Revisiting airline travel - Emma Bennison

Program theme song 0:00

New Horizons... It's up to you and me to shine a guiding light and lead the way... United by our cause, we have power to pursue what we believe... we'll achieve the realisation of our dreams...

Graeme Innes 0:29

Hello and welcome to this episode of New Horizons. I'm Graeme Innes. Thanks for joining us. Airlines and airports are probably some of the most stress-inducing environments for blind and vision impaired people. They are unfamiliar, they're noisy, they're often crowded, and they're littered with processes which are unfriendly to us - getting from taxi to counter through security and retrieving luggage. To talk with me today about airlines, I have Emma Bennison, a frequent flyer now working for Life Without Barriers, and a previous CEO and President of Blind Citizens Australia. So welcome, Emma. 

Emma Bennison

Thanks, Graham. 

Graeme Innes

Could you start by sharing your thoughts on airline travel generally?

Emma Bennison 1:21

I think that airline travel has always been difficult. It's always had its share of challenges. I do think, however, that in recent years, and I would say anecdotally, particularly since COVID. And of course, I was still CEO of BCA through the COVID period and and beyond - I think it's gotten significantly worse. My hypothesis about why that might be, which I have no actual evidence to support, is that I think because so many airline staff who were, you know, previously trained and knew how to do Meet and Assist well, were stood down and they had to find other work. I think what happened when the airlines started up again was that the the training and the support just... was forgotten about, and I think as a result, we've just got a whole workforce that's poorly trained and poorly supported.

Graeme Innes 2:21

Tell us then, the the incident which which prompted this announcement which has recently been made.

Emma Bennison 2:29

So about a year ago, I was travelling to Melbourne for work, and I arrived in Melbourne Airport on a jet star flight, and I had booked Meet and Assist in advance. And when I arrived at the airport, they took me to what they call their Disability Seating Area, and it was just a plastic row of plastic seats in the middle of the corridor that leads from, you know, the terminal... through to the baggage claim area. So very uncomfortable, very noisy, and because it was a thoroughfare, very difficult to attract anybody's attention. I sat there for around 90 minutes. 

About an hour into that 90 minutes, I decided that I really needed to attract some attention, and because the person who had left me there had said, Oh, somebody will be along to collect you soon and take you the rest of the way to the taxi... so I tried standing up, I tried doing a few things, but of course, there was no counter there, so I couldn't really find anybody that... and I didn't know whether, you know, I was talking to a passenger or an airline staff member. So eventually, in desperation, I thought, Well, the best thing I can do here is call my travel agent, because I knew calling the Jetstar call centre would be a long process. 

So I was lucky enough to have a travel agent, and called them and and told them what had happened, and they then contacted their contact in the airline, who then contacted the airport, who then organised for someone to come and collect me. So that was obviously really stressful, quite frustrating, and... also meant that I was unproductive, you know, from a work perspective, not only for that 90 minutes, but for the rest of the day, because it was quite anxiety-inducing. So I, you know, just wasn't, didn't get a lot of work done after that.

Graeme Innes 4:43

I can imagine - I mean, that would have been terrible just sitting, and it's the lack of information that's worse than anything else, isn't it, the lack of knowing what's going on and the taking away of control?

Emma Bennison 4:54

Absolutely, I think, also just the feeling of being completely invisible... like nobody, hey, nobody came and said, Are you okay? And actually, at one point I even I heard a staff member talking to another person with disability, and I called out and and they just, I mean, maybe they didn't hear me, but it just felt very... I felt very invisible.

Graeme Innes 5:17

So you decided that you would take some action about that, and that's a tough thing to do, and many people don't do it because it can be so problematic. What action did you take,m and how did that go?

Emma Bennison 5:31

Well, I started off by trying to just raise my concerns with Jetstar. And firstly, I did that through my travel agent, and when that wasn't working, I went to Jetstar directly and attempted to lodge a complaint, and that was... just monumentally unsuccessful. Somebody called me and I explained the situation and attempted to get a resolution, and it was just very clear to me that that wasn't going to be possible... I mean, they... didn't even get my name right in the... email that they sent me, and and then nothing happened. 

And so I... thought, Well, the only other option I really have here is to lodge a complaint with Disability Discrimination with the Australian Human Rights Commission... in, and of itself, that was a fairly simple process. I'm sure lots of people listening have done it. The form is very accessible and it's quite straightforward - but the actual act of doing it was, again, very stressful, because I knew what I was getting myself in for. It's not my first [?radio], I knew that it was going to be a long and protracted negotiation, and I knew that, you know, airline access, there's not a great track record of success in these... sorts of complaints. 

And so I knew... what I was getting myself in for, but I did want to do it because I knew that... this was a systemic problem. I knew the system was broken, and I knew it was time somebody did something about it. So there was no choice, from my perspective.

Graeme Innes 7:02

And those complaints take a long time to be processed now, don't they, as well as all of the other consequences that you've talked about.

