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A Brisbane woman battling muscular dystrophy has been barred from flying on a Virgin plane because her wheelchair is 1cm above the airline’s accepted height dimensions.
Emma Weatherley tried to book a trip from Brisbane to Cairns for next month on April 6 with Flight Centre, but was told the airline would not accept her motorised wheelchair height of 85cm aboard.
“I went to America in 2017 with Virgin – booked through Flight Centre – and took this exact wheelchair without any problems,” she told NCA NewsWire.
“This chair fits in the boot of my Corolla and apparently there’s not enough room on a Boeing 737. It defies logic for me.”
It comes after Virgin cancelled her trip to the United States late last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mother-of-two then got the money refunded in the way of a future travel credit and tried to book a domestic trip with her family instead, but the 40-year-old hit a curveball.
According to correspondence seen by NCA NewsWire, Flight Centre said Virgin was “unwilling to budge” on the height limit and “not willing to offer refunds on the credits”.
“The best option is to possibly go to the airport with your chair to check in, hopefully they accept it at the 85cm, but if they do not, then you would need to remove the wheels so it fits the accepted dimensions,” Ms Weatherley’s Flight Centre travel agent said in an email.
More correspondence from Virgin sent to Ms Weatherley suggested her chair “be dismantled or lowered below 84cm”.
But Ms Weatherley said her wheelchair “was not designed to be dismantled”.
“The wheels alone cost $10,000 and you would need to disassemble the motor inside them – it’s not designed for this, it will weaken the motors when they’re put back together.”
She also said hiring a manual wheelchair “was not an option”.
“I have muscular dystrophy – I don’t have the power in my arms to propel the wheels forward,” she said.
“I would literally need to get modifications done to my wheelchair to make it fit, which is ridiculous and would cost more money.”
Ms Weatherly wants a full refund of the $8500 she paid for her cancelled USA trip, rather than the travel credit she received.
“Travelling with a disability should not be made this difficult – it’s exhausting. If I can’t travel anywhere because of my wheelchairthen at least offer me a full refund.”
She said she did have travel insurance with “cancel for any reason cover”, but canned it once she accepted the flight credits.
Virgin said it did not accept electronic wheelchairs over the maximum height of 84cm for safety reasons.
If a customer’s wheelchair did not fit within the dimensions after being adjusted or disassembled they would need to travel with an alternative mobility aid – such as a manual wheelchair – which did fit within the allowable dimensions.
It’s understood Virgin provided Flight Centre with authority to provide a cash refund for the value of Ms Weatherley’s international ticket, as well as a refund for the domestic flight.
Virgin Australia Group spokesman Kris Taute said: “We are working closely with the customers travel agent to resolve this case.”
Ms Weatherley’s travel agency Flight Centre confirmed it was working with Virgin on a solution.
“We have reached out to our contacts at Virgin to try and find the best possible solution however at this time, we do not have a clear response,” spokeswoman Anna Burgdorf said.
“We will continue to work with Mrs Weatherley to find the best solution for her circumstances.
“Flight Centre’s customers are incredibly to important to our business and we continue to advocate to find the best solution to any issues or concerns as they arise.”
Ms Weatherley has sought help from consumer advocate Adam Glezer’s group Travel Industry Issues.
The country’s travel industry has borne a brutal brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic after the federal government slammed international borders shut in March last year in a bid to stop the virus spreading to Australia.
Virgin collapsed into administration in April after it was no longer able to service its debts, while the pandemic forced the grounding of most of its fleet and starved the country’s second biggest airline of cash.
Deloitte stepped in to restructure Virgin, before selling it to American private investment firm Bain Capital.
Flight Centre posted a $662 million statutory loss after tax last year as a result of the pandemic, forcing the ASX-listed travel agent to close about 400 of the 740 stores it operated pre-COVID.
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