope, you sit in prison until it's "time for your flight" by their criteria. Need to go to the bathroom? Too bad, there's not a supply of wheelchairs and assistants there for that purpose -- just the guard. If you're lucky, an assistant sent there specifically for another passenger might take you on a quick bathroom tip if you beg and it won't make the other passenger late for their flight. It's demeaning, to say the least.
8. Unlike at other airports where wheelchair assistants are helpful and polite, the wheelchair assistants at Miami Airport are indifferent at best. No asking if you need to stop at a restroom, for a drink or food, or any other courtesies. They treat you like luggage to be moved from one site to another. They'll stop, grudgingly, if you ask (and can get them to understand, which is another problem). There's minimal assistance/support at security, unlike at other airports.
9. We were dumped at any old seat at the gate, with no guidance on how we were supposed to manage from there. Didn't look too bad, though, a short jetway, so manageable.
10. Then they changed the gate. Are there wheelchair assistants around to help move the disabled passengers to the new gate? No. Is there staff at the counter you can ask to call for wheelchair assistance? No. There is one unattended wheelchair hidden behind the counter. The disabled passengers banded together and hijacked that wheelchair so that an able-bodied co-traveler can move those needing assistance to the new gate one at a time.
11. The elevator necessary to take wheelchairs down to the new gate is broken and cannot be called from the floor where we are. We have to wait until someone happens to come to our floor. I suppose Miami Airport doesn't care about this because people can just take the escalator right next to the elevator, right?
12. The new gate requires that passengers walk over 100 yds outside in the Miami heat from the boarding lounge to the plane. They do have one wheelchair and assistant, though, to take the (at least 4) passengers one at a time to the plane. To the plane. Not up the steep ramp from the ground to the plane. They don't want to do that. It's too hard.
Not so bad for daughter and I, although not something we liked after walking more in a couple hours than I have in years, so PEM is already guaranteed. But there was also an elderly woman walking with a cane and a young mother who clearly just had surgery and was carrying an infant trying to get up this steep ramp. No Miami Airport staff member cared in the least. And they expect a healthy tip.I've traveled with wheelchair assistance through a number of different airports and in every case except for Miami Airport, it has been very easy, pleasant, and comfortable. The staff has been kind, and even more helpful than I expected. In contrast, Miami Airport -- both coming in and going out -- has consistently been difficult, exhausting, and unnecessarily humiliating. The staff has been beyond rude, well into unkind, and even nasty.
That's just the lowlights. The overall experience was even worse than this -- incredibly stressful and frustrating, exhausting, and humiliating. The attitude toward disabled passengers is difficult to describe well, but it's clear if you're experiencing it -- you're a second (or third) class citizen, who is nothing but a pain in the ass, demanding services you don't deserve because you're nothing but a lazy *&%$. You get the idea.
I very strongly recommend that anyone who needs airport wheelchair assistance avoid Miami Airport at all costs.
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