Posted on 10/08/2012 6:32:15 AM PDT by markomalley
An increasing number of air travellers are faking disabilities to skip queues at security, check-in and departure gates, according to airport and airline staff.
Passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) are entitled to free assistance, and are permitted to cut queues at the airport.
Support can be requested at the time of booking, or during check-in, but passengers are not required to present proof of disability, prompting unscrupulous able-bodied travellers to exploit the policy.
The practice is becoming so common that airline staff have coined the phrase “miracle flights” to describe how some travellers require a wheelchair to board the aircraft, but depart without it.
“We’d say there was a miracle because they all needed a wheelchair getting on, but not getting off,” Kelly Skyles, an American Airlines flight attendant told the New York Times. “Not only do we serve beverages and ensure safety — now we’re healing the sick.”
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Hey, under 0bama, it's a living.
The law of unintended consequences at work. You get more of what you reward.
To me it’s the same as the old whites only bathrooms and water fountains.
And it should be unconstitutional.
since there is no ID card stating that one is handicapped, what constitutes proof?
That’s one I feel really bad about. When I travel, particularly internationally, I carry a cane. Partly it’s because my knees get sore after a long day of walking, etc. Partly it’s because the cane is a universally accepted (i.e., TSA can’t take it away from you) defensive tool. In Amsterdam’s airport a couple years ago, I rested on my cane for a moment before the hyper-attentive attendant forced me into the disabled line. Fortunately, justice prevailed and the disabled line took longer than I would have if I just stayed where I was, but I now keep the cane firmly attached to my baggage while I’m in the airport.
sooooo..you’re advocating a new federal bureaucracy to administer such things, eh? and you can bet it’ll cost the taxpayers plenty...and give crappy service.
We should emulate the Israelis.They profile...like crazy.They question every passenger and more than once.They ask for names,places,documents,etc,etc.and,funny enough,they haven't had a single incident on an airplane in something like 30 years.
White grandmother in a wheelchair? A brilliant disguise if you ask me! ;-)
I see American Airlines employees are involved in another smash mouth bully attack on customers. Given they are pretty abusively insane employees/union, I don’t believe this latest attack on customers.
It’s like teachers hating on parents because their children are illiterate after attending the local union public school.
Who knows what to believe and given the level of insane abuse at airports from Homeland inSecurity and American Airlines, any trick people can use to get around the abuse of the pervert goons is fine with me. People lie in oppressive nations. They don’t respect and they undermine the communist process and State authority, and the feeling is mutual from their authoratative abusers.
When I have to travel, I get a letter from my doctor stating that I will need assistance.
I have pretty bad arthritis, and on a recent whirlwind business trip to Vancouver, BC, even WITH the assistance, I was a complete physical wreck by the time we started the trip home.
Mark
My buddy once put a foot cast on in order to get to the head of the line at the DMV. (It was at least a 2.5 hour line otherwise). I have been tempted to do that in the past.
Then seeing all the occupants get out, with no help required.
The whole victimized entitlement fallacy crystallized in my mind when, I walked to the grocery store with 20 dollars in my pocket, aiming to make it stretch to last me over the weekend in groceries, and when I arrived to the store parking lot, there were two 300#+ EBT queens sumo wrestling over the last available motorized cart.
One of them had a disabled tag on her car, I don’t know if she was the one who finally won the motorized cart...
“White grandmother in a wheelchair? A brilliant disguise if you ask me! ;-)”
LOL! They seemed to think so too.
I agree with you about emulating the Israelis about profiling. Before a trip to the holy land, we were warned NOT to be cute about our answers to any questions. A minister gave them cute, sarcastic answers, and he was pulled from line, interrogated (including strip searched), and delayed for 24 hours. He finally caught up to the rest of the group, and he wasn’t as “cute” as before.
The former head of Israeli airline security was on T.V. several years ago, and he said they start profiling as soon as the ticket is bought. “Profiling” is a nasty word in America, but the Israelis are more realistic about it. Their results are far better than ours too.
I’m a 66 YO white grandmother with disabilities stressing about flying to Dallas tomorrow. I HATE flying and wish to God I would never have to again, but I have to go to Dallas again in 2 weeks! Last trip, with my 79 YO white cousin, also in a wheelchair, we were both pulled aside and subjected to the groping. I dread tomorrow...
last time i was coming back from england, i had just separated my shoulder playing rugby so my arm was in a sling, didnt ask for anything but got bumped up to business class in an aisle seat so i would have more room for my shoulder, great flight
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