In this morning’s NZ Herald headlines with Chereè Kinnear, 5 Kāinga Ora board members resign, findings released over a tragic toddler incident and Donald Trump is granted partia
A 71-year-old grandmother from Sierra Leone travelling for the first time was left injured and in tears, after her pre-organised wheelchair service didn’t arrive.
Mariatu Nallo embarked on her once-in-a-lifetime trip with Air New Zealand to visit her daughter Khadijah Sesay and her grandchildren in Auckland, earlier this year.
An Air New Zealand Customer Care member in correspondence with the family first disputed the claim, saying the woman “arrived on a wheelchair at the boarding gate in Singapore that was provided by Air New Zealand.”
Over two months after the incident Air New Zealand backtracked on its original statement.
“Our team did not provide your mother with special assistance as requested for her flight from Singapore to Auckland and therefore, sustained injuries as a result of this,” it said in a statement to Sesay.
The original claim by Air NZ frustrated Sesay because she had to fight to get her mother’s experience believed by the airline.
“She obviously couldn’t have fallen if she had really been assisted.”
Nallo was forced to walk “over a mile” through various airport terminals after her wheelchair assistance didn’t show up in Singapore and Auckland, her daughter said.
The lack of these services caused her mother to fall on an escalator in Singapore while trying to make her connecting flight and injure her shoulder carrying baggage in Auckland, Sesay said.
“She was not picked up from her flight in Singapore, which meant she fell on the escalator and got lost trying to navigate the airport terminals.
“She got no assistance on arrival in Auckland either and pulled her shoulder getting her luggage off the belt. She arrived exhausted, in tears and pain from her injuries.”
Khadijah Sesay with her mother Mariatu Nallo.
In the lead-up to the trip, Sesay was already nervous about her mother as “she is not very mobile and gets tired easily due to her age and health condition.
“She has no previous experience of international travel, using escalators, nor does she speak English fluently.”
After not hearing from her mother for several hours during her travels Sesay called Air New Zealand customer service to get reassurance that she had been greeted with a wheelchair.
“I was assured that she will be brought to me by an assistant.
“When I saw my mother walk toward me she was exhausted, that was not the experience we both anticipated, she was totally neglected.”
Khadijah Sesay and her mother Mariatu Nallo. Photo / Supplied
Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer, Leanne Geraghty says they were “extremely sorry” to hear about Nallo’s experience.
“We acknowledge we have fallen short in providing all of the support required. We have reached out to Mrs Nallo to extend our sincere apologies and reassure her that we take feedback like this seriously and are working hard to ensure that experiences like this don’t happen again.”
A gift basket as a gesture of goodwill was offered to Nallo but her family said it wouldn’t make up for the hard times she went through.
Air New Zealand says they “have requested a space available upgrade for Mrs Nallo to Premium Economy. If we have seats in this cabin, your mother will be upgraded. This upgrade will be reviewed and potentially confirmed on the day of travel.”
Although the offer was generous it didn’t give Sesay’s mother any peace of mind because it was only potentially available, Sesay said.
“[Nallo] still painfully recalls walking over a mile tirelessly asking everyone to help her navigate her transit terminal.
“For a frail 71-year-old to go through what she went through was unfair, she was clearly neglected and it’s always painful for me to think of it.
“I am very disappointed that she encountered such a bad experience on her first international travel.”
