#trending: Jetstar passenger crawls on plane after allegedly being told to pay for wheelchair service

BANGKOK — A wheelchair user on board a Jetstar flight had to crawl down the cabin aisle after she was allegedly told to pay for wheelchair services in order to disembark. 

Ms Natalie Curtis from Queensland, Australia was on a flight from Singapore to Bangkok last week when the incident occurred. She detailed her ordeal in a Facebook post on Oct 27. 

Describing that she had “never felt so degraded” in her life, Ms Curtis wrote that with the help of Jetstar crew members, she was able to board the flight using an aisle chair, which is a transfer wheelchair that can fit the narrow aisles of the plane.

However, upon landing, the Australian low-cost airline allegedly asked her to pay to use an aisle chair.

In an interview with Australian news network 7News, Ms Curtis said she was told that it would take 40 minutes and an extra fee for a transfer wheelchair so that she could leave the plane. 

“I didn’t really comprehend it and I was, like, ‘No, I’m not paying to be able to get off this plane’,” Ms Curtis said on Australian breakfast show Sunrise.

She also said that she never had to pay for such services in the past, so she refused to pay for the aisle chair. Instead, she reportedly crawled back to her wheelchair for about 4m to avoid paying extra charges. 

“It was extremely humiliating,” she said.

Her friend and travel buddy Natasha Elford filmed Ms Curtis crawling down the aisle. Ms Elford said that she had wanted to carry her friend, but was not able to do so due to a knee injury.

The video has since been removed. 

This is the second such incident on a low-cost carrier in less than two months. 

In September, a paraplegic passenger had to crawl across the cabin to get to his wheelchair on an AirAsia flight, after being asked to pay S$40 for an aisle wheelchair.

Jetstar has since apologised to Ms Curtis.  

The budget airline explained in a statement that the incident occurred due to “a miscommunication that resulted in the delay of an aisle chair being made available at the gate on arrival”, 7News reported.

The airline has reached out to Ms Curtis, Singapore's CNA news channel reported, and is looking into what happened “as a matter of urgency”.

Jetstar also clarified that it does not require payment for the use of an aisle chair, CNA reported. "At no point was an aisle chair withheld due to a request for payment."

Ms Curtis has been offered a refund of her ticket, as well as extra compensation.

Social media users reacted in anger towards news of Jetstar allegedly charging for wheelchair services. 

One Twitter user wrote in response to Australian television network 9New's tweet of the report: "This is ableism of the worst order: Seeking to profit from someone’s disability. This is a long way the other side of repulsive."

Not everyone agreed that wheelchair services should be provided for free, however, as one Twitter user noted: "They are a budget airline, their flights are cheap, so either pay for the wheelchair or pay more for another airline that provides them for free."