EasyJet #Fail Again
My Twitter timeline is on fire tonight, readers, for three reasons. Easyjet, a guide dog and his owner. @Joannajones1, her fiance and her guide dog were told they could not board an Easyjet flight tonight because Easyjet did not believe the dog was a guide dog.
I have collected some of the many Tweets on the case, which is outrageous.
#easyjet are claiming @joannajones1 did not have correct paperwork, we r not issued with a cert, harness & tag have always been sufficient—
barry toner (@dj_paddy) December 11, 2011
@easyjet Since when do people have to carry paperwork when they have a guide dog in working harness w-tags? Blind dad didn't have paperwork.—
Linda Gonse (@lgonse) December 12, 2011
And my favourite, which, really, sums up my own thoughts:
@EasyJet you shd know if you discriminate ag 1 of us you re doing it to all of us – disabled community – we protect our own.—
eleanor (@e_lisney) December 12, 2011
Easyjet have done similar things before.
While I was writing this post, this Tweet came through from Easyjet:
Pleased to report @joannajones1 is rebooked on flight unfortunately she did not have correct paperwork earlier. Thanks for alerting us.—
(@easyJet) December 11, 2011
There is still no excuse, in my opinion. I’m pretty sure being rebooked doesn’t make up for the inconvenience and the pain that Joanna Jones was put through. I may be late in picking up this case, but I have covered it because everyone should know that things like this still happen, and I, for one, don’t think anything like this should ever happen again.
I would like to see this case getting national press coverage as soon as possible.
As for Easyjet, I won’t fly with them until they change their attitude to all disabled passengers.
Update 4pm: I am very pleased to see that this incident has been covered today by the BBC and the Guardian’s Society Daily.
Perhaps they should change their name to something like Uneasy or Noteasy or even Difficult…this airline continues to discriminate, how many stories have heard before about them.
They claim on their website that harness and tags are sufficient – now they claim ‘incorrect paperwork’? they are idiots and are lying, they have done this before, in 2004 with a group of deaf passengers, and in 2008/2009 with passengers in wheelchairs. It seems that a budget airline is so focussed on the ‘cheap’ there is no room for common sense or humanity. I won’t use them unless they are the only carrier on the route I need.