Emma Bennison 7:09

The first... or... the conciliation conference didn't happen until June, and then we entered into a very long process of back-and-forth negotiations. There were many times when I questioned whether I should just settle. I didn't do that because I really wanted to get the best possible outcome. And, you know, I'm glad I held... on, but... it's not an easy process.

Graeme Innes 7:39

It's not - and that pressure to settle is... really can become almost overwhelming sometimes, can't it?

Emma Bennison 7:46

Yeah, absolutely. And it's really difficult because, you know, you sort of think, Well, anything might be better than nothing. But then again, you know, I don't want to sell out, and I don't want to sell my community out, and I don't want to sell people with disability out more broadly. So, you know, it is difficult.

Graeme Innes 8:03

You did get a result from this complaint, finally - would you like to tell us about that?

Emma Bennison 8:08

What I had requested as one of the solutions, because I always like to go into these things armed with solutions, was that it would be really great if we could have a system whereby if people were in the airport and they couldn't attract the attention of a staff member, that they could call a number and get immediate assistance and be able to tell the person on the other end of the phone where in the airport they were - you know, approximately, and to get assistance directly. And you know, happily, Jetstar ultimately agreed to trial that service for people in in any Australian domestic airport - which is a pretty significant agreement, because it does mean that, you know, people can access that assistance, either... via the phone or via the web chat system, which is also really important. 

Because obviously, when I was thinking about this, I wasn't... doing this just for myself. I wanted to make sure that people who might be deaf or hard of hearing or who might have difficulty speaking could also get that kind of assistance, which might be really important for people in that in that situation. So... it's a fantastic solution, and unfortunately, we just now need to iron out some of the the implementation issues with it.

Graeme Innes 9:47

I'm glad you've talked about that. So how will the process work? I'll make a phone call. What's the number and where will I land?

Emma Bennison 9:54

Well, unfortunately, they've chosen to use... their call centre number is a number to give people to call. Now you would think that, having done that, and I did raise this with them, I said, You know, if you use the call centre, you need a mechanism to jump people straight to the front of the queue, because if they're calling for assistance, surely it... follows that that assistance is most likely urgent because they're either trying to catch a plane or trying to get on with their day. So I did make that clear. 

But unfortunately, at the moment, when you call, you get met with this kind of automated system that asks you to describe in a few words what your issue is, and when you ask for assistance and let them know that you're at an airport and that you need assistance because you're a person with disability or something to that effect, you either get cut off or you get put on hold and offered the opportunity to speak to a staff member. But the wait times have been averaging between 20 and 40 minutes. Now that's really just unworkable, because by the time you get through, you've probably missed your plane. 

So my legal team has written to Jetstar legal team, and we're hoping that we can get some of this ironed out. And you know, I have suggested either they create a separate number, which I think would be the easiest solution, or they provide an option through the... automated system, where, because they, at... when you call, they say, Which language would you like? And you can choose English or whatever. So then the next question in my mind should be, Are you calling from an airport and because you need assistance? And if the answer is Yes, then there'd be a button that you can press, and then you would automatically go to the front of the queue. 

I'm hoping that that's what they do, but I think we've got a long way to go, because at the moment, yeah, this is... pretty much unworkable from my perspective.

Graeme Innes 11:59

We obviously want as many people as ... well, no, we don't want as many people as possible to use it in one sense, because we don't want people to be in that situation. But it would be very helpful if... a lot of people used it so that Jetstar recognised that there was an important demand for it. So what's the telephone number that people call please, Emma?

Emma Bennison 12:21

So it's 13 15 38.

Graeme Innes 12:24

13 15 38... and if people do have this problem, they can call that number, and hopefully you'll get the bugs ironed out of the system, and that will be reported on a later New Horizons program. Finally, it will be really important for us organisationally to know if this system works or it doesn't. What do you think is the best way, not just to call Jetstar, but to make sure that we reinforce the importance of the system?

Emma Bennison 13:00

I would really love it if people would try using the system. That's the first thing. Even though we know there are bugs at the moment, it's going to be much, much more helpful if other people can tell Jetstar that there are bugs in addition to me. So I would love it if people would use it at every opportunity, although I hope people don't have to, but whenever you need to. It would be great if you could use it. 

And then the second thing that I think would be great is if you could contact Blind Citizens Australia and let them know what your experiences are with the system, because I think it's really important that an organisation like BCA is collecting that data, so that it's not just coming from me and maybe one or two other people, but that it's actually coming from our representative body. I think that's that would be fantastic if people could do that.

Graeme Innes 13:50

We really need an independent assessment of, you know whether there were one call or 200 calls, don't we? So if an organisation like Blind Citizens Australia is... logging those claims, then we can, we'll have that assessment. So that's a great idea. 

If you'd like to get in touch with Blind Citizens Australia, you can visit the bca.org.au website, or you can call1 800 033 660. That's one-eight hundred, Oh, double three, double six, zero. And one of the reasons you might call is to report your Jetstar experience. I'm Graeme Innes, thanks for being with us on New Horizons this week. Please come back next week.

Program theme song 14:35

... We'll achieve the realisation of our dreams...