THE Josh Aronson

My Vueling discrimination story is as follows: A few weeks ago, I booked a Vueling flight from TLV to Seville on 19th April and then Seville to London on 21st April. The reason for my travel to watch Manchester United play in Seville. I emailed the disabilities team at Vueling with my requirements, as I have autism, and to add a DPNA code to my booking. (DPNA is a code for Disabled Passenger with intellectual or developmental disability Needing Assistance. A code introduced by International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2008. Typically used in airline bookings, it informs the travel service providers that the passenger requires assistance during their travel.) My only requirement was an aisle seat which is important for me with my disabilities as I need as much space as possible due to sensory issues. When I received no answer, I rang up and was told by staff that that shouldn't be an issue. On April 19th, I turned up at Ben Gurion Airport and imagine my surprise to see I was...

In yesterday's blog, we had just landed in Tel Aviv: the reason we were there was to spend the Passover Holidays with my parents. As soon as we woke up, we unpacked and we made our way towards my parents to say hello. Funnily enough, we actually bumped into my father in the street on the way to their house. We had lunch at my parents and afterwards, we went back to our flat and got ready for the Passover night.  My younger sister joined us, which was special, and I had fun playing with my nephews and nieces. We went to see my Aunt and several of my cousins, who were happy to meet Esther for the first time and then came back to my parents.   My father led the service and my mother served good food. The following day, we also ate at my parents and once again had some good food. The following day was a Friday and I have a tradition that when I'm in Israel on Fridays or on festival days, I like to volunteer at a soup kitchen, where I have volunteered for many years. So I cont...

In my previous blog, I posted that I had travelled to London. What happened was that when I came to London for the FA Final I realised I had booked a non-refundable hotel for the 26th March instead of the 26th April! So since I had the hotel, I decided to arrange some meetings in London on that date. Funnily enough, it was cheaper to fly to London on British Airways then to take a train, so after a great flight, I came to my hotel. It was a nice hotel room though I was disappointed that the power sockets were not near the bed, why would you do that? The following day I started off in a meeting at the Israeli Embassy with the press secretary and a few minutes chat with Ambassador Tzippi Hotoveli. Following that, I went to a meeting at an interesting coffee shop in Golders Green. The idea behind the cafe is all proceeds go to a mental health charity. It was a great meeting and afterwards I made my way back to the airport and flew home. I rested and worked and then on April 4, Esther an...

In my last blog, which I’m sorry was so long ago, I was just about to go to Spain.  In the morning, I went to the circumcision of my friend’s son, got back home, got my bag ready, and left for the station where I met my friend Jonathan. Together we traveled on the train to London, but when we arrived, we discovered that the Underground was on strike, so we walked to St. Pancreas and got on a train to Farmingham and from there the Elizabeth line to Heathrow. We flew Iberia Airlines via Madrid and landed in Madrid, as we had a stopover overnight. Liverpool had been knocked out of the champions league that night by Real Madrid. we ubered to the Bernabeu to make a video saying thank you to Real Madrid. We ubered back and upon entering the stadium, we met a United fan who had been pickpocketed so had no money or cards on him. He transferred money from his bank account to me and I straight away took money from an ATM to give him. At 7 am, we had our flight from Madrid to Seville. We land...