Giving Up Your Seat for a Passenger in a Wheelchair
What would you do?
I was flying from Honolulu to Vancouver on the Omni Airlines 767 (as flight AC 2410), which departs at 9:55 PM and flies overnight. I had reserved seats 7A and 7C which are two of only four seats on the aircraft that offer a reasonable amount of extra legroom. They are the first row in economy class. I have some mild to moderate problems with my back, so appreciate whatever extra measure of comfort I can have—hence the seats with extra legroom. (I am SuperElite so did not have to pay for the preferred seats.)
Shortly before boarding the gate agent paged me. When I went to the kiosk she said, “We have a passenger on this flight who is in a wheelchair. We are wondering if you would trade seats with him. His party would get 7A and 7C, your party would move to 8A and 8C.”
No further information was provided about why he was in a wheelchair (which in my mind could range from “he’s got a broken leg” to “he’s elderly” to “he’s severely disabled”). I didn’t think it appropriate to ask anything else. And so I decided to…
I’m not going to say what I decided to do. But I’d be interested in hearing what you’d do in that moment, and why.