Originally Posted by
Katja
While I respect this viewpoint, let me offer another perspective. I should not have to jump through multiple hoops that other frequent flyers do not have to jump through in order to get the same service. Since the airline chooses not to link its knowledge of my disability (in my profile and my PNR) to the seats it makes available to me online, I do have to take extra steps that a non-disabled passenger does not have to take.
The current crop of lawsuits against online service providers like hotels.com illustrates this principle. I cannot book an accessible hotel room online through hotels.com, I have to make a phone call. I can't reserve an accessible seat at the Buell Theatre in Denver, I have to make a phone call. I (sometimes) can't choose an airline seat online that I can physically access. It is the airline's responsibility to set up its systems so that I can get the same service a non-disabled person can get online.
I agree the airline may not bounce that responsibility to random strangers.
It also comes down to abuse.....I'm tall -- so my knees hit the seatback in front of me when in Y-. Does that mean that I have "special needs" and should get first dib on the bulkhead, and be able to bump others out of there? I think it doesn't. Determining when a "special need" requires something "special" is not easy to do in a mechanic way, and I understand that having a human arbiter in the process is useful. As is additional obstacles useful in order to avoid having me declairng "Special need, must have Y+/bulkhead" without really needing it.
I'd switch -- also to a lesser seat -- if confronted with a pax with special needs. However I'd also not expect a pax to want to divulge his/her special need to me, a random stranger, and go "Begging for mercy". And so I think that having the airline go in between (the FA/GA, for example) would be only decent.