How American Airlines in Beaumont Texas Treats Disabled Veterans

This story goes back to 2015. I booked my flight to Dallas, Texas, from Beaumont, Texas. As a frequent traveler,  I informed American Airlines weeks in advance that I was traveling with them and gave them all the information about my powerchair to help them assist me with my travel. I arrived at the airport at 4:30 am for my flight. I checked in and waited for my flight. They boarded me and everything seemed ok. Then the airport supervisor from American comes on board telling me their equipment wasn’t working and couldn’t load my powerchair. They had me get off the plane and informed me I’d have to wait till 11am to take a bus to Houston airport. Mind you it was supposed to be a 45 minute flight that turned into a 12 hour nightmare. I complained to American Airlines about the problems I encountered and they gave me a voucher for $100 for a future flight.

So this year as I prepared to go to the 2016 National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, I contacted American Airlines and asked if they fixed the problems from last year. They informed me that it was fixed so I booked my flight figuring to use the voucher they gave me. As I tried to use the voucher it wouldn’t work online. You have to use it at the airline which I found out later. So I book my flight to Salt Lake City. I again arrive at the airport at 5 am only to have the same supervisor, his name is Ron, look at me and tell me that American Airlines doesn’t take powerchairs from Beaumont airport and I’d have to wait and take the bus. Again he informed me that he had a memo from American saying they don’t load powerchairs from that location. When I asked to see the memo he told me no. My wife witnessed this all. So my wife ended up having to drive me to Houston. A trip that was supposed to take 6 hours took 13 hours. All this from American Airlines, one of the sponsors for the National Veterans Wheelchair Games. Is this how they treat veterans? If they cannot do their job at Beaumont, why do they continue to sell airline tickets to disabled people? I believe this is wrong.