A paraplegic man who relies on a wheelchair said he has had difficulty traveling on several United flights during his honeymoon — and was forced to scoot down the aisles on his butt, according to reports.
Tyler Schilhabel, a California high school football coach, said he and his wife were flying from Los Angeles to the Dominican Republic last week when his troubles began during a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, according to ABC News.
He said United didn’t provide him with the equipment he needed — even though he had notified the airline ahead of time.
“Courtney and I flew to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon, when we landed they didn’t have an aisle chair (my normal chair is too wide to take on the plane) or ramp/elevator to help me off the plane, only a flight of stairs,” he wrote on Facebook.
“So I had to scoot down the aisle on my butt to get off and then hop down step by step to get to my chair.”
On a later flight, United gave him an aisle chair but he still had difficulty getting down the stairs, and declined the airline’s offer to have someone carry him, he told ABC Chicago station WLS.
“I had to scoot on my bottom all the way to the front of the plane, and when we realized there wasn’t a ramp or anything else, my wife and I just decided, ‘No, it’s not safe,'” he told WLS.
“We don’t trust them to carry me down the flight of stairs, so we just hopped down. She grabbed my legs, and I hopped down step by step on my bottom.”
He added: “We had a connecting flight, still had to get through customs, so I scooted on my bottom all 31 rows to the front of the plane, got on my chair, got through customs.”
United said it contacted Schilhabel to apologize.
“We are proud to operate an airline that doesn’t just include people with disabilities but welcomes them as customers,” the company told WLS. “That said, this incident falls far short of our own high standard.”
Schilhabel said he posted about his experience on Facebook to shed light on the matter.
“I’ve flown United my last 6 flights and each time they’ve either been late with getting an aisle chair to me or didn’t have one at all. Needless to say I won’t be using their business anytime soon,” he wrote.
He said in a separate post that an appropriate aisle chair would be “narrow enough to roll down the aisle to get me to my assigned seat, which was not promptly ready for me at my destinations.”
In an update, he wrote: “I have informed United that I won’t be taking their vouchers nor their refund for our tickets.
“They are trying to sweep this under the rug, but after having heard from numerous friends of mine who are either paraplegics or quadriplegics who experienced the same type of treatment from United I feel further action will be required to try and prevent this from continuing to happen to those in the disabled community.”
