Abuse of Wheelchairs for US Arrivals

Old Apr 7, 2014, 8:05 am
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Europe
Programs: UA:1K MM, AF:FB-Platinum; QR: PC Platinum, FI: Saga Gold
Posts: 2,925
Abuse of Wheelchairs for US Arrivals

I am noticing a seemingly large increase in wheelchairs awaiting people in the US. I recently observed a flight from Zurich to JFK with at least twice the number of wheel chairs on arrival than departure. I know US immigration is a pain, but is this the answer ?

Or was my experience on that particular day a one-off ???
Braniff is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2014, 8:12 am
  #2  
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,001
Since LX doesn't allow the MAAS service anymore, I suppose people book WCHR so the elderly get taken care of.

More here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/swiss...s-seniors.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/swiss...-lx-lingo.html
oliver2002 is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2014, 8:14 am
  #3  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Atherton, CA
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP; Owner, Green Bay Packers
Posts: 21,691
Let's hope people aren't abusing this.
Doc Savage is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2014, 8:18 am
  #4  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Europe
Programs: UA:1K MM, AF:FB-Platinum; QR: PC Platinum, FI: Saga Gold
Posts: 2,925
Thanks for this info Oliver2002 - and you super quick response as always.

But my point was more that people did NOT use wheel-chairs on departure in ZUR but did on arrival in JFK. I have a funny feeling its just to get to the front of the immigrations line there ...
Braniff is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2014, 8:26 am
  #5  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: KEL (1 Km) or HAM (85 Km)
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 1,129
In one of the US airports I arrived in the past 6 months, I had a somewhat heated discussion with DHS about wheelchairs, and their "rights" to skip the queue. There might be some truth in the OP.
aidanc is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2014, 8:31 am
  #6  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Atherton, CA
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP; Owner, Green Bay Packers
Posts: 21,691
It's a fairly obvious problem at a number of airports.

One of the ways to lessen this abuse may be to require family members to go through the normal lines so the time savings aspect is substantially downgraded, I.e., only one family member may accompany the WHCR user.
Doc Savage is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2014, 8:32 am
  #7  
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,001
Originally Posted by Braniff
But my point was more that people did NOT use wheel-chairs on departure in ZUR but did on arrival in JFK.
You can't request WCHR just for arrivals, its usually for the entire trip. @:-)
oliver2002 is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2014, 8:36 am
  #8  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Europe
Programs: UA:1K MM, AF:FB-Platinum; QR: PC Platinum, FI: Saga Gold
Posts: 2,925
Originally Posted by oliver2002
You can't request WCHR just for arrivals, its usually for the entire trip. @:-)
I do not believe that is correct. Witness my earlier posts.
Braniff is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2014, 2:46 pm
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: SYD (perenially), GVA (not in a long time)
Programs: QF PS, EK-Gold, Security Theatre Critic
Posts: 6,704
Originally Posted by oliver2002
You can't request WCHR just for arrivals, its usually for the entire trip. @:-)
Originally Posted by Braniff
I do not believe that is correct. Witness my earlier posts.
I booked wheelchair assistance twice in 2007, admittedly not with LX, but I believe Oliver is correct.

This was just prior to a hip replacement and I had trouble walking longer distances or standing in lines for more than a few minutes. I was 30 years younger than the average hip replacement patient, looked (fairly) young and fit, and for short distances could walk quite briskly, so I'm sure I looked like I was cheating the system. But 10 minutes of standing or 150 metres walking and I was in agony.

At some airports (SYD, LAX), the wheelchair assistant took me to the gate area where I just got out of the wheelchair and waited with the other passengers while the wheelchair person went to help someone else. If you got to the gate after me, you would have seen me boarding on my own but having a wheelchair at the other end.

In DEN the young lady pushing the chair was so confused by the airport layout that when she (eventually!) got me to the AA lounge (which was very near my departure gate), I told her I would be okay from there. So you would have seen me going from the lounge to the gate on my own feet but getting collected by a wheelchair in LAX.

