[mmdwalsh]

My parents(age 89 and 87) recently flew on US Airways and had their flights flagged for wheelchair transport and were seated in handicapped seats. They were flying between major cities (Boston and Pittsburgh) and on travel days that were not too busy. They boarded during preboarding and the US airways staff watched them head down the jetway, my father with his cane and my mother hobbling along on 2 artifical knees and at the end of the jetway, found they had to go down a set of stairs in the semi dark and in the rain, across the tarmack, and up what my father described as a steep ladderlike device. No one offered them any help or considered that people who arrived in wheelchairs might have problems with two flights of outside, wet, semidark stairs.
After four attempts to contact US Airways, I finally got a call back and was told that my parents should have gone back and asked for help, but they didn't consider that as an option-I think they were afraid that they would have ended up stranded in Boston if they couldn't navigate all the stairs. US Airways also said that they should have been listed as unable to board the plane indepently, which would not the case normally, but I haven't had to go on the tarmack in many years in the US at a major airport-it never occurred to me that they wouldn't directly board a plane at the end of the jetway. I am very disappointed at the callous attitude this airline showed. My parents regularly fly to visit their children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, but after this unsafe experience, they say they can't travel anymore, which will be a big loss to them.