An Experience Best Forgotten
My experience at
Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport in Paris yesterday evening is one to be forgotten for
all time. As someone who has used a walking cane for decades, this airport
poorly manages access for those with mobility issues. The walks are long, lifts
are usually out of service, and toilets are rarely situated near where you need
them.
After radiotherapy
treatment for prostate cancer in 2024, I have requested airport Customer
Assistance for all legs of my journey, but this is the first time I have passed
through CDG. In Manchester, Amsterdam, and Cape Town, beyond the issue with
easily accessible toilets for those in the assistance pool, there was
information, consideration, assistance, and personnel to do the job.
Unprepared and
Understaffed
Even though Air
France-KLM was aware of my request for almost three months, their preparedness
for it at CDG left much to be desired. We arrived at the end of a 12-hour
flight from Cape Town, and there was no one at the gate to collect the three of
us who needed assistance. I had to ask the flight crew what the situation was.
I was assured they
would be with us soon, but one lady arrived with a wheelchair to convey three
of us. She applied almost octopus-like skill to laden herself with our carry-on
luggage, and we basically had to walk the few hundred yards through security to
the waiting area. The information was muddled and unclear, but we waited until
a shuttle bus arrived.
Neither Voice Nor
Agency
Our boarding passes
were in the hands of the personnel, being passed around between them to our
collective discomfort. Each time, someone had to ask if the boarding passes
were still around. Many of the personnel we encountered at this international
airport spoke to us in French. It was uncomfortable.
In the end, we
resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be delivered to wherever we needed
to be, because our incapacity seemed to be a debilitating disability for which
we had neither voice nor agency. Delivered to the gate, my boarding pass was
checked, but I was barely noticed when we were asked to board.
A Systemic Failure
From this experience,
if you have mobility issues, CDG must be avoided at all costs. This is not an issue with the people at the front line delivering the service;
rather, it is a management failure laid bare. Totally unacceptable and utterly despicable.
"Appalled" does not begin to describe what should warrant the high
point of a one-star review of this service—dishonest at best.
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