Blitzjb

SW flys "Miracle" flights. The wheelchairs are lined up in Islip, When the plane lands in Palm Beach - it is a Miracle!! The same folks run off the plane.... The pre-boarding thing is out of controls. I am not sure which bothers me more-the fake pre boarders or the fake therapy dogs.

BerenErchamion

How do you know?

Blitzjb

because they probably ran off the plane at the destination!

BerenErchamion

So based off of stuff you just made up?

joshua362

Might be experience, I've written about this before where 2 able bodied guys in their late 30's pre-boarded ahead of me in DEN (I was A01) and I ran into them dancing in the front row pit in concerts in SEA and OAK over 3 nights. Probably used the same BS to cut the line at the ADA door and sprint to the front rail once the gates opened.

joshua362

Wow, I should have requested refunds of BS fares then when the same thing would happen to me over and over and over again despite pulling A01. I literally gave away thousands...

jamesteroh

You should have complained if your first plane landed late. BS is still giving you some added benefits like a free drink and bonus points but I'm sure they would have given you a small credit if you ended up in a lousy seat because your first flight was delayed. If someone is going to pay for BS on Southwest though I don't know why they just don't pay for C+ on a legacy if they don't have status. They get a guaranteed seat location even if they are the last to board, more leg room and unlimited drinks and dedicated bin space (assuming the FA enforces it). I a BS fare is fully refundable but on a legacy you can make same day changes for free.

Wingrider

*cough* Air Marshals *cough*

Had 2 on our flight yesterday.

Details about their boarding omitted because... well just because.

justhere

Not unreasonable but won't always work so you can't require it.

No one would object other than the disabled person or their assistant. But to you they are second class citizens so what do you care?
I agree the entire family shouldn't but if the preboarder is mom, and dad is the assistant, then the young kids can't really board on their own. Preboarder and one adult should really be the rule.

And to address the previous two posters as well as you, the preboarder may not be able to sit in the middle seat. It's all they can do to get to the aisle seat with as little pain as possible. So their assistant has to sit in the middle seat first and leave them standing in the aisle? Or the preboarder has to get up first without assistance because their assistant is in the middle seat and can't get out to help them until they stand up? Many times the assistant needs to sit in the aisle seat across from the preboarder so that they can sit down after the preboarder is seated.
Oh, poor you. Many people preboard and their assistant isn't simply there as a valet. As far as parking spaces and carts, try sitting there waiting and thinking "this is how it will be for the rest of my life" versus "in a few weeks I won't need this".
It's not that they necessarily need more time, it's often that they need a seat at the front so they only have to walk the minimum distance from the door of the plane. And again, making them wait to get off is fine if you can convince the two strangers in the middle and window seat to also wait until the end. But I can't see many people willing to do that, especially if they have the attitudes of some of the posters here.

I'll say this as respectfully as I can. The four of you don't have a clue and it's sad that you are not seeing the bigger picture and can only image how you would deal with things. You are not seeing how people with real disabilities deal with things.

Lastly, if you look at WN's policy for preboarding, it doesn't actually say that it is for people who need more time. It says it is for people who have a specific seating need to accommodate their disability, need assistance, or who need to stow an assistive device. I believe that if you just need additional time, you are supposed to board after the A group and before family boarding. Whether or not gate agents actually stick to that is another matter. I think if they did, it would also cut down on the abuse.

However, punishing those that truly need it by requiring middle seat or last off is not the answer.

toomanybooks

There is entirely too much abuse of the system going on these days. Blatant cheating. It needs to be solved somehow.

If you pre-board alone, fine, sit anywhere. But if someone "able-bodied" accompanies you, one of you should be required to sit in a middle, especially if there are a few people getting on early with your group. This is not unreasonable. At all.

You need to understand that you are getting something valuable, so you should accept a mild restriction. You want to move up 60-90 places in line for free, and without status, you should pay a price. Sorry if that sounds heartless.

And I have experience traveling on WN with my 83 y.o. M-I-L. We were denied early boarding. I know something about this stuff.

steve33

So because someone has a physical disability they have to sit in the back of the plane? Rosa Parks knew something about discrimination. Also, making them deplane last? So everyone who walks by knows they're disabled in some manner?

Asking for a discrimination lawsuit.

bofc

People with severe anxiety disorders may need aisle seats in order to fly. You can't always tell what's going on by looking at someone described here as "able bodied".

justhere

Clearly you don't. Again, I'm not being disrespectful, just pointing out that by your own admission you don't know. If you think that traveling with an 83 y.o. who was denied early boarding qualifies you in any way, that just proves you don't understand the issue.

Age has nothing to do with it. My 93 y.o. aunt would put many of us to shame as far as physical and mental ability. She would not ask for, nor would she need early boarding. Just because I might travel with her and she would actually be denied early boarding doesn't make me any sort of expert.

What does is traveling with someone who truly has a disability. Doesn't matter whether they are 93, 39, or even 9.

By your logic, if someone wealthy doesn't pay taxes because of some shady accounting, the rest of us who want to save on our taxes should suffer and pay more to discourage other people from cheating on their taxes.

I would love to be in a position where sitting in a middle seat was an option. The person I travel with cannot easily get into or out of their seat on their own. While you, an expert in your own mind, cannot fathom this, the person I sometimes travel with cannot sit in the middle seat without experiencing some pain because of they way they would have to turn/walk/shuffle/slide into the seat. If I sit in the middle I can't be standing in the aisle to help them get into and out of their seat. And helping them doesn't mean holding their hand. It means physically supporting their body weight to minimize pain and to prevent a fall.

As for your thought that I'm getting something valuable, well, all I can say is that is simply ignorant. How is a disability something valuable? I know you are talking about getting on early but to suggest that someone disabled should accept a mild restriction is just asinine. They already have to accept a severe lifetime and lifestyle restriction but that's not enough for you. You want them or the person that is only there because they need help to accept an additional restriction? Here's an idea. Why don't you suggest that the frail, the infirm, the crippled, the mentally ill, etc, just be rounded up and be kept out of sight. I mean, come on, one of them might sit in an aisle seat and only leave 55 other aisle seats on the plane. Oh the horror!!

And I should pay a price to move up in the boarding line? Here's a newsflash for you I AM ALREADY PAYING A PRICE. Your statement doesn't sound heartless, it just sounds ignorant. You are so focused on someone getting something you feel they don't deserve you're missing the point that they've potentially lost far more than you think they are getting. Needing to board early is not a right, nor is it a privilege. It's simply something that some people have to do to be able to travel in a reasonably pain free way and a way to minimize the hassles that already occur when traveling.

I hope you never have to experience a true need to preboard because I don't wish that on anyone. I can only hope that maybe, just maybe you'll be a little less selfish and a little more understanding when someone really needs to preboard. Yes, you might have to sit one row further back. It won't materially affect your life. Trust me.

BerenErchamion

But if it doesn't happen to me, then it's obviously not real, because I'm the be-all end-all of everything, the alpha and the omega!

BerenErchamion

Yeah, because the stress and hassle of flying and the weird lighting of concerts are such conducive situations for perfect, flawless, absolutely error-free facial recognition.

Never mind the fact that, you know, there could always be something beneath the surface that you don't see. Something that's triggered by some environments or situations but not others, for example. Are you a physician and a psychiatrist? Because if not, you can't reasonably claim to know the full extent of possibilities and so "they looked OK on the outside to me in this one place" doesn't really mean anything at all.