Scoot says sorry, offers refund to wheelchair-bound passenger after flight ordeal

SINGAPORE — Budget airline Scoot has offered a wheelchair-bound passenger an apology and a refund after her complaint about shoddy treatment during a Singapore-Gold Coast flight hit the headlines.

Ms Amy Tobin, an Australian who has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk, first took to Facebook to air her frustrations on Tuesday (March 7), at the end of a five-day holiday in Singapore. She and a friend arrived in Singapore last week via a cruise from Brisbane.

She initially claimed that she could not board her Gold Coast-bound flight because of her electric wheelchair. “What a joke can’t board a flight because I am in a wheelchair,” Ms Tobin wrote in her Facebook post.

In subsequent exchanges with her Facebook friends, Ms Tobin claimed that she was told by a Scoot agent that she had to check-in her two wheelchairs - an electric and a manual one — as well as pay an excess baggage fee.

And when she tried to cancel her flight, she said she was told by the airline that she would not get a refund.

Scoot, which is investigating the matter, said Ms Tobin was not disallowed from boarding her flight. The airline added: “Rather, she was not allowed to board with her wheelchair as it would not fit through our aircraft aisles.

“We subsequently arranged for an aisle wheelchair to bring her to her seat on the aircraft.”

Ms Tobin’s ordeal apparently did not end there.

The 22-year-old said she was told she would have to walk or be carried in order to use the toilet during the eight-hour flight. And when the plane landed at the Gold Coast airport, Ms Tobin realised that neither of her two wheelchairs had arrived.

The airport provided her with a manual wheelchair and helped her hire an electric one in the interim.

“I’ve been to most of the USA, Asia, Singapore before with my family and Noumea and I’ve never ever, ever, ever had a problem with any other airline,” Ms Tobin was quoted saying in The Courier-Mail, one of several Australian media outlets which reported on her troubled flight.

“We wish to apologise for the inconvenience and unhappiness caused to Miss Tobin,” Scoot said in an email statement. “We take feedback from our guests very seriously and are investigating internally to determine how we can improve our processes.

In the meantime, Scoot said it was working with the Gold Coast Airport “to expedite the return of the wheelchairs”.

It added: “We have made arrangements for the wheelchairs to be delivered to her by (Thursday). We will also be refunding Miss Tobin the cost of her Singapore-Gold Coast flight.”