The other thing I learned from my experience is that many people who book airport wheelchairs are in that borderline situation of just needing the extra help. People who are absolutely reliant on a wheelchair have their own chair and are able to move themselves, they don't arrange an airport chair and an airport employee to push them.
RadioGirl is offline  
Old Apr 8, 2014, 1:10 am
  #10  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: London
Programs: Hilton, IHG - BA, GA, LH, QR, SV, TK
Posts: 16,971
Originally Posted by oliver2002
You can't request WCHR just for arrivals, its usually for the entire trip. @:-)
Not sure that's entirely correct, at least in practice. I occasionally travel with a colleague who requires assistance after significant periods immobile: he usually requests this for arrival after long(ish) flights. Sometimes the request is made onboard.
IAN-UK is online now  
Old Apr 8, 2014, 1:18 am
  #11  
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,001
When you have a WCHR SSR in your booking you have to request special assist when you arrive at checkin. If you don't then they won't offer it. @:-)
oliver2002 is offline  
Old Apr 8, 2014, 1:33 am
  #12  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by flyquiet
I don't think we need to go there. There's been enough slurring on FT of people with disabilities with this exact same insinuation that to repeat the debate is redundant. While non-disabled people do undoubtedly abuse services of accessibility, you just don't know the reason "grandma" needed the wheelchair.
I am quite certain that from time to time people question my disability, and I don't need to get into any pissing contest with anybody about it.
People who need help sometimes do not need help other times, for example, when rushing to a plane after rushing from the car park, they need help; when disembarking after resting for two hours, and expecting to walk slowly once they get into the jet bridge and terminal, they don't need help.
It is less harmful to accommodate someone who does not really need the assistance than it is to disparage, slur, and stigmatize someone who really does need the assistance but somehow doesn't meet your non-professional standards of "how bad they are supposed to look".
I agree in full. Last month there was an elderly woman on a train I was taking and it required a sudden change from the train to the bus due to equipment or track maintenance problems that caused a long delay. The Swedish rail employees refused to help her and said she had to walk on her own and carry her own luggage about a fifth of mile. She could walk but if she had to do it in one stretch and without a wheelchair or a rest on a bench, she'd likely have a heart attack even as we volunteered to transport her luggage to the replacement bus well before asking them to guide her/wait for her or something. The woman even needed a pre-KG kid to hold her hand to help her from collapsing during the walk. While she may have looked fine at the beginning or the end of a wheelchair transport, having her go without a wheelchair would have had her either stranded/further delayed in Southern Sweden (by way of missing the replacement bus service) or ending up hitting the health care system with additional costs if we wouldn't have been persistent to get SJ rail staff to fulfill their duties and get them to do what they should have done without being pestered by me.


Originally Posted by Doc Savage
It's a fairly obvious problem at a number of airports.

One of the ways to lessen this abuse may be to require family members to go through the normal lines so the time savings aspect is substantially downgraded, I.e., only one family member may accompany the WHCR user.
Not practical, as it ties up a wheelchair and the wheelchair assistant assigned by the airline or airport or other non-passenger party to transport the wheelchair and passenger.
GUWonder is offline  
Old Apr 8, 2014, 6:00 am
  #13  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: ZRH
Programs: LX HON Circle
Posts: 3,227
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9900; de) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.1033 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

After a 12h ride in coach one might need a wheelchair .
f4freeJunior is offline  
Old Apr 22, 2014, 4:36 pm
  #14  
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Zurich
Programs: BA GGL, TK*G EL, KL P ELPL, ex AB P, ex LH/LX Sen, HHonors D4L, Bonvoy P
Posts: 1,643
I made the same observation, though not on LX but on AB. Upon boarding in Germany, there were the usual 2-3 wheelchair pax. Upon disembarkation at JFK I witnessed the Purser saying at the door "38 wheelchairs". And really, wheelchairs lined up all the way down the jetbridge ... and they all wheeled past us at immigration

Now I really feel somewhat betrayed. I'm not handicapped, but I faint easily when standing upright - I've had this since I was a teenager. But I so far never ordered a wheelchair (since I have no problem walking) - but fainted several times at US immigration ...
swiss_global is offline  
Old Apr 23, 2014, 1:25 pm
  #15  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: London, UK.
Programs: SQ LPPS, A3 *G, BA Silver aiming for Bronze
Posts: 1,506
Unless you know the circumstances of the person in the chair don't condemn or even presume to judge.

I was the (totally innocent) victim of a big RTA five years ago and had major hip and pelvic surgery as a consequence and a year of physiotherapy just to learn to walk again. I can walk slowly over a distance of up to 1km but what I cannot do without it causing me major pain is stand still.

I never travel to the US but if I was faced with a guaranteed wait in immigration of the sort that is the norm there I would seriously consider asking for a wheelchair because the alternative would cause me serious pain which would then last me for up to a week.

Anyone who doesn't like that just hope you never suffer the same injuries as I have - in other words get over yourselves and stop worrying about your little first world problems you selfish self obsessed little people.

Last edited by lhrpete; Apr 23, 2014 at 1:26 pm Reason: Spelling error
lhrpete is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.