There was a bit of a kafuffle on my sidebar this morning regarding  and Jetstar and their wheelchairs stowing procedures. I flick to the Aus and then the Herald Sun. After reading the over dramatized events in the Herald Sun, I then read all 150 posts. I didn’t count but it was roughly 50\50 for and against.

So I thought I should enter the fray offering my twenty years of experience as a seasoned wheelchair traveler (only last month, I took six trips, two of which were on Jetstar).

The amount of absolute crap being posted on the HS site was mind boggling. I put in a sensible explanation of wheelchair travel and the so called moderators refused to post it.

I’m not sure if my problem was that I was ignored, or that the posting which came after I sent my extremely helpful-for-everyone post was similar to most of the others: “stop being precious, use the chair they offered, it must be for security reasons”.

Personally I think the HS like the animosity of the nutty redneck brigade. Possibly if they had posted my explanation no one else would have felt the need to contribute??

In a nutshell, Kurt was at check-in and was told he had to put his chair through with baggage. This is in fact, not the case, he just happened to get someone from Jetstar who didn’t understand their own policy on wheelchairs. This happens every so often around the world and generally you can explain to them how their airline runs.

In the HS article a spokesperson from Jetstar said their policy is to change chairs at the boarding gate for an aisle chair. Perfect. It didn’t happen this time and, because of his profile Kurt was able to make the issue public. That he didn’t want the airport chair is entirely justified. A few weeks ago I pushed around Bangkok airport in my own chair for four hours, and then went on to Tullamarine in it (with a puncture) rather than use an airport chair, that’s how bad they are.

Apparently none of the hundred and fifty people who posted could see that it was a totally preventable stuff up. The black and white lettering will do that. Also the dramatized version sent the ferals scurrying for the keyboards.

Still I’m not sure what has irked me more, the mind numbing stupidity of those who cannot digest an article of six small paragraphs, or the H\S for perpetuating this shit by allowing people who cannot read, and in most cases, write to post this rubbish. I know I shouldn’t have read their crap but why, when they can see a post is factually wrong, would the HS moderators then put it in the thread.

That was my first and last attempt to join the Herald Sun audience. I imagine that’s a good thing.

 

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