Today I am writing on behalf of a friend. Or rather I am sharing an experience which I had during my trip recently. This is not a new story I already have written about this issues a year an half ago and sent it to some Australian papers and asked them to publish it, yet none of them has ever gotten back to me …. but maybe because I am “nothing” but a traveller, a foreigner whose native language is not even English while the words I had written down back than were against some Australian biggest companies? But that´s fine. I don´t need any newspaper to get there where I want to be, today I am publishing this letter here and everywhere where I could get an access to as long as this lines reach those ears which are responsible for such a misbehaviour ….
I am writing about Australia´s largest Airline “Qantas” and the way they treat their customer specially those in need of extra care ….
A brashness called #Qantas
I will start this letter with some words about my friend;
He is one of the most amazing and loving people I have ever met. Despite of his “hard” destiny and his limited life in a wheelchair he tries his best to be there for everybody, to help whomever and wherever he can, to treat everybody fairly and to manage his life by himself. He is patient, grateful and treats every single body with care and respect. I rarely have seen him getting angry or judging anybody. If he would do so – as we all do sometimes – he would apologise straight away, think about his words and change his attitude. Every where he goes he spreads love and joy but unfortunately not everybody has the heart to feel this love and joy.
He doesn´t ask for extra attention or extra care, all he would ever ask for is to have been treated like everybody else …. with respect!
When people look at him, they see a simple man sitting in a wheelchair. This sight is enough to give them heaps of judgement about his person. What they don´t know is, that this “simple” guy sitting in a wheelchair has a long story behind himself …. what most of the people sadly forget, is, that this could be their own story one day. The distance between a person “outside” a wheelchair and an other one “inside” a wheelchair is only an accident, which can happen to any of us at any time ….
despite of his fate and his accident 31 years ago which caused his life to be “a bit” more limited than before, he´s got the soul of a lion. He´s been fighting for his life, not only once but over and over …. like most of the successful people also he has started very small. Although the circumstances in his life haven´t made his journey easy for him but his spirit of fighting has never given up. He is an example for this world full of depression and sadness, that one is never a victim of his destiny but its cocreator ….
After his accident years ago his entire life has changed dramatically from being a young free soul travelling and discovering the world to being a free soul or rather an angel imprisoned in a physical body …. he had to find a new way to live and had lots of choices how to move on with his life: “most of my friends with whom I was at the clinic – we all were sharing a similar fate, we all were in the #wheelchair – committed suicide. I don´t understand how people could do that? Life is a gift. Life is beautiful despite of all its difficulties. But I look at them as learning lessons, I learn what I need to learn and move on. ” he told me one day. To be honest? I can understand why those people committed suicide and still do! Above all those “ways” he could choose to live his new life, the one he has chosen was the most difficult one. Only God knows how difficult.
He had to give up lots of his hobbies and things he used to do before his accident but ones he didn´t want to give up: his desire to travel and discover new places. If that was always easy for him ….
He was very young as his life has changed, way too young. Just at the beginning of the discovery journey in his life. He packed all of his stuff in a camper and decided to build himself a new life far away from where he was born. He didn´t have much money nor any certain plans what would be but he had an aim: to make the best out of his new life ….
Today, 31 years after his accident, he is the owner of a 4,5 stars resort – maybe the most beautiful one in his town – which he designed, built and manages by himself! Apart of that, he is the business partner in a financial company and an oyster farm. He is a very smart, successful and happy man who lives a solid life and has deserved lots of respect not because he is a businessman but because he is a human being and because he has managed something which most of the people with a fully functional physical body struggle to manage: he won the battle of life and made his life and the life of those around him to a better one.
His legs might not function but his brain is fully in function. His brain works much better than most of the brains around him! If he doesn´t say anything not because he doesn´t understand what´s going on but because he is generous. This was only a “side” information. Cause the condition of his brain and his role as a businessman do not even matter for this story! Even if he would suffer a brain injury or mental disease, even if he was a homeless person NOTHING in this World would give a human being – as far as I could use the word “human being” for such people – the right to treat an other human being the way Qantas and Co. treat my friend and I am sure my friend is not the only person in need of special care who has been treated that way. Today I decided to write and publish about this disaster because this has to be stopped. Because I am sick. I am sick of a world full of hatred, judgement, ignorance and arrogance. And because things start to change once they have been brought up into the public.
