A man from Virginia named Steven Williams says trying to get his elderly mother back to her home in England was nothing short of hell after he dropped her off at the Ronald Reagan National Airport. The 77-year-old woman was flying to New Jersey but had to take a connecting flight to London. The woman is bound to a wheelchair and is easily confused according to her son. Williams said, "They assist people in wheelchairs and get someone to wheel them through and basically take responsibility for that person until they arrive at their destination."
<img src="https://8ch.net/file_store/f7b7e3b01e7bc558bf81b57d132b1af268434fde55f70b110a96410419f9b964.png" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">
<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit: WUSA 9</span>
Williams said he trusted in United Airlines to make sure his mother got where she needed to go. But a few hours after dropping her off he received a text from the driver that he had hired to pick his mother up when she arrived in London. "I got a text at 4:30 in the morning saying she hadn't arrived. I called the airline to make sure she was on the flight and they reassured me three or four times she was on that flight," Williams explained. He soon found out that his mother wasn't actually on that flight but only after hours of frantically calling the airline.
According to the airline, William's mother did make it to New Jersey but she was bumped off her connecting flight to London. "Basically she was left at the gate for 12 hours. They offered her a hotel that was miles away. She had to get there on her own steam. There's no way my mom could have pushed a wheelchair at her age, so she sat there," said an angry William's. Now he says he wants an apology from United, "I want an apology and to know this won't happen again with my relatives or anyone else's relatives."
The airline offered an apology in a statement on Tuesday, "This should never have happened and we have spoken with our customer's family to apologize. We are working with our team and our wheelchair assistance vendor at Newark to review what happened and to prevent this from happening again." Williams says United eventually called and delivered the apology along with a $1,000 flight voucher for his mother.
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This is not just UA's handling.
I clearly see a shared responsibility here.
The Family "dropping her off" knowing the 77 y/o is bound to a wheel chair. She is "easily confused according to her son" .
YES !!! I checked, there are several NON-Stop flights out of Washington DC to England (London, and etc…)
Likely the family chanced the 1 stop to save some $$$ by using a 1 stop flight .
Otherwise (1 example) United flight #122 leaves @ 8:25 AM from Washington, D.C. (IAD) to London (LHR) NON-STOP. The cost is $1,250 plus fees.
BTW: why did they wait 12 hrs?
Or about 3 additional hours longer, than the flight likely took?