Budapest Airport
I travelled fra Budapest (BUD), terminal 2B on June 11th. planned departure at 14.55 and I arrived at the airport with my assistant, around 12.30 well ahead of the opening of the check-in desk and we were invited to check in as the first, when the check-in opened at 12.55, two hours before departure,
I travel with a collapsible wheelchair with power wheels, a joystick and a lithium-ion battery 295 Wh, which conforms with the IATA guidelines.
At check-in, I was requested to share a number of information on my battery type, which I did and I showed the battery certificate and the battery itself, all the information were noted in a document by the lady in the check-in counter. The process took approximately 15 min.
It was made clear to me, that there was no option to keep my own wheelchair up to the gate, even if I was in pain and needed to sit in my own wheelchair and it standard practice that you are allowed to bring your own wheelchair to the gate, especially when it doesn’t weigh more than 27 kilos.
I was sent to a corner to wait for 20-30 minutes, transferred to the airport wheelchair and then taken 100 meters so we could wait almost as long for the next assistance person.
Then we had to go through security, and that’s when things went completely wrong. My bag with the wheelchair battery and joystick was detained, scanned multiple times, and an expert was called, and she in turn called for further expertise. That we had filled out papers was irrelevant; we were banished to a hallway and waited close to an hour, while the departure time of the plane approached and the assistance man expressed concern about whether we would make the flight, which was the only direct departure home that afternoon.
Finally, we were allowed to go, without the battery, which the expert took with her with a message that the situation was not resolved. Meanwhile, we had to rush towards the highloader that was to get us on the plane, we arrived minutes before departure and shortly after it was possible to retrieve the battery.
Throughout the process I had no option to have a drink of water, take some pain medication or visit a restroom, but the worst part was the lack of information or really any type of communication and not knowing if I would be allowed to travel of even if I would get my wheelchair parts back.
Incident reported by Sir Host.