First of all … this disaster, which I will write about, is not only about Qantas. I could write a letter to Telstra about their careless behaviour regarding the issues my friend has with his Internet connection, over and over. Even though we keep calling, spending hours and hours at waiting line and explaining them that an Internet connection and the access to his E-mail are very important for his work, even though he transfers monthly over hundreds and hundreds of dollars into Telstra´s bank account, Telstra seems to be incapable to fix the problem. Everyday a new problem and a new issue with the internet connection. I could also write a letter to the Taxi companies about their reckless behaviour to let my friend wait over and over sometimes for hours, even than when he preorders a Taxi in advance to be on time for his important appointments. Why they do that? Not because they are too busy or because of the big traffic jam. There is no traffic jam in this tiny village we live in, doesn´t matter where you are and where you head to, it will only take you ten minutes to get from A to B. why does a person have to wait for a taxi for over an hour in such a tiny town? The answer has been given to me kindly from one of the friendly taxi drivers: “He uses a voucher and gets discount while a regular customer pays the full price. He is depended on this accessible taxi while other customers could use an other taxi. So, I better pick up the other customers first to make my money. He doesn´t have any other choice except of waiting for me. He cannot run a way!”. I will better pass on a comment to this answer. I just wonder where the humility has gone in this “busy” world of making money?
After that I could write a letter to those people who have been paid to CARE of him, those who carry the word “care” in their title; to his carers. To those who cheat on him, steal from him, misuse and abuse his trust and his loving heart, do the minimum from what they need to do, cause he cannot walk around and double check everything, smile a fake smile in his face as long as he pays for their food, drinks, accommodations and their fun, but cheat on him, steal from him and lie to him, as soon as he turns his back. And above all, they do not really care about him …. “what is the job of a CARER? Not to care? Where is the human race heading to? To the hell?”.
yes! I could write many letters to many people who do not treat my friend and other people who share a similar fate with my friend the way they deserve it; with respect. And some other letters to those who are disable to do their job which they have been paid for. But the wheel of the fortune has chosen Qantas as the target for this letter. Because what Qantas did recently is above all this disrespectful and reckless behaviour of those other people. There is no other words to describe Qantas recent behaviour or rather misbehaviour than #discrimination. While there is a little narrow way to try to excuse others reckless and disrespectful behaviour, such as “they might not have been thoughtful enough”, there is no way to excuse discrimination!!!
My friend didn´t want me to share this story. His eyes see only the “beauty” in other people: “[...] but our recent experience with Jetstar was very positive. Jetstar is owned by Qantas.” he said. Yes. This is true. Our recent experience with Jetstar was amazing. The best travel experience we have had so far. They looked after us like angels. We didn´t have to be worried about anything. They were all around us and took care of everything. Never have we had such smooth and easy trip before as we recently had with the low-cost airline Jetstar. And we were and still are very thankful for their amazing job and their care. No doubt about that.
We also had some very positive experiences with some of the Qantas staff, whom we are very grateful for. The cabin crew has mostly been caring and friendly. But their kindness and care do not undo the big issues we have had with Qantas itself, over and over. This words are not referred to Qantas staff and personal. They haven´t done anything wrong they have always tried their “best”. This words are referred to those who sit on top of the “hill”, those who manage and organise this company. To those on the power!
well, the story about Qantas misbehaviour is a very long story. It would fill up a book if I would start to write about the whole story. But I will give you some ideas of what I am talking about today....
As I already mentioned my friend loves to travel. This is his right! He himself pays for his trips and no body else, so like everybody else on this planet so does he have the right to travel. But even that, even going on holiday to have a break and rest from his busy life has to be a struggle not just due to the incapability of some Airlines staff. This letter has been referred to Qantas, as he travels or used to travel mainly by Qantas. He is a regular Qantas costumer who flies three to four times a year by Qantas and pays every time for three or four tickets.
During one of his trips, they broke his leg. Some might disagree and say: “that was Jetstar” but Jetstar is only an other name for Qantas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas. Jetstar is part of Qantas. They broke his leg simply because they did NOT listen to him, as he was trying hard to tell them to watch his leg and to take it away from the floor. They ignored him and kept pushing him on the push chair, while his leg was pushing on the ground. For a person with a spinal injury it takes a long time to recover from a broken leg. As if his life was not “difficult” enough sitting in a wheelchair, he had to wear a moon boot for months and months. This didn´t make his life necessary easier than usual …. He could have sued them, if he wasn´t busy enough to look after his staff, his businesses, his house, to manage his life and a million other things which belong to his life and if he would have enough time to spend on some stupid things, such as …. and even if he had the time, he would not do that. He is not the person who would sue anybody …. he believes in Karma. In a higher judge!!!
