Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu is the Chair and Professor of the Department of Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management (THEM) at the University of Florida, where she is also the Director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute (EFTI).
Have you flown recently during the pandemic? My lovely and dear friend Ayla expressed to me that she is very concerned about how difficult it is to get from one place to another place in the state where she lives. Ayla booked a small but efficient commuter airline in July this year. It was one of two airlines that offered non-stop service to the city she wanted to visit. She needed to drive at least one hour from where she lives to a nearby airport to take this non-stop commuter airline. The plane was boarding in the airfield itself. She needed to climb up a very steep staircase to her seat.
My dear friend carried her luggage, and there was no jet way, so she needed to go to the runway. She is classy and a world traveler. She was in shock that this airline did not notify people about the steep stairway. She planned to use a wheelchair service when she arrived at the gate, but only then realized the service was not available and felt the airline lacked accountability for taking care of the accessibility situation.
There was no wheelchair access. There were steep staircases to get on and off the plane. At the destination, there was another steep staircase to get into the local airport building. Experiencing three steep staircases in this one single trip, nobody notified my friend, and she struggled seriously throughout the process.
“The airline really needed to tell the customers what to expect,” Ayla said. They did not. It was impossible for Ayla to go home the same way, so she changed to another airline. With another airline flying home, she booked a ticket for 1:30 pm, a good time to travel. About 1 am, she got a text message notifying her that the flight would be delayed, and passengers should be there by noon. Ayla got to the airport by noon and found that the flight had now been delayed to 2:30 pm. One hour later, the airline boarded all passengers on the plane.
It was a fully booked plane, and by 3:30 pm the whole plane was finally loaded. Every seat was taken. Then the passengers heard another notice from the pilot that there was lightning in the area, so they were not ready to take off yet. From 3:15 pm to 5:30 pm, during the whole 2 hours and 15 minutes, all passengers were in the airplane without water, without food, without real circulation of air, and had to wear masks. Passengers were allowed to go outside to stand on the gateway to breathe because it was hard to breathe inside a plane while everyone had their masks on. The flight attendant asked my friend to return to her seat because Ayla was about to pass out; the flight attendant advised Ayla that she could take her mask off to sip water; Ayla refused because she was unsure if the other passengers were vaccinated.
Keeping passengers on a plane, wearing masks without proper airflow, my friend thought she would die because it was so hard to breathe. She also worried about how she would get home in the late evening.
It was an eventful trip for Ayla. It also revealed a situation that many of us have experienced in the past. Six years ago, on a snowy night, I almost tripped myself on a very steep staircase at an airport that did not have the walking gates connected with any plane. Ten years ago, I, along with another 100 passengers, arrived in D.C. on an airplane without any of our luggage on board because we had been asked to move from one gate to another, then changed one airplane for another due to weather, which was then followed by mechanical issues. I almost missed my meeting and was about to make my keynote speech in my blue jeans where my topic was how to be professional and travel smart.
We all are still in the pandemic era. It’s time for all stakeholders to rethink ADA policy, health safety, the quality of service, accountability of keeping customers informed and safe, the levels of acceptance about accessibility (access to information, wheelchairs, fresh air, assistance, etc.), and major factors in retaining the loyalty of their customers.
What is your travel story?
