{"id":45014,"date":"2022-01-03T07:49:42","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T07:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/?p=45014"},"modified":"2022-01-03T07:49:46","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T07:49:46","slug":"tap-prevents-guide-dog-from-boarding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/tap-prevents-guide-dog-from-boarding\/","title":{"rendered":"TAP prevents guide dog from boarding","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Blind Spanish pianist accuses TAP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/01\/image-5-360x327.png\" alt=\"blind Spanish pianist Ignasi Cambra with his guide dog\" class=\"wp-image-45041 lazyload\" title=\"\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/01\/image-5-360x327.png\" alt=\"blind Spanish pianist Ignasi Cambra with his guide dog\" class=\"wp-image-45041\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/image-5-360x327.png 360w, https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/image-5.png 493w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/noscript><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jn.pt\/nacional.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">JN on the mainland<\/a> report that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ignasicambra.com\/en\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blind Spanish pianist Ignasi Cambra<\/a> has accused the Portuguese flag-carrier TAP of having &#8220;completely discriminated against&#8221; him on December 30, by preventing him from boarding with his guide dog.\u00a0The airline regretted what happened, assuring people that it was reviewing procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through social media, and in a statement quoted by the EFE agency,\u00a0Ignasi Cambra\u00a0said that he was &#8220;trapped&#8221; for a few hours at El Prat &#8211; Barcelona airport: &#8220;[\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jn.pt\/entidade\/org\/tap.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TAP<\/a>\u00a0] refused to let me travel with my guide dog&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The musician added that he booked the flight on Wednesday (29th) at night and tried to send the necessary form to the website to say that he was travelling with a care animal, but the submission &#8220;did not work&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;So I went to the counter, as I always do in a situation like this, and they simply refused to take me with my guide dog, because they say I didn&#8217;t inform them more than 48 hours in advance,&#8221; he said<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In light of this, the pianist left a question: &#8220;How am I supposed to notify them 48 hours in advance when I booked the flight the night before? This means that, as a blind person traveling with a guide dog, I am not allowed to book a last-minute flight like all the others?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/01\/image-4-500x454.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-45039 lazyload\" title=\"\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"454\" src=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2022\/01\/image-4-500x454.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-45039\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/image-4-500x454.png 500w, https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/image-4-360x327.png 360w, https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/image-4.png 564w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/noscript><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The musician stressed that he tried to contact the staff of the Portuguese airline by phone, for an hour, &#8220;without success&#8221;.\u00a0Finally, as a &#8220;favour&#8221;, he explained, he was allowed to board another plane, but he ended up not arriving in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jn.pt\/entidade\/local\/portugal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Portugal<\/a>\u00a0until\u00a0noon on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ignasi Cambra\u00a0wondered, in an ironic tone, whether he should thank the company for making &#8220;an exception to its rule&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">TAP reviewing procedures for guide dogs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Press agency Lusa contacted\u00a0TAP, which, in a written comment, &#8220;regrets what happened and the inconvenience caused by this situation&#8221;, and guarantees that &#8220;it is reviewing procedures in order to streamline the process in the future&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, they stressed that to ensure the best possible service in the transport of animals, and to alert everyone involved, &#8220;it is necessary to book the service in advance&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As it was not possible in this case, &#8220;TAP made sure that the passenger and the guide dog were accommodated as quickly as possible, on the immediately following flight, having thus boarded a few hours later than originally planned&#8221;, he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thanks to PeterA for the link<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-global-color-16-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>COVID-19 in Madeira:&nbsp;<\/strong>previous daily updates can be found&nbsp;in&nbsp;an&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/new-years-eve-sees-794-new-cases\/\">earlier&nbsp;post<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-global-color-13-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Travel latest:<\/strong>&nbsp;requirements for entering and leaving Madeira:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/travel-latest-entering-and-leaving-madeira\/\">is kept up-to-date on a&nbsp;previous post<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-global-color-14-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>New restrictions:&nbsp;<\/strong>a detailed updated explanation of the latest regulations can be found&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/new-restrictions-detailed-explanation\/\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blind Spanish pianist accuses TAP JN on the mainland report that the blind Spanish pianist Ignasi Cambra has accused the Portuguese flag-carrier TAP of having &#8220;completely discriminated against&#8221; him on December 30, by preventing him from boarding with his guide dog.\u00a0The airline regretted what happened, assuring people that it was reviewing procedures. Through social media, and in a statement quoted by the EFE agency,\u00a0Ignasi Cambra\u00a0said that he was &#8220;trapped&#8221; for a few hours at El Prat &#8211; Barcelona airport: &#8220;[\u00a0TAP\u00a0] refused to let me travel with my guide dog&#8221;. The musician added that he booked the flight on Wednesday (29th) at night and tried to send the necessary form to the website to say that he was travelling with a care animal, but the submission &#8220;did not work&#8221;. &#8220;So I went to the counter, as I always do in a situation like this, and they simply refused to take me with my guide dog, because they say I didn&#8217;t inform them more than 48 hours in advance,&#8221; he said In light of this, the pianist left a question: &#8220;How am I supposed to notify them 48 hours in advance when I booked the flight the night before? This means that, as a blind person traveling with a guide dog, I am not allowed to book a last-minute flight like all the others?&#8221; The musician stressed that he tried to contact the staff of the Portuguese airline by phone, for an hour, &#8220;without success&#8221;.\u00a0Finally, as a &#8220;favour&#8221;, he explained, he was allowed to board another plane, but he ended up not arriving in\u00a0Portugal\u00a0until\u00a0noon on Friday. Ignasi Cambra\u00a0wondered, in an ironic tone, whether he should thank the company for making &#8220;an exception to its rule&#8221;. TAP reviewing procedures for guide dogs Press agency Lusa contacted\u00a0TAP, which, in a written comment, &#8220;regrets what happened and the inconvenience caused by this situation&#8221;, and guarantees that &#8220;it is reviewing procedures in order to streamline the process in the future&#8221;. However, they stressed that to ensure the best possible service in the transport of animals, and to alert everyone involved, &#8220;it is necessary to book the service in advance&#8221;. As it was not possible in this case, &#8220;TAP made sure that the passenger and the guide dog were accommodated as quickly as possible, on the immediately following flight, having thus boarded a few hours later than originally planned&#8221;, he concluded. Thanks to PeterA for the link &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"TAP prevents guide dog from boarding\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/tap-prevents-guide-dog-from-boarding\/#more-45014\" aria-label=\"Read more about TAP prevents guide dog from boarding\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":5,"featured_media":45041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-island-regional-people-headlines","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madeiraislanddirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}