From guest blogger, Craig Grimes, of AccessibleBarcelona.
Getting To the Destination
The biggest fear that most disabled people have is not actually being in a strange new place, but getting to it. Although flying is slowly becoming more accessible, many disabled people are still dubious about the quality of service they will receive, especially in a foreign country.
In general, airlines have very similar policies with regards to disabled clients, but it is always a good idea to check individual company’s policies. Check with disability forums about other people’s experiences and see if they recommend any particular airlines. Unfortunately, it is not a case of the biggest companies have the best service for disabled travelers, I have had both good and bad experiences with various major airlines. One way of checking reviews of airlines is through web sites such as Skytrax. Although it doesn’t give specific information for disabled travelers you can get an idea about different airlines.
Online Booking Engines
Probably the cheapest way to fly internationally is through reserving tickets with a large online booking engine such as LastMinute or Kayak. LastMinute now allow disabled travelers to request online airport assistance, in order to get a list of the departure airports from your country you have to scroll to the bottom of the home page screen and click on your national flag. Kayak is slightly different in that when you want to make the booking you are transferred to the airline’s web site. Therefore, it depends on the individual airline’s terms and conditions to how you proceed with letting them know that you are a disabled traveler.
Accommodation
There are many types of accommodation available from private apartments and villas to hostels and hotels. There are also different ways of making reservations; through a travel agent, directly with the establishment or through online booking engines. All of the above want to sell you their services whether or not it is suitable for your needs, it is very important that you state exactly what you require even quoting measurements of your wheelchair if necessary.
Finding Suitable Accommodation
Mainstream Online Booking Engines
One method is through the use of online booking engines, however, caution should be taken when using them as they do not provide specific information about the access of the hotel. Other problems with online booking engines are that they do not provide the contact details of the establishment until after the reservation has been made and it is rarely possible to request and adapted room. This means that it is impossible to confirm its suitability and what facilities are available until after the reservation has been made. Even when a suitable hotel can be found, it is then not possible to reserve a specific adapted room, therefore, the hotel has to be contacted after the reservation has been made to check availability of and allocate the adapted room.
However, online booking engines are a good source of information to discover the names of potentially suitable hotels. Once the names of a few hotels have been ascertained a search engine may be used to find the direct contact details of the hotel.
High Street Travel Agents Vs Specialized Travel Agents
General high street travel agents are renowned for getting the access requirements of disabled travelers totally wrong. I have been contacted through my company AccessibleBarcelona on several occasions by disabled people that have arrived in Barcelona to find that the hotel that they booked through their travel agent is not accessible. Although they are slowly getting better it may well be worth going to a specialized travel agent that has a lot of experience of organizing trips for disabled people. The drawback of specialized travel agents? The cost, as with any travel agent their commissions can be extremely high at 20 or 30% of the total package.
Other Methods of Booking Hotels and Services
Some disabled people have become so fed up with the lack of understanding of their needs within the travel industry, that they themselves have begun writing their own online travel guides or setting up services where they live. The companies they establish are not travel agents as such, but more independent businesses that arrange services such as accessible hotel reservations, airport transfers, equipment hire and tours for disabled travelers.
Using search engines, disability forums and blogs is a good way to find these web sites. In order to get the best results from search engines the correct keywords need to be used such as disabled, access, accessible, hotels, accommodation along with the name of your destination.
Next up, Part III: At the Destination
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4 Responses
thank you for these suggestions Craig - my grandmother is feeling as though she is getting too old to travel, and I think extra airport information via LastMinute or Skytrax will help alleviate her concerns. Thank you!
You mentioned most airlines have similar policies for travelers with disabilities. What are those policies.
Thanks Molly, I think there are many options for travel for the world’s aging population, whether it be at home or abroad, in organized groups, on a cruise or simply doing what you’ve done all of your life. Just because a person begins to feel older or becomes disabled doesn’t mean that they have to stop traveling. In many ways under such circumstances traveling becomes a more important part of life and it should be fully encouraged.
Pat; Many of the “Budget European Airlines” such as EasyJet or RyanAir have restrictions on how many people with disabilities they will take on any one flight, which is normally 2 - 4 people depending on the airline.
Therefore, they request that you confirm your booking by telephone after you have made it online so that they know how many people with disabilities they have per flight. The airlines may claim that this is so that they can offer a better service to people with disabilities by providing a realistic ratio of onboard staff to customers and people with disabilities require special or more attention from staff.
The larger international airlines such as BA or Virgin also ask that you inform them by telephone if you have special requirements. As far as I know this is also for organizational and administration purposes (and statistics to make them look good!) and they have fewer restrictions on the amount of people with disabilities that can travel on any one flight.
As I said in the article, it’s always best to check with the individual airline regarding their policy.
Some online booking agents like ours provide telephone support 24hrs a day for their flight booking customers. You can talk to trained professional travel agents who can help with personal requirements and to cover any issues or special needs.