A British low-cost carrier seems to have sunk to a new low for budget airlines when it told a double amputee he had to pay extra for transporting his two spare prosthetic legs on an upcoming flight to the Spanish island of Majorca.
“It is ridiculous. In my opinion, the prosthetic legs are a disability aid. A wheelchair is classed as that and can be transported free of charge,” the man, whose name is Mick Skee, tells Britain’s Daily Mail.
Skee says the spare limbs had been specialty designed for this vacation.
Skee contacted Jet2 to arrange transportation for the fake limbs, but that the airline declined to help him, saying he’d need to pay a $25 baggage fee for them.
When Skee contacted Jet2 corporate to seek some redress, a spokesman told him to write out a formal complaint and mail it to customer service, and await a response in 21 days.
Allow me to help Skee out a little bit:
To whom it may concern at Jet2 Airlines: Give this guy a friggin break. Are you so broke that you cannot allow free transportation of prosthetic limbs?
I’m sorry, but back-up or not, it just seems cold not to make an exception here to the companies checked “luggage” fees. I mean, how many customers are coming to them asking to transport prosthetics? It’s not like it’s opening a Pandora’s Box by letting Skee check his back-ups free of charge.
It could be worse, I guess: Jet2 could charge the man extra for his primary prosthetics.
Who is Jet2? A pretty bottom-shelf budget airline that flies out of Leeds, Manchester, Belfast, Blackpool and Edinburgh.