Spanish wheelchair adventure
As a postscript to the last disability article in the Christmas magazine, I have found out what happens when a wheelchair is damaged on board an aircraft.
My Speedy Gonzalez came to the door of the plane with
the brake handle in the hands of the man sent to deliver me to the baggage
carousel. He told us to go to the luggage desk for help.
After collecting the cases, we duly saw the person in charge of the baggage problems. We were assured we would be telephoned tomorrow, mañana of course! This was on a Friday. We had not had a phone call by the Monday morning and so enlisted the help of the receptionist at our time-share complex. (Our Spanish is not up to berating people about wheelchairs and brakes!) Within a quarter of an hour a man with a van was escorting us to Los Cristianos, where the wheelchair was exchanged for one on loan and ours was sent for repair.
We were assured that the work would be done in a couple of days. A part was to be made specially. One week later we decided we would ring to find out why we had not been phoned. Our wheelchair had been ready for days apparently, but no one had thought to ring us!
Monarch Airlines picked up the bill for all this and Speedy was returned in good health. The borrowed wheelchair was very welcome but did weigh a ton compared to my lightweight one.
I was lucky I am not reliant on the chair. If I had been, I could not have got around safely the first few days on Tenerife. I presume we would have had to have a Spanish tantrum on the day of arrival to get another wheel chair loaned to us immediately.
As it was there was no need for a tantrum and a very good job was done by the repair firm. We have also learned of another firm who hire wheelchairs. We will be a mine of information in the end!
