Luckily, last night I remembered to contact Delta to be sure that they were prepared for two wheelchairs. I was so preoccupied with the flight arrangement with EL AL that I had neglected to prepare Delta. It all worked out, however. Lydia had an aisle chair on the way and our seats were in the very back of the plane next to the bathroom. The seats were changed last night once I explained her needs. Delta has a lot of info on their website for individuals with disabilities, including emotional support animals. I was impressed. At first the phone ticket agent said that any change to the ticket would cost $150, but she retracted that.
We learned that Lydia left her Ipad at security in Fort Lauderdale, because she was busy with the screener who put it on the belt while she was doing the usual wiping of Lydia's clothes, chair, orthotics, etc. I didn't know that she had it with her, so....I called the airport and left a message with the lost & found. We can pick it up on the way back. So glad that it is an Ipad I and not terribly valuable at this point.
Lydia
was upset however, as she has lots of personal stuff on it.
There
was an aisle chair waiting for us at the jetway and the loading of the
wheelchairs was smooth. I was glad that I had packed up the parts of the manual
chair.The flight from FLL to JFK was comfortable and uneventful. However, we
had a 45 minute wait for an aisle chair out of the plane when we arrived at
JFK. I ended up walking Lydia with her cane 1/2 way down the narrow aisle and
finally an attendant had a chair. The Delta agent manager was very concerned once
we deplaned, got our ticket numbers, and gave us each a $100 gift card toward
our next Delta flight. That was nice. We had a great airport attendant who was
very helpful with moving our stuff. However, when I called the hotel stating
that we were at the baggage and needed the wheelchair accessible van to pick us
up and take us to the hotel, as they promise, a problem occurred. After a 30
minute wait, the driver pulled up and the van was sizable and had a faintly
painted wheelchair symbol on it. The driver noted that the lift or ramp had
been removed. He offered to lift the power chair but I declined. The airport
attendant walked over to the taxi stand and knew that yellow cab had an
accessible van. Another 30 minutes later or so, we had a van with a ramp with
tie downs, etc. We were on our way!
When
we got to the hotel, I asked the hotel to pay the taxi driver and told them
that I expected the same on the way back. It worked out. The room was clean but
extremely tight for the power chair. It did have a roll in shower but the floor
was not slanted properly, so the floor got wet, even with a drain. It was a
decent shower and the bed was comfortable. It would have been OK, had it not
been for the power chair and huge pieces of luggage that we had. After 5 hours,
we arose and had breakfast. It was a fair breakfast. Lyd did her makeup and I
repacked us. The taxi came at 7 ish and we arrived at the airport at 730 a.m. ,
a real record for us! The rest of the Taglit group arrived between 8 and
930.
The
agent at ELAL asked lots of strange questions, about what was the last Jewish
holiday and which Jewish holidays we celebrated, if I knew someone in Israel
(any relatives, and their relationships), if we were synagogue members and
which synagogue, each of our Jewish names, and other Jewish trivia. I guess
that we passed the test because we then were able to deposit our luggage and go
through the arduous process of security clearance. Another weird thing happened
in security and I almost lost Lydia's cane in the security line. An old woman
became impatient waiting for a female attendant to check her and her wheelchair
out, so she stood up in the lane for screening. The male HSA agent grabbed
Lydia's cane off of the belt, where I had carefully placed it on our bins to keep
everything together. He gave the cane to the old lady then placed it aside, so
that it was no longer with our stuff. I had gathered all of our stuff and
walked to our gate, with two small rolling bags and then realized, deposited
the bags with Lydia and walked briskly back to the security area to reclaim the
cane. I definitely need to put a sticky label on the cane next time!
The
ELAL service on the plane has been just superb! We have never experienced
anything like it. The attendants actually help and not just watch. They have an
aisle chair that is a tiny wheelchair and the attendant actually helped me walk
with Lydia outside the bathroom into the actual water closet and taught me a
good technique. He came back when I made eye contact across the room and
assisted. They gave us ear phones and ear plugs, and have movies running.
Unfortunately, the sound isn't working on our sets, but hummus and warm fresh
pita were really nice. The food is Kosher, of course.
It
is fun hearing Hebrew accents spoken. We have met nice young people and their
companions and are eager to get to know them better. Lydia and I have been
napping because when we arrive, it will be 515 a.m.!
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