An Open Letter to Jet Blue

Interesting Blog post by Shawna, a mother of two children with special needs. It originally appeared on her blog — Not the Former Things

Dear Jet Blue Airlines,

I am writing this post to thank you.My son has high functioning autism and, because of the custody arrangement between his father and I, we fly 7-9 times a year out of sheer necessity. Flying, with all of it’s loud announcements and crowded waiting areas and unusual smells, is quite frankly torture for him. He has acute sensory processing issues that affect us even in simple every day situations, so you can imagine how complicated airports and airplanes are for us.

Passenger with Down Syndrome Barred from Flight

Hopping across the pond a bit to shed light on discrimination against those with developmental disabilities.

LONDON-A 12-year-old British girl was denied passage on a British Airways flight for having Down syndrome, supposedly per airline policy.

Airline staff refused to sell a plane ticket to Alice Saunders for an unaccompanied trip from London's Gatwick Airport to Glasgow. Her mother, Heather Saunders, was told it was company policy to not accept young passengers with Down syndrome flying alone.

Heather Saunders tried to make her daughter's reservation via phone.

"I explained I wanted her to travel as an unaccompanied minor, she was 12 years old, she had Down syndrome and was very independent," she told the Daily Mail.

However, according to the mother, the customer service agent said company policy would not allow it because of problems incurred in the past.

Heather Saunders further revealed that, according to the representative, had she not told the airline about Alice at the time of booking, she would have been turned away at the gate.

Vacation Dreams Take Flight

BOSTON -- The Littlejohn family's much-anticipated trip together to Walt Disney World last fall never made it past Logan International Airport.
Henry was spooked by the glass elevator. Ambient airport noise — the unexpected beeps, the loudspeaker announcements — almost proved too much for a 6-year-old with autism.
"We thought we had him settled" on the plane, said Erik Littlejohn. "But then a guy behind him opened his window shade."
Henry melted. He cried and kicked, and takeoff was delayed when his parents could not buckle his seat belt. The family made a wrenching decision: Mom and Henry got off the plane and went home to Holliston; Dad and Henry’s 7-year-old brother went on to Disney World.
The Littlejohns knew there had to be a better way