A mother and her daughter were refused to board a Virgin Australia flight after they were one-minute late – an understandable decision, bar the fact the young girl was on her way to life-saving treatment.
Billie-Jean Simon says passengers were still boarding the flight bound for Newcastle last Wednesday when she and her daughter Payton Hartigan, three, were denied entry.
Ms Simon claimed the pair arrived at Brisbane’s domestic terminal on time but Payton, who has acute myeloid leaukemia, had to be rushed to the bathroom during the boarding call because she felt sick.
“[Ms Simon] had heard the boarding call, but you just can’t tell a kid to hurry up when they’re being sick,” Ms Simon’s mother Tina Mancini told Daily Mail Australia.
“It’s not like she was ten minutes … it was one minute.”
Payton was on her way to receive stem-cell treatment in Newcastle – an appointment she desperately needed to attend after already enduring 16 rounds of chemotherapy at Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.
Despite Ms Simon telling attendants their situation, they were told neither she nor her daughter would be able to fly.
“They closed the door in her face, she could see people still walking down,” Ms Mancini said.
“She doesn’t like publicising Payton’s cancer but the appointment was so important she couldn’t miss it,” Ms Mancini told the Sunshine Coast Daily.
“When she asked about the next flight she was told it would be another $600, despite having insurance.
“With money so tight at the moment, it just wasn’t something she could afford.”
Anxious to make the appointment, Ms Simon’s partner Michael Hartigan was forced to drive them to Newcastle – an eight and a half hour journey compared to the anticipated two and a half hour flight.
Forced to drive until 1:00 am, the family flew home on Thursday with a different airline.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help the family with the financial burden of Payton’s cancer.
