Tale of two airlines with four wheelchairs

When I purchased the MAS flight tickets, I also requested wheelchair assistance for my mum, like what I did with SIA (now only the return flight) and Qantas (for the domestic flights). It was my first experience requesting such assistance and so I was a little nervous.

The first flight of our trip was the MAS flight from KL to Melbourne. We first had problem locating the business class check-in counters. So, I asked a staff at the priority counter and was told that business class counters are at a different row and that passengers can check in anyway, unlike what I was told over the phone i.e. 3 to 4 hours before departure. That was a bit a good news: we could then check in our luggages and proceeded directly to the MAS Golden Lounge.

Because of the stop at the lounge, I thought the easiest was for us to wheel mum but MAS said mum had to be wheeled by a staff. Fortunately, they were ok to do 2 trips: one was from counter to the lounge and then, at an agreed time, from the lounge to the departure gate before proceeding to the aircraft. 

Both Ban and I were allowed to accompany her and so we went through a special lane at the immigration clearance but it didn't seem faster because Malaysians could use the auto-gate clearance anyway. As for the baggage scanning clearance, there was no difference. We were given first priority when boarding the aircraft i.e. even ahead of other business class passengers. Before landing, we were asked to wait until the wheelchair was ready.

We experienced a significant difference at Melbourne airport because there were many passengers at the immigration counters. We instead followed the staff who wheeled my mum to a special lane. Before that, the staff checked our declaration forms and our passports to make sure we filled them correctly and thus speed up the immigrationa and custom clearance. We cleared immigration checks with no issue. Then another staff brought us to a special lane at the custom checks, after we collected our luggages, and again cleared with no issue.

For the Qantas flight from Melbourne to Canberra, we again tried asking whether we could wheel our mum (since it would be easier for us to have lunch at whichever eatery, before the flight) and with no hesitation, the answer was affirmative. Later, at the departure gate, however, we had to follow a staff through a route, including through a gate that only staff could open, to the aircraft where my mum walked 4 steps to get into the plane. Beforehand, when asked, mum told them she could walked up those stairs. Otherwise, they would arrange to place a ramp or to have something that lift her up.

Unlike MAS, we weren't given the first priority to board. In fact, we were the last of the batch (passengers were boarded in batches) to board. Interesting. Similar to MAS, before landing, we were asked to wait for the wheelchair to be ready before disembarking.

At Canberra airport, we noticed that they readied a ramp at the door of the plane. We suspect that this was for mum and the blind passenger. Since the staff who was guiding us also needed to guide the blind passenger, we offered to wheel my mum. Later, upon query, we were told we could leave the wheelchair anywhere in the airport as well as just outside the carpark building.

Phew, I'm glad that the wheelchair assistance experience went well and in fact it was better than expected because Ban and I could also benefit from the speedier immigration and custom clearance. Hopefully it's the same on the way home later.