In Reply to: Wheelchair in airport question posted by Fiona on Sunday, 5. June 2011 at 00:28 Bali Time:
Hi Fiona, I have just returned and needed a wheelchair at both ends of the journey. First of all arrange with your airline before you leave to have "meet and assist" at all airports and mention this when you check in. If you are in Perth you can pick up a wheelchair in the check in area. When you enter the check in area they are over towards the left hand side of the check in hall, all folded up and against the front windows. Make sure you mention at check in that you are a wheelchair person so that you are sent to the correct gate (different from everyone else). I think it is gate 3 where the lift is. In Bali you are the last off the plane and we had to wait for about 10 minutes until one was brought to us with a meet and assist staff member who took us straight through. I don't know who you are flying with but we were with AA and when leaving Bali there was a counter for wheelchair people to the left of the usual check in counter. No=one was at the counter but there was one chair which I grabbed. If there are no chairs you will have a problem. Check in took about 50 minutes as there was only one counter open for all that time. A second check in staff member arrived after that time but as there were only 2 check in staff it created a problem because one had to leave the counter to take us through. We waited about 40 minutes after checking in. When on the flight home ask the cabin staff to call ahead and arrange a wheelchair. They did this automatically for us without asking but it is better to check. We were last off but they were waiting for us with the chair when we did get off. Being lass off doesn't matter if you have "meet and assist" because you are zoomed through without queuing anywhere.