Posted on 06/28/2023 5:05:01 AM PDT by thegagline
By boarding last do you vastly increase your risk of being bumped off an overbooked flight? Or is that always resolved BEFORE boarding begins?
Once they start boarding nobody gets bumped.
Good ideas.
Can’t we just flip all of them out of their wheelchairs and see what happens?
I would think the only problem would be you have less choice of where you sit. But when I was flying single, no problem.
I used to do the same - board last.
However, with the darn shut-down, I lost all of my ‘status’ with the airlines. And so now, it’s $30 to check a bag - each way. My job really requires more than a single carry-on, so I pare it way down and cram it into a smaller bag for carry on.
But I kinda get that people need to fight for stowage space now. The airlines forced that on us.
It is interesting to watch people though. They’ll announce the first boarding group and EVERYBODY rushes the gate. If you’re in the 3rd group, you can’t even get to the gate for all the group 7 and 8 people blocking you from getting ahead of them..
It’s just weird - this “ME FIRST” society that we’ve become.
(Not to mention the “center seat” folks who work their way on early so they can ‘mistakenly’ take your aisle or window seat. - And DON’T you go “disrespecting” them by trying to point out that they’re in the wrong place!..)
I have an above-the-knee amputation...Once when I stopped by a grocery store, all the handicapped spots were filled...I had to park pretty far up the lot...As I walked to the store, this young guy, mid twenties, came jogging from the store and went to a car in the handicapped area...
I told him those were for “physically” handicapped people, not “mentally” handicapped....
He looked kinda sheepish and said he had a bad back....
I said I could tell by the way he jogged across the lot...
What a great example the one with a kid is setting for her daughter.
I write a column for coldagglutininnews.com and tomorrow morning I was going to file one on my hidden disability. I may revise it now or write a follow-up.
To many, I appear healthy, just lazy. But I am truly chronically anemic, obviously corpulent and, especially when attempting to trek all over a huge airport, am tired an out-of-breath. But, miraculously, after sitting in a plane for 6 hours or longer AND RESTING, I do have more energy.
To be sure, there are very probably those who abuse the system. But there are some of us who don’t appear disable, but really are.
Same people who abuse the handicap permits to park.
>>Disney patrons no doubt
Disney was even worse. Used to take the kids (been 15+ years now and will never go back), but the number of disgusting fat people in wheel chairs being rolled to the front of the line - with their entire entourage of ‘family’ was so obviously a scam we used to call it the Disney ‘FatPass’. It was the golden ticket to get to the front of any line - there were even people in wheelchairs you could hire for the day to get you that golden ticket.
They now have a much better system if I read correctly - fatties that can’t stand, don’t wait in line, but they get a placed saved in line for them - so no linecutting
My older brother is on a walker and definitely needed the wheelchair assistance not only boarding but for changing planes and in terminal transport to the gate too. The wheelchair services were very much needed and appreciated. Fakers should be shamed with their deception.
it’s not the people actually- why did the airlines go along with it??
They were afraid to say “NO” so i put the blame on them for all this bs.
should be a requirement: if you board first with a wheelchair, you are last off the plane when they help the wheelchair users off. That would solve the fakers problem, if they enforced it.
The grifters will always be with us.
There it is.
If you don’t have a handicapped license plate placard, no pre-boarding wheelchair unless you bring your own. And that is the thing - how did the “disabled person” check in, get through security, and make it to the gate unless they got their own?
And as for the current system?
Record the names of the persons using “wheelchair assistance” to board the plane, cross check against anyone using the assistance to get off the plane and where you don’t have a corresponding match, they go on a “BYOC” list — no further pre-board without without bringing your own chair.
I had torn my meniscus playing volleyball many years ago the night before I had to go on a business trip and had not sought out medical help yet, so my knee was quite swollen and very painful.
I had to transfer in some airport, and my connection was on the other side of the airport, and...my incoming flight was late in arriving.
I had several bags, my leg was frozen, swollen, and painful, and I was hobbling badly. I was a younger man at the time, and I had sweat pouring down my face.
One of those carts they have in some airports with several passenger trains being towed behind it full of people passed me, the woman stopped, backed up, and asked if I needed a lift. My first inclination was to decline, but in my mind I said instantly “What? YOU DOPE! TAKE THE RIDE!”
I spent the next four days in a classroom with my leg on a chair and a garbage bag of ice sitting on top of it over a trashcan to catch the dripping water.
I thought it was disgusting-those people who would do that, sit in a wheelchair for that. Sad. I did notice they were all women...I won’t paint all women like that, but it is a curious observation.
LOL! Remember in the old days when you could purchase three whacks at an old car with a sledgehammer for a few bucks?
Maybe they could do the same selling tickets to tip the wheelchairs!
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