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...

My last blog was just before Purim. I was feeling very ill and indeed, all the Purim holiday, I was sick in bed with a very bad cold. That week, Manchester United also lost 7-0 to our bitterest rivals Liverpool, and I got an onslaught of fans from different teams mocking me and making fun of our loss! I stayed in bed till Thursday, when I felt better and ventured out to Old Trafford to watch Manchester United win against Real Betis 4-1. That same day, I discovered the away leg in Spain was down to those with 0 European credits so decided to book a flight to gain one credit and build my credits up for future European games. On Friday, I met up with an ex-Israeli footballer who was here with his son to show him around a bit. It was great meeting him and had a good time. Friday night we ate at the parents of a friend of Esther's, an elderly couple who knew my grandparents and had memories and stories of them that I had never heard. We had pleasant conversation and good food and we t...

Last week was an incredible week! It started on Sunday when I went to London to Wembley Stadium to watch the EFL cup final Manchester United vs Newcastle. It was my very first time ever in Wembley and I was really on a high as I entered the famous stadium. There was a scarf waiting on every seat, so that was cool to get a free, limited edition scarf. Manchester United won 2-0 and for the first time ever in person I saw my team pick up a cup, which was emotional and moving.  Afterwords, I waited for ages to get to the Underground. Eventually made my way to Ealing, where I was supposed to be staying. I stopped off at KFC to grab a bite to eat, ordered via the app as I had a reward offer, only to discover that I was in the wrong branch, so had to take bus to the other branch to collect. I got there and there nowhere to sit, so they bagged it and I left to my hotel. Arrived at the hotel only to discover, typical me, I haf booked for the 26th of March instead of February. It took time ...

So yesterday I updated up until I returned to the UK on Thursday. For those that missed it, go read yesterday’s blog before coming to this one. On Friday, I prepared for Shabbat. Friday night, we ate at a mutual friend’s place and on Shabbat day, we had two kiddushins of friends. We had to go in to say Mazel Tov, and because of that, we arranged to eat at home but on the way back we stopped at my friend Motty Koppel’s to say hello and before we knew it we were joining them for lunch, which was nice. We chatted for a while and then at night came home. On Sunday morning, I had an important zoom meeting with Israeli officials and in the afternoon, we celebrated my nephew turning 3 at a family event. On Monday daytime, I did some coursework and at night had a family Bar Mitzvah, where I sang a bit together with the singer Buchi Glick, which was nice. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I carried on with coursework and on Thursday, I went to Old Trafford to see United’s game against Barcelona. I alm...