Surprised that there hasn't been any discussion of this incident, given the attention it's gotten in the media.

http://www.marketwatch.com/video/......7D?siteid=yhoo

Basically, US wouldn't let a guy with cerebral palsy fly by himself because, according to the airline's policy, if you're too disabled to assist in your own emergency evacuation, you need to travel with a caregiver to help you. US is getting a lot of grief for this incident (see the clip, for example), largely because the guy is a motivational speaker. He has done a lot of flying and, reportedly, hasn't had a problem with this before.

Personally, I think US's position is a lot more reasonable than the media is portraying. They've offered to fly him to PHX to discuss the matter with management, but he's declined. There is little doubt that US's position is fundamentally correct: the man could not assist himself in an emergency evacation. Should he therefore be barred from flying alone? I don't know.

The policy seems a bit "overkill" given how few emergency evacuations there are. And there are often elderly pax on board who probably couldn't "get out" on their own. Maybe he should be allowed to fly with a waiver stating the f/a's will try to help him if they can, but he assumes some level of risk. From my experience, frequent flying professionals who are confined to wheelchairs usually do travel with an assistant. I wonder how common this is. And, of course, there are lots of federal aviation safety regs that seem like "overkill" given the statistical risks.