FlyingHoustonian

1-If one lies about a disability for a free wheel-chair ride that makes one a douc#e bag. Karma is b!t*# too.

2- I have had to travel with both young and elderly people who needed wheel-chairs both for permanent and temporary reasons. None of those several times did we ever "get ahead". As others have commented, at the arriving end (or connecting) normally we had to wait until the end for transport. In areas without jetways left trucks must come to get them off. There are other delays wheel-chairs can cause. Also not every condition requiring wheel-chairs is "visable".

And yes I know people try and "milk" it (PBI anyone) but there are still too many that need it to affect any change to the system yet.

MileHigh

+1

danielonn

I have a visual impairment and my Doctor advises that I use this service in the airport because sometimes the medicine that I use can cause my eyes to blur and since its a steroid medication it causes my eye to blur as a side effect and after a long flight its better to not be in a situation where I may bump into others.

Time and time again I tell the airline that I can walk and to not send a wheelchair but they still do. Even if the agent selects "Low Vision can walk". So if a wheelchair is provided I take it because that is the way the service works. I don't feel guilty because my Dr. said that I should use the service especially in crowded situations such as the TSA line.

I also get a seat close to the front of the plane or bulkhead window seat.

It has saved me time going through customs. I was at JFK last year and there were long lines at Terminal 4 customs and I whisked through within 40 minutes.

At SFO last year it took 45 minutes from plane-meeting my party.

It really helps me when I don't know the airport especially overseas checking in for an international flight in an unfamiliar airport sometimes my eyes get tired and its hard to find the proper line to wait in.

While I can read bright lights affect the vision sometimes. Soon I will have another surgery to fix the rest of the issue but it can take more time to heal.

All in all rather than compromising my condition and to make it easier to take my medicine through security in the plastic bag in its own prescription box I use the service so the TSA agents understand why I'm taking a large bottle of eye drops.

If you are trying to cheat the system then shame on you(:.

ysolde

I use a wheelchair. Travel with my own, small, collapsible wheelchair. At home, I use a motorized chair or a parascooter, depending on my mood and the weather. My walking is quite limited.

That said, when you see me in an airport, in my wheelchair, or sitting on the plane, I may not look "that handicapped," to you. I sit up straight (thanks to yoga and Pilates). I am slim, attractive, and well dressed (usually finished off with Manolos or Choos, ironically enough). And contrary to what a prior poster implied, my AB husband has a job and I have my own business. We are net tax payers, thank you very much. The assumptions people make are ridiculous and offensive.

Now, if you really think it's a great idea to use a wheelchair to save a little time at customs, keep in mind you will be last off the plane, as you wait for all other passengers to deplane and make their way off the jetway. You would wait longer, were you traveling with your own wheelchair and had to wait for it to make its way up from the belly of the aircraft. In airports like Ottawa, where jetways are limited, you would also often encounter the sublime pleasure of being deplaned on an aisle chair, taken onto a forklift like contraption, and being lowered off the AC CR-J that way, only to be outside, (more often than not, in frigid temperatures), while airport personnel figure out how to get you into the terminal and through the maze of hallways that lead to the doorways that open onto the one and only elevator in the US end of the building, you will then find yourself in the welcome warmth of the Canada/US terminal, possibly feeling your toes again, and, after a mad dash to the disability/family bathroom, you will, indeed, find that there is no one in the disability line at Customs (oh, the unfairness of it all!!!).

In fact, there is no one in line at Customs at all, even though there were, perhaps, fifteen people on your flight, including you and your companion. You see, since you are in a wheelchair, it has taken you an hour from landing to Customs. But I'm sure, as you pick up you luggage from the gentleman who holds the unclaimed luggage, all other passengers on your flight having long departed, you think the unfairness of being first to board and avoiding the line at Customs makes it all worth it, right?

SDF_Traveler

Arranging a wheelchair would be in very poor taste, IMHO, if you don't need it. I had to arrange a wheelchair when I was 21 years old after an appendectomy while traveling out of town. It was painful for me to walk and drive my rental car after getting out of the hospital.

I needed wheelchair assistance at my origin airport that day and needed wheelchair assistance again at ATL to make my transfer. I even had a wheelchair meet me upon arrival at SDF.

I got a lot of dirty looks as I was young and "appeared healthy" - but was being shuttled around the airports in a wheelchair. I even overheard someone say I was using the wheelchair to avoid queues - having some pain medicine on-board, I confronted him and and had an exchange of words I normally wouldn't use and eventually told him something like you try walking this airport with a surgical abdominal wound stapled shut...

I got a lot of strange looks at the gate in ATL, especially after getting up from the wheelchair and making the short walk to a nearby vendor to buy a water and something for the other wheelie dumped at the gate with me. Walking that short distance was painful, but it was within my abilities. At the same time, there's no way I could have made the transfer at ATL without the wheelchair.

There are a lot of people with disabilities that aren't readily apparent. A good example would be people who can't walk long distances or can't stand for a long period of time.

I know of cancer survivors where this is the case, one happens to be a family member. While cancer free and no appearance of disability, the chemotherapy took a its toll on the body to where endurance is a problem, even ~10 years later.

Next time you see someone who doesn't 'appear' to be disabled, there's a good possibility the disability is one you can't see.

The purpose of them jumping the queue is to take care of the passengers who need help, as quickly as possible, so the wheelchair pushers can move onto others who need their assistance. If the wheelchair pushers sat in queues all day, they'd never be productive.

SDF