Hello fellow travelers. 

Today I'm going to tell you a story.  This is the story of a man having to surmount many obstacles in order to take a trip.  A few months ago, I was invited to speak at a writer's convention in Boise, Idaho.  Now, you might think that traveling from New York to Boise wouldn't present many challenges.  That's what I thought also.  But, like me, you would be wrong.  Arranging the trip has been difficult from the very beginning.  First, no airline goes directly from New York to Boise.  Short, in-direct flights from point A to point B have become more and more the norm.  That means the weary traveler has to change planes.  For someone with a motor impairment, like myself, changing planes can be a major pain.  You don't want to have so little time at the interim airport that you have to rush like a madman to catch a connecting flight, especially if you have adaptive mobility equipment that needs to be unloaded from the first plane.  But, you also don't want to have so much time between flights that you go stir crazy.  This was my problem.  Almost all the flights, on all the major airlines, had waiting periods of at least three hours in the interim airport.  I only found one flight that had an acceptable interim waiting period.  I decided to book it, but that presented a second problem.

All the airlines seem to be pushing customers to use their Internet website to make travel arrangements.  Those websites are easier and cheaper for the airlines.  But, for a traveler with special needs the websites are often insufficient.  You can purchase a ticket, but selecting a seat is a challenge.  As I've told you in previous entries of this blog, I like a seat next to the bulkhead.  The bulkheads make transfer from a wheelchair easier.  Even when the website does include a diagram of the plane you are going to be on, and not all of them do, that diagram does not show where the bulkheads are.  Nor does it show which aisle seats have movable armrests.  So, you end up having to make a phone call.

If you try to call an airline on the telephone you first come in contact with their automated service.  You’re told to push one button after another.  That process can take upwards of 10 minutes.  Then, if you're lucky enough to get past the machine, you're treated to service announcements and music which can drive you mad for as long as several hours.  When a human does finally answer, customers are often told that purchasing a ticket over the phone carries an extra charge.  To be fair, having a human deal with customers is more expensive than automating the ticketing process.  But, because the websites are insufficient, travelers with special needs sometimes require the service of a human in order to complete their travel arrangements.  The question is this, should someone be penalized for their special needs?

It seems to me the solutions are simple.  Connecting with an airline needs to be made simpler and quicker.  Hiring extra telephone staff is expensive, but doing so would alleviate customer frustration and make travelers more likely to choose one airline over another.  Furthermore, the websites need to be updated.  Seating chart diagrams need to include icons to show where accessible seats are.  In this way customers with special seating needs can arrange their own travel over the Internet, just as most other people do, and avoid the extra fee.