JimInOhio

Every FA I've ever seen lifts their own generally overstuffed carryon bag multiple times per day to stow it. How could they not be able to do it for a hurting passenger? Frankly, I've never seen an FA refuse to do this anyway and would be rich if I had $5 for each time I've seen them offer it for a passenger. So this whole episode strikes me as a bit odd.

hsumh316

If let’s say the FA injures themself lifting, i know there is a whole workers comp thing but in terms of immediate impact. I guess if you were at a hub they could find a replacement FA pretty quickly but if not, it could severely delay or even cause the flight to be cancelled.

JimInOhio

Just to make sure flights aren't delayed or canceled by FAs injuring themselves, should they all be required to check their own bags instead of carrying them on?

moondog

After she refused, I presume your son asked if any other FAs on the plane or gate agents could assist. If the answer was still "no", then you might have a legitimate gripe. As others have noted, checking the bag would have preempted the entire conversation from the get-go.

mh3265a

It's not reasonable accommodation if the PAX has to pay for the checked bag. It's unclear from the OP if they are elite but if they aren't elite I"m not aware of any policy that UA has that would allow for a free checked bag because the PAX is injured.

AsiaTravel2019

In other countries, an FA would have helped him. On the US3, good luck.

moondog

Did all ~8 FAs on the plane refuse to help, or did the son only ask one, and other passengers helped upon his/her refusal?

glob99

As I understand it, if the FA is injured lifting a pax bag they are NOT covered by the airline insurance (USA airlines).

HkCaGu

Lifting something of significant weight above shoulder is very different from other lifting actions in terms of risk. Also the frequency of overhead lifting requests should not be compared to operating an emergency exit.

Lux Flyer

Your right, there is no policy specifically stating this, but the reasonable accommodations and accessibility policies would allow them to check the bag for free if that is deemed the best way to accommodate the customer's disability. However as has been pointed out numerous times in this thread, the customer needs to identify as someone with a disability and preferably in advance so the airline can work out what accommodations are necessary in advance. If a customer identifies in the moment, then they still do what they can to accommodate their disability, but that is going to look different (i.e. checking the bag at the counter for no fee isn't an option because we're already on the plane, however they can and likely would have found someone whose job description does require them to assist putting items into the overhead bin, or they could have gate checked it for no fee.

Absolutely they do it with their own bag that they packed and know the contents of. That they're also familiar with how much it weighs and if anything is going to shift. Now imagine doing it multiple additional times per flight, all with variable weight bags that you don't know in advance, nor do you know if the contents are tightly packed or if the weight is going to shift part way through because something heavy is at the bottom and it isn't tightly packed, so when you invert it to put it in the over head bin the weight distribution shifts. Is this likely to happen in most cases? No, but the chance of getting injured putting someone else's bag in the overhead bin is a lot different then putting your own bag in/out multiple times a day.

And I'm so glad someone made this point because I was going to bring this up. It's not even the injury/worker's comp concern (as that concern would even exist if a baggage handler came onboard to load it in the overhead bin). The concern is about who would be getting injured, namely the FA who is a mission-critical position and that flight can't operate if they're injured. So say they do become injured, and lets say everything is an ideal situation: you're at a crew base, for some reason the replacement FA is already at the airport (which quickly looking through the united AFA website, the goal is for reserves to receive 15 hours notice, however can go as low as 4 hours notice for required to show and importantly "less than four (4) hour notice will attempt to make the assignment"), and they're legal to fly the rest of the injured FA's line. Between the time it takes the FA to report they're injured, crew scheduling to find the replacement with everything else meeting those previous requirements, you're still looking at 45+ minutes before that FA shows up. That flight is getting delayed. And doesn't even get into if you're not at a crew base, you're looking at either a much longer delay or outright cancellation. So agreeing with you, it does make a ton of sense why FA's are discouraged from assisting with passenger bags, because if in the unlikely chance they get injured, it impacts the entire flight, but a lot of people here don't consider that point.

Ignoring the fact that the policy says semi-ambulatory, which a broken collar bone does not make you semi-ambulatory, as others have pointed out it says "may assist", not "must assist".

MatthewLAX

YMMV, but I would see it as exercise - the sort of exercise and fitness we should expect from flight attendants, regardless of age.

Acid

I travel just with my laptop backpack and on 8/10 flights I'll have the FA remove it from overhead and ask me to put it under the seat(its my only hand bag and no I don't want to put it under my seat for 12+ hours) to make room for people who bring giant hand luggage. So its seems they are always happy to remove bags....

billchristoff

Many posts mention ADA language like reasonable accommodations. I don't think a broken collarbone is an ADA disability. Also, the quotes about what united will do when you read the entirety of the message seem to revolve around the carryon needed due to the disability.

Personally, I help people stow their items but only if I think their carryon is reasonable. If someone brings on a bag that should have been checked and then can't get it up in the bin, good luck....maybe im the @$$ but if you carry on a bag that you can't lift you caused your own issue.....

mahasamatman

Also, I do not believe ADA appllies to airlines. It would be ACA.

mh3265a

Fair point but the OP may have thought they could lift the bag into the overhead then realized they can't. I would say the FA should have offered to have the bag then checked to the final destination or seen if another PAX could help. I guess my problem is laying this all on the passenger when the FA should have tried to help out even if they couldn't lift the bag themself