Thomas Cook broke passenger's wheelchair midflight and refused to replace it

A disabled woman has branded Thomas Cook “beyond belief” after she was left for over three months without a wheelchair when hers was broken on a flight.

Becky Gaunt, 25, from Yorkshire, returned from a two-week holiday in Cuba on 19 December 2017. She left her wheelchair at the check-in desk in Holguin, as requested by airport staff, transferring to an airport wheelchair to take her to the plane.

On arrival at Manchester after her overnight flight, however, she noticed that the wheelchair had been broken.

“I knew straightaway – the wheels were quite scuffed, and as soon as I sat in it, it caught my hand,” she told The Independent. “You could see that there was quite a bit of damage… The frame was bent.”

Airlines are obliged to complete Property Irregularity Reports (PIRs) for any luggage or items damaged in transit, but when she tried to report it, Gaunt – a part-time wheelchair user who has fibromyalgia – was told by ground staff to “go back to your dealer and claim through your insurance”.

A specialist engineer at Yorkshire Care Equipment who inspected the chair reported that the entire frame had buckled, and it was beyond repair.

According to EU law, airlines are obliged to “repair or replace” damaged items. The chair was custom built with a value of £2,525, but Gaunt had bought it secondhand for £500. Since the chair was registered through her home insurance, claiming for damage would increase her premium.

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When Gaunt approached Thomas Cook, they put her in touch with their luggage loss adjustors, who sent her a cheque for £500 – a refund of what she had paid, but nowhere near what it would cost to replace. After weeks of back and forth, the airline’s customer service department stopped answering her emails.

She contacted Reduced Mobility Rights – which advocates for passengers with disabilities – but their emails also went unanswered. Thomas Cook later told The Independent that they had never seen the emails, as Gaunt’s file had already been closed.

“I feel frustrated that it’s acceptable for someone to take my legs away from me,” Gaunt – who has been largely housebound since a hip operation in January – told The Independent. “[Thomas Cook have] made a mistake and are not willing to rectify it.

“It has left me not being able to get around and making everyday life so much more harder than it should be.”

When The Independent contacted Thomas Cook, the airline agreed to replace the wheelchair. A spokesperson said:

““We have said sorry to Miss Gaunt following this incident which is clearly unacceptable. We are replacing the wheelchair and have offered additional compensation for the inconvenience.”

This isn’t the first time Thomas Cook has come under fire for its treatment of passengers with disabilities. In 2014, Janice Campbell was awarded £7,500 when she was forced to wait in an airport queue instead of staff finding her a seat or wheelchair. Judges said that staff had failed to act with “common humanity” and ruled that her treatment amounted to discrimination.

Gaunt told The Independent after Thomas Cook had paid her claim that she still had yet to receive an answer about what had happened to her chair in the first place. “It leaves me with a fear of flying, as no protocol has changed,” she said. “If I do decide to travel I’ll have to take the risk that my chair – which is effectively my legs – will be taken from me again for several weeks if not months.

"It is beyond belief that someone can take your legs away and not be compelled to replace them.”