Amid a turbulent season of delays and cancellations impacting air travel, airline passengers are reporting a higher level of satisfaction with the overall airport experience itself. The findings come from the new J.D. Power 2023 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, which surveyed 27,147 travelers between August 2022 and July 2023 to find that overall satisfaction with airports is up three percent. Airports in the Midwest took most of the top spots, while passengers traveling through coastal airports reported lower satisfaction. The Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) was ranked highest overall amongst “mega” airports for the second year in a row. The airport provides air travel for 36.7 million travelers per year and operates over 1,000 daily flights. (J.D. Power defines a mega airport as one with 33 million or more passengers annually.) “We are always looking to raise the bar for customer service as we take Detroit to the world and bring the world to Detroit,” Chad Newton, Wayne County Airport Authority's CEO, said in a statement on the airport’s Facebook page. Detroit’s airport features a variety of amenities, dining, and shopping including Be Relax Spas, Illy Coffee Cafe, Gordon Biersch, P.F. Chang's, Pandora, and more. The airport also has a Westin hotel attached to it, with a dedicated TSA security entrance that connects the hotel to the airport for travelers on a tight layover to save time. The top-ranked mega airports, after DTW, are Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) and Harry Reid International Airport in Paradise, Nevada. The lowest-ranked mega airports are Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), and New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).
A Beyoncé fan missed his chance to see her after an airline couldn't accommodate his wheelchair. The internet is trying to get him to another show.
18.09.2023 - 01:11 / insider.com
Jon Hetherington has been waiting to see Beyoncé for 25 years.
So when an airline told Hetherington they couldn't fly him to Seattle on time to see Queen Bey for her Thursday show — because they said his wheelchair was four inches too tall — he was crushed.
"The guy at the counter filled out this form and it basically said like 'your wheelchair exceeded the requirements to be able to fly and we did everything we could to address this and resolve the issue and we couldn't,'" Hetherington told Insider.
The 34-year-old took to social media to share his story.
"So after 25 years of waiting, I'm not seeing Beyoncé tonight, so ableism strikes again," Hetherington said in a TikTok. He also posted about the situation on X and Instagram.
Hetherington told Insider when he posted on TikTok he wasn't expecting more than "a couple hundred" people to see his content. Little did he know, his video would go viral and summon an army of Bey stans, all intent on getting him to another show.
"It's really surreal and unexpected," Hetherington said.
His comments on TikTok are filled with people trying to reach Beyoncé and her team. People are also carrying on the campaign with messages of support on X.
"This really is heartbreaking. Like I legit am so upset for him," one post on X with over 100,000 likes reads. "I hope this pops up in Beyoncé's camp somehow and even the smallest gesture could make his day."
Hetherington said he even got messages from fans offering to buy him tickets or give up their own tickets to future shows. However, as much as he appreciated the offers, he said he decided not to take them.
As for what he will do next, Hetherington said he's exploring his options. However, he said seeing the Renaissance World Tour live would be a massive deal for him as someone who is Black and queer.
"She made the conscious decision to collaborate with people and uplift, black queer culture, and that's a huge deal that cannot be understated. It's very important."
One of the main reasons Hetherington said he posted his video was to illustrate how ableism can produce day-to-day challenges beyond just one missed Beyoncé concert. It's why he wanted to avoid naming the specific airline that could not accommodate his chair.
"I'm sitting here as someone who has been disabled my entire life, saying it's not about the one airline," Hetherington told Insider. "This is a systemic issue."
Hetherington told Insider that just two weeks ago, after attending a Janelle Monáe concert — also in Seattle — he was stranded for hours because the taxi service that could accommodate his wheelchair stopped operating after midnight. Hetherington said he wasn't notified of these hours and was "stuck on the streets of Seattle" all night long.
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