Wheelchair Travel Newsletter: The Chatham House Rule and Sunshine in Scotland

Inside the not-so-secret meeting about accessibility in air travel and reconnecting with the Scottish accessible travel expert.

Hey, everyone!

I have just returned from a fast-paced trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland, where I was focused on disability advocacy, meeting with partners and friends, and researching an itinerary for a future Wheelchair Travel Group Trip.

London, Accessible Air Travel, and the Chatham House Rule

The primary purpose of my trip to Europe was to attend a meeting in London that was focused on the future of accessible air travel and the laws that govern it. The meeting attracted attorneys, airlines, representatives of government agencies, disability advocates and other professionals, and was held under the Chatham House Rule.

John Morris and Christopher Wood.

The rule, named for the London headquarters of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), originated in 1927 and stipulates the following:

When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.

Meetings held under the rule tend to foster more robust debate, where participants are comfortable speaking freely about controversial topics related to public policy. While I don’t view accessibility as something that should be deemed controversial, there are many interests at play and the two sides — airlines and disabled people — often seem to be at odds with one another.

The rule is founded on the honor system and, although there would be no criminal penalty for spilling the beans on a meeting such as this, it is a commitment that I take very seriously.

Some attendees have openly revealed their participation, so I can confirm that I had the pleasure of meeting with Christopher Wood, one of the visionaries behind the Air4All wheelchair securement space for airplanes, and Martin Heng, my friend and accessible travel advocate who I last saw during my 2023 visit to Melbourne, Australia. People traveled from all around the world to participate in what I thought was a very fruitful debate.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be putting pen to paper in reflecting on some of the ideas that came out of the discussion. One statement in particular caught my attention: “[passenger] safety is not customer service.” Though airlines state “safety is our number one priority,” very little attention has been paid to the safe transport of disabled travelers. Insufficient efforts have been made to eliminate the risk of passengers being dropped, nearly choked, or asphyxiated during transfers, and carriers have failed to properly implement solutions to turn the page on never-ending damage to wheelchairs, which so often leaves disabled people bedridden, or with serious and sometimes fatal injuries.

Sunshine in Wheelchair Accessible Scotland

The meeting in London lasted one day, and the cost of a round-trip economy class ticket to London from the United States would have been about $3,000 had I just spent one night. Airlines’ lowest international fares often have a minimum stay or Saturday stay requirement, as they are targeted at leisure travelers. Mandating a minimum stay (sometimes 5 or 7 days) or Saturday stay properly targets low fares to price-conscious tourists and higher fares to business travelers.

I am very price conscious, so needed to extend my trip to cover a Saturday. I’ll dig into this in more detail in an upcoming article for my trip planning series, but the search for a lower fare and the requirement for a longer stay allowed me to follow-through on an earlier promise to visit Scotland for the first time.

Weather in the UK is often maligned for the frequent rain and cloud cover, but this critique is often overstated and I was blessed with several marvelous days. The sunshine and blue skies made my trip to Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland all the more memorable.

The two Scottish cities are 45 minutes apart by train, with return fares priced at about $20 USD. Not wanting to switch hotels, I booked a lovely room in downtown Glasgow where I focused much of my time, but also was able to commute to Edinburgh.

The commitment to visit Scotland was made to my good friend Emma Muldoon, who runs the UK’s leading disability lifestyle and travel website, Simply Emma. She lives in Scotland, and we met up for dinner one night at the highly-rated Red Onion restaurant. The restaurant had a great menu with vegetarian and vegan options. I had not seen Emma in-person since before the pandemic, so there was a lot of catching-up to do! It was a delight to reconnect with Emma and her partner, Alan, and our dinner turned into 7 hours of conversation! Time very well spent!

Glasgow, Scotland.

Glasgow exceeded nearly all of my expectations for an accessible destination, with lots of accessible restaurants and pubs, plenty of wheelchair-friendly attractions (many with free admission!), and a largely flat geography that made wheeling around in my power wheelchair easier than in many American cities. The City Sightseeing tourist bus allowed me to make my way through the city, rolling on and off at stops of interest while enjoying a narrated tour.

In my surveys about future Wheelchair Travel Group Trips, readers have requested a tour of England and Scotland, so I spent my time there meeting with travel suppliers and researching how to make an accessible tour possible. Though I haven’t confirmed the itinerary or dates, I am confident in saying that there will be a group trip to Scotland next year. Stay tuned for details!

In the next few newsletters, I’ll be sharing more from my trip to Scotland, as well as my one-night stay in Dublin, Ireland that served as the conclusion of my trip.

Hello again, Ryanair

In November 2018, I flew with the European low cost carrier Ryanair for the first time, on a trip from London’s Stansted Airport to Madrid, Spain. The trip was unremarkable, pretty much what one would expect when flying a budget carrier (low fares, expensive baggage fees, rock hard seats, limited legroom, and no complimentary refreshments). I was required to sit at the back of the plane, which is not my preference, but I didn’t leave committing to “never fly this airline again.”

I prefer to fly flag carriers like Air France, British Airways or KLM Royal Dutch Airlines when traveling through Europe, but sometimes a budget airline wins on the combination of price and schedule. That happened on Monday, when I flew from Glasgow, Scotland to Dublin, Ireland — Ryanair took me (and my bags) for just $64 bucks, less than half the price of the next cheapest flight.

My experience was exactly the same as in 2018, and I avoided some of the frustrations other wheelchair users have reported, like a refusal to transport their power wheelchair (it’s important to submit details in advance of travel). I still had to sit in one of the last rows on the airplane, but it was a good flight nonetheless. Have you flown a low-cost carrier like Ryanair, WOW Air, Wizz Air, Spirit Airlines or Frontier Airlines? How did your experience compare with legacy carriers?

Tomorrow night — Join my Accessible Travel Chat about important air travel topics

The second and final part of my Accessible Travel Chat on the USDOT’s proposed rules for accessibility in air travel is tomorrow night, Thursday, April 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET (New York time). Registration is required, so please sign-up to join our meeting on Zoom. We’ll be discussing some of the most important questions in the rule making, including the training airline staff should receive, how damaged wheelchairs should be repaired, and what types of loaner wheelchairs airlines should provide if yours is damaged. Don’t miss this important conversation!

Look out for another email on Friday, as well as an upcoming article exclusive to paid subscribers. Thank you as always for your readership and support!

All the best,
John