Originally Posted by
Dr. HFH
I couldn't disagree more. So seniors and wheelchair-bound pax should be denied carry-ons? The official AA policy, which I quoted above, says that FAs are required to assist pax unless the FA deems the bag too heavy. My problem with this is that I've never seen an FA not deem a bag too heavy to put in the overhead bin for a pax. And this is exactly the opposite of the service I receive on foreign, particularly Asian, carriers, even the low cost ones, where I almost always hear, "Please allow me to do that for you," even though I can certainly get my rollaboard into the overhead unassisted.
My 91-year-old grandmother, an inveterate traveller, finally stopped carrying on a small suitcase a few years back, when she didn't feel comfortable lifting it above her head (also, she didn't particularly want to lug it through the airport to the gate).
While I sometimes offer to assist passengers with their bag(s), the relatively high frequency with which passengers bring aboard a bag they themselves cannot lift remains to me a surprising mystery. I expect garbage truck workers to pick up heavy objects--but they have a high rate of injury. I don't expect flight attendants to perform the same kind of duty.