A Denver family is sharing their unpleasant experience with Southwest Airlines after an elderly woman in a wheelchair was parked and forgotten about. 85-year-old Alice Vaticano was supposed to board a plane and fly home to Denver after visiting her daughter in New Jersey.
A Denver family is sharing their unpleasant experience with Southwest Airlines. 85-year-old Alice Vaticano was supposed to board a plane and fly home to Denver after visiting her daughter on the East Coast.
Alice’s daughter took her to Newark Liberty International Airport, which is where all the trouble started. A skycap vowed to wheel her to the gate, giving her daughter the peace of mind to leave, as she trusted her mom was in the right hands.
The skycap pushed her around a bit then parked the wheelchair. Alice was seemingly forgotten about. She was left sitting there alone.
She missed her scheduled flight. Her other daughter was terrified when her mother never got off the plane at Denver International Airport.
Southwest Airlines staffers eventually caught the error and placed Alice on a connecting flight through Chicago to Denver. The airline gave her two $100 vouchers as a way of saying sorry.
Officials blame the mistake on a processing error that didn’t alert gate employees of her special need, aka her wheelchair. A spokesperson also pointed out Newark skycaps are not classified as airline employees.