During most of the trips they refuse to assist him, although he always asks for assistance when he books his flight. Once we are at the airport things look different. We get some “useless” people sent to us as “assistant”. That happens quite often: “Are you gonna get him into the push chair? I cannot lift him! My shoulder is painful.” asked me – while excusing himself – one of the friendly assistants recently, who was sent to get him from the airplane´s seat into the push chair. “if your health issues do not allow you to do your job, what is the use of you TWO guys being here? To look at a girl lifting a man into a push chair? If you cannot lift him, because your shoulder pains and I cannot lift him cause this is simply not my job, he might need to sit in the plane until somebody appears, who can lift him. I am not in any rush to get anywhere today. I already have arrived on my destination.” I said with my arms crossed over my chest and my legs on the seats. I didn´t say that cause I was rude or cause I didn´t want to help. I said that cause I was sick of doing other people´s jobs. It didn´t take long and a solution was found to get my friend into the push chair. The shoulder pains seemed to have left the friendly man, like a miracle. They were gone! Where to? We don´t know. Just gone …. this made me very thoughtful: “even a miracle needs a bit of time or extra help?!” I thought to myself ….
In our next flight they thought they would have found a solution for “painful shoulders” or rather useless personal? They offered us a lifter so that nobody had to lift my friend except of the lifter. But what is the use of a lifter while those who have been sent with the lifter are just as useless as a lifter with no battery? I am not sure about the uselessness of a lifter with no battery! This time we had two fancy girls as assistants. The story with this girls is hilarious: We couldn´t get straight into the plane as usual. They first opened up a long show, extra for us fortunate three, who were frizzing in the cold but didn´t have any other choice except of waiting there and watching their show: walking the floors in their high heels up and down, up and own whereby the most important part of this “cat walk” was to make as much noise as possible with their heels, letting their hairs fly in the wind of the airplanes outside, moving their sunglasses repeatedly from their nose up to their head and back, having “that look” over the glasses to let you know “we are very important people taking our time to assist you today.”, talking to their walkie talkies as if they were on a secret or maybe an impossible(?) mission, making A LOT unnecessary action around a very simple thing, namely “getting into the plane”. Scenes which reminded me to 007 movies, yet I wasn´t sure if that was making me laugh or cry ….
After 45 minutes sitting in the cold, frizzing and watching their show we finally were allowed to get to the plane, if that was as simple …. in front of the airplane´s door we had to watch an other movie; a very sad movie about “two girls and one lifter”. About two fancy girls with their noses up to the sky yet as useless as a broken piece of wood. Well I am not sure about the uselessness of a broken piece of wood!!! This two girls who were sent with the lifter to operate it had NO CLUE how to do so! After an other 20 minutes waiting in the cold and watching their game of incapability I had to stop this show, as I realised how dangerous this game could end for my friend: it could cost him his life! You might think using a lifter, with only two bottoms to open and to close and two other bottoms to go up and to go down whereby all this bottoms have been marked with sings, could not be as difficult. Well I thought the same until I met this two hilarious Qantas staff! So I asked them to use the push chair. The friendly guy Paul from the luggage section who also was watching this show waiting to take the wheelchair into the luggage helped my friend to get into the wheelchair although that was not part of his duty. But he was human enough to help. Once we got into the plane the show moved on: “So, you girls are gonna put him into the seat?” asked me the fancy useless girl while giving me “that look” above her sunglasses. I tried hard to find the sun in the plane. I wondered what was the use of a pair of sunnies on a cloudy day in a plane!? But no chance. There was no sun to find neither in the plane nor outside of the plane. “Oh, no! You are gonna sit him into his seat. This is YOUR job not mine!” I responded. “well! I am not gonna touch him.” she said with her arms crossed her chest. And to be honest, I did not want her or the other useless girl to touch my friend. As I knew where that would lead to. “Just let us know if you need some help. We are here to help and assist.” she said while watching us doing HER job. “I know exactly how you could help me! Get out of my sight!”. This trip passed as well and we didn´t say anything …. but that was not the end of the disaster ….
On the way back, they damaged his shower chair. This all happened during one trip. You know how it´s after a long trip? All you dream of is a shower and a bed to lay down. But nope! I had to spend 40 extra minutes at the airport to make sure the shower chair was fixed, while he was sitting in the taxi exhausted and waiting. Who pays for the extra costs of the taxi? Not Qantas. But okay! At least they fixed it.
During an other flight – that was Jetstar, the other name of Qantas – they told him that he was not allowed to go to the toilet during the flight as they couldn´t provide him with a push chair on the board. We told them that we had our own ways to manage this “business”. “Not in my plane.” said the friendly duty manager on board. Yet imagine you would fly over five hours by plane and they would tell you that you couldn´t take a pee during your flight. Does that make any sense? Where is the point of making other peoples life difficult?
Long story short. Travelling for him is always a struggle. Because people are not capable to do the job which they have been paid for. All this stories and more we have been experiencing are sad, but maybe still not sad enough to be published. But that what they brought up just recently is the cream on top of the ugly cake they backed us ….
