Originally posted to Posterous on 7 June 2011
Less than two weeks after getting home from Europe, I'm back in the air again today to a work meeting at Brisbane. It was a bit of a shock to fly on a crowded, cramped and claustrophobic Qantas flight, with a strange furry squash ball or hockey puck masquerading as 'refreshments'.
You really know you're in an Australian airport though when ground staff go into meltdown because there's more than one crip on a plane. Sheesh ... took easily 20 minutes before I got off the plane, and then my wheelchair wasn't at the gate, so I needed to be pushed to the luggage carousels. This actually meant being 'parked' for a while as ground staff debated how busy it was, how many wheelchairs could be pushed at once and how under-staffed they were. All of this could have been avoided by getting my wheelchair to the gate. How hard is that?
The comparison with my recent experience with Singapore Airlines and SAS could not have been more stark. Singapore Airlines unfailingly got my wheelchair to the gate, and used their onboard wheelchair and flight staff to get me to the plane door - no reliance on ground staff and a quick exit. Qantas could learn a few things in the disability service department.
Anyhow, after narrowly avoiding a super-crip meltdown in Brisbane airport, a taxi delivered me to a swishy hotel. Access is excellent, even if the decor is best described as techno-bordello. It still takes me easily two hours to sort myself out, set myself up and generally rearrange the room in order that I can get myself ready in under two hours in the morning. If I had three hours to get ready in the morning, a shower might even be possible, but alas time is not on my side, so it's basin washes for me. The room (actually suite) has a kitchenette, but it's mostly out of my reach. Power points are mostly out of reach too, and wireless internet costs $10 for an hour. Given that the room is nearly $300 per night, you'd think internet could be thrown in!