Tag Archives for wheelchair.
On one Southwest Airlines Tampa flight, 30 passengers boarded early and got better seats for free because they said they needed wheelchair assistance. Then they walked off the plane and all the way out the terminal themselves on arrival. They didn’t all need a wheelchair, but cracked a code.
Southwest Airlines lets passengers pick their seats on a first-come, first-served basis. You board earlier if you buy the most expensive tickets, if you’re a frequent traveler, or if you pay for early boarding. Or if you fake the need for a wheelchair.
That’s why Southwest Airlines has more wheelchair passengers than any other airline.
The CEO of Frontier Airlines has condemned Jetbridge Jesus flights. Passengers board the aircraft needing wheelchair assistance, but the end of the flight they’ve been healed and can walk off the plane just fine on their own.
This is the phenomenon of passengers requesting wheelchair assistance to get airport priority – skipping lines, and boarding first.
Southwest Airlines passengers are using wheelchairs to get priority boarding and don’t even seat in them, instead using the wheelchair as a luggage cart to push their carry on bags.
American Airlines baggage handlers in Miami were filmed playing ‘toss the wheelchair’ with several passenger wheelchairs, displaying careless handling and insensitivity towards essential mobility devices.
When a flight has numerous passengers with wheelchair assistance on boarding, and then most of those passengers get off themselves and walk out of the terminal – walking right past the waiting wheelchairs on the jet bridge – it’s known as a “miracle flight.” Here’s one recent Southwest Airlines flight where 20 passengers used wheelchairs to board, and only 3 used them to get off. 17 passengers experienced an inflight miracle.
When 55 passengers board a single flight using wheelchairs, that’s tough not to notice. But when only 25 need assistance getting off the plane at their destination, it starts to look like 30 people requested assistance just to get priority board, plus maybe assistance through the security line at the airport.
Reading this headline I had visions of Southwest Airlines gate agents tossing the woman out of her wheelchair.
Nearly a year ago a 25 year old woman was boarding a Southwest Airlines flight in Fort Lauderdale, heading for Denver, when “her electric wheelchair hit a junction that caused her to be thrown from her chair.”
It’s been quite a year for Lufthansa. They banned Jews from travel in the spring and now they’ve barred a U.S. congressman because of his wheelchair. And any airline knows don’t cross Congress.
Some unscrupulous people request wheelchair assistance at the airport when they don’t need it, using their ‘injury’ for a whole bunch of benefits: skip the security line, early boarding, and even better better seats on board.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