That was few weeks ago …. he was travelling to see his family for few days over Christmas and have few weeks of holiday oversee afterwards. This trip had already started amazingly in the airplane at home …. we just got into the plane and were getting ourselves organised as I heard something: “BOOOM!”: The airplane started to shake! “That was your wheelchair.” I told him and I could see the end of this story. As we arrived in Perth and we collected the wheelchair we first realised how big the damages were. The wheelchair was so damaged that he could not drive it anymore …. one of the wheels was just about to fall out of the axle. Dangerous, very dangerous! It could cost him his life! Thankfully we had some very friendly and helpful staff around us who helped him to get safety into the taxi and one more time that was a job for me to make sure his wheelchair would be fixed before we would leave Perth 2 days later …. we were all very tired and exhausted and needed a rest urgently. I thought that would be an easy one to make a report and they would fix it as that was a very clear case to me: “Wheelchair fully in function before flight vs. wheelchair fully damaged after flight.”. But nope. It wasn´t as easy. I had to spend one hour at the customer service of Qantas at Perth Airport, talking to every single staff in Qantas from the lady behind the desk up to the duty manager, explaining to them that we could NOT wait until 4th of January for the wheelchair to be fixed as he would be flying oversee by this date and he would definitely need his wheelchair to fly with him. And apart of that, how would he be able to get around in the next 12 days without his wheelchair? He was going to visit his family for Christmas!!!! I have to be fair though, the lady behind the desk was a very helpful person or maybe I dind´t give her an other choice? I had to fight a big fight to get her to organise something. Otherwise they would have sent us to the hotel with no solution. But eventually after over an hour talking and talking and explaining and letting them know that I was not gonna leave the airport before I´d made sure the wheelchair would be fixed in the next two days, she found a way, God blessed her for that. She really tried her best to find a solution but there were not many options given to her from Qantas. This time I complained. I shared our poor experiences with Qantas with the duty manager. But this hasn´t changed anything, not even a bit. Things only got worst ….
The wheelchair had been fixed a day later but they could only fix the wheel a little bit to make it roll again. The wheelchair is still not safe enough to have been used. They said that due to the holidays that was the only thing they could do and they offered my friend to send them the wheelchair back for a big repair after his holiday. This means an addition of a lot more unnecessary troubles into my friends life! Qantas has to pay over thousands of Dollars – two or maybe three thousands – for this repair. This is a very important detail for that what is to come …..
Few weeks after this day he bought his tickets back home by Qantas. Two days before our flight Qantas gave him a call letting him know that our tickets have been cancelled. They refused to take us back home! They would take him into the plane, if that had to be but they would not take his wheelchair anymore. All of the sudden after years of travelling with Qantas – eight flight only in the last 3 months – the wheelchair would not fit into the plane, was their excuse. Aha ….
Now I´ve got a big question in my mind: “How is a person whose life depends on a wheelchair able to fly home without his wheelchair? How would his life look like? Did you Qantas guys think about your words before they left your mouth? Or was that too difficult?”. Now I´d like to ask those of you who are a bit “taller” than average: “How would you feel if an airline would tell you that they would take you on the board but you had to leave your legs behind as they were to long for the airplane?”. Does that make any sense at all? I am familiar with the luggage policy of Qantas and I already know all about their standards, the measure and the size of the luggage and and and …. But I just wonder why a wheelchair which has always fitted into the Qantas aircrafts doesn´t want to fit into their planes anymore, all of the sudden? Maybe cause they already have damaged it once – well more than once – and have to pay over thousands of dollars to fix it? Was this accident my friend´s fault? Was that his fault that your staff damaged his wheelchair? Is that the way to treat a regular customer? First to damage his wheelchair and than to refuse to take him back home? This I nothing but discrimination! This makes me very thoughtful. But just like my friend so do I believe in Karma and a higher judge!!!
So this letter was not written about Qantas as such. Qantas is only a name, which varies from situation to situation. This letter is referred to those an the “power” in general who instead of using their power, which has been given to them through “random” people, to help this “random” people, abuse and misuse their power to make the life of others more difficult and to take advantages of them. Where would Qantas be today, if “random” people would stop flying around? Ever wondered? Who does pay the wedges of Qantas staff? Surely not Qantas out of its packet!
This story is written down by a not native English speaking foreigner about the difficulties and life problems of a native Australian resident who works honestly, lives a financially independent life, pays million dollars of taxes yearly, helps the economy of his country and is in service of Australian people not least with his businesses. But if there are no empty pages in any Australian newspapers to write and publish about his story because the pages have to be filled with useless information, this is just fine. I am sure I will find some empty pages somewhere on the social media on the Internet where I could find the right audience for this story …..