Spudman has been left furious after a major airline refused to accept his luggage containing life-saving medical equipment forcing him to miss his flight.
The legendary jacket potato seller, whose real name is Ben Newman, took to social media on Saturday to reveal that Dutch airline KLM refused to let him board his flight to Croatia with his dialysis machine.
Father-of-nine Ben, 40, has been living with kidney failure since 2010 and cannot survive without regular treatment from his machine.
In a video filmed inside the airport and posted to his 632,000 Instagram followers Spudman said: ‘So, it’s twenty past nine and my day’s already gone Pete Tong.
‘We are having the trip from hell already. Croatia is not going to plan.
‘We’ve been refused to get on the plane because my dialysis machine weighs about 45/50 kilos.
‘They are refusing to touch anything over 32 kilos even though it’s all been booked on with the special medical needs and all that kind of stuff.’
Despite going ‘through all the right channels’ and having everything ‘approved’, Spudman said the check-in desk turned him away.
Spudman has been left furious after a major airline refused to accept his luggage containing life-saving medical equipment forcing him to miss his flight
The legendary jacket potato seller, whose real name is Ben Newman, took to social media on Saturday to reveal that Dutch airline KLM refused to let him board his flight to Croatia with his dialysis machine
Father-of-nine Ben, 40, has been living with kidney failure since 2010 and cannot survive without regular treatment from his machine
‘They were like “No, it’s too heavy, we can’t touch it. It needs to go on a cargo plane or something.” and I’m like, “It’s not cargo, it’s a dialysis machine!”
‘I don’t travel anywhere without that, like I last about two or three days without that machine, so obviously I’m not going to get on a flight without it.’
Spudman ended up missing his flight and said KLM staff at the desk told him they could ‘maybe’ book his dialysis machine on to the next flight as a passenger.
‘So, I’ve got to wait around until the next flight, which is at like 1 o’clock, bare in mind it’s 9 o’clock in the morning now, to see if they will okay that on to the next flight,’ he continued.
He said the medical team at KLM has reassured him it would be ‘no problem’ but the people on the desk ‘denied’ him an answer.
Ending his rant, Spudman said: ‘If you are a dialysis patient, don’t fly with KLM.’
In an update video posted a while after from the departure lounge, he explained that KLM had suddenly become ‘very helpful’ and showed that his dialysis machine placed between his legs ready to be taken on to the flight with him.
‘We’ve got to carry it on to the plane ourselves and we are on our way to Amsterdam.
‘We have a five hour layover there and then on to Croatia. So, it’s going to take us a little longer, but we are going to get there.’
Daily Mail has contacted KLM for comment.
