Reply To: Power Wheelchair Rental within 2-3 weeks?
Latest (final?) update:
I had a meeting with Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism and ANA (the airline).
The airline took the issue very seriously. In fact, it was taken to the president.
While I cannot describe details (they shared a breakdown of the communication timeline in the case etc), there was a communication problem (an unacceptable delay), as well as an education issue (the person relaying the information should have had realized it was incorrect and not just passed it on but confirmed and clarified as well as knowing it was not correct policy).
To fix it, they are revising the communication policy (to avoid delays), and are re-training staff on accessibility (airline-wide) and the ADA (State-side).
They will communicating with Alex about compensation etc (perhaps @AlexFung can comment/follow up on this?)
Separately, I brought up that JAL also listed a 100kg-limit for wheelchairs on their website. Their intention was to say that “there may be occasions depending on plane size”, but the language was very unclear and made it sound like it was the rule and not the exception and the Ministry requested they fix the wording.
While the whole process really sucked for Alex, thankfully the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism took action and the airlines are making changes.
