"Important: You must be able to place your hand baggage in the overhead bins unaided"
 

Got a forthcoming flight on VA and prefer to travel hand baggage only so thought I'd check out the permitted baggage.

https://www.virginatlantic.com/hk/en/travel-information/baggage-allowance/hand-baggage.html

BA has almost identical verbiage on their baggage page, but the disability assistance page makes clear that they can help with baggage

baggage page:
You must be able to lift your bags into the overhead locker by yourself
https://www.britishairways.com/en-us...age-allowances

disability assistance page
When you reach the aircraft, our cabin crew can help you:

• find your seat and familiarise you with the seat and surrounding area
• store and retrieve your hand baggage
• move between your seat and the washroom
• open any packaging of your on-board meal, identify your food and layout on the tray

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ance-available

so my guess is that the Virgin verbiage is both correct and legal

I agree that I think this applies in the absence of the need for disability assistance.

I think the rules are in place to discourage people from bringing on board overly heavy carry-ons that they can't lift properly, and consequently might drop them on another passenger when storing or retrieving the bags. Even more pertinent on BA as I believe their weight limit for cabin bags is higher.

Interesting two of our UK airlines have such a dreadful choice of words.

You shouldn't have to go to a disability assistant page to be made to feel acceptable, surely?

I'm pretty sure no cabin staff would enforce the rules as they are laid out on the page I've shared. Unfortunately it's written in a negative and discriminatory tone, rather than a tone that is helpful to those who need assistance.

I dunno on BA I reckon they would!

It's actually somewhat surprising that the BA terms don't include the requirement that you must be be able to bring, prepare and serve you own food and drinks.

It's a Health and Safety thing. Like it or not, flight attendants shouldn't be forced to risk injuring their backs just because some passengers have brought too much onboard.

You can either check in your luggage or rely on the goodwill of other passengers.

or request disability assistance 😉

On recent trip in F, an elderly couple in front of me, probably near 90 had some issues putting carryon in overhead. I saw no men standing up to help so I did (60yo F). No problem, just being helpful as my parents are same age range. They couldn't thank me enough for the assistance.

OP is reading way too much into the verbiage. It is proper and direct English. No sarcasm or intent to put down. It is directed at the individuals who bring bricks on board, cannot lift that bag over their head, and then moan and groan about not getting help. I stopped helping people put their bags away after a back injury involving just that for a pax.

There is a vast difference between providing assistance in the form of preboarding, wheelchairs, seats with moveable aisle-side armrests, and the like, and special assistance for passengers who require special care.

Such a person ought to be traveling with a personal attendant.

Yes I have seen last month someone trying to pull out their hand luggage and drop it on the head of the passenger sitting and almost knocked her out. The passenger was crying too and you could hear the sound of it hitting her head.
Furthermore, on another flight last month a passenger with a huge back pack on her back when she was boarding and walking thru the aisle almost knocked a passenger down too by turning around and hitting him in the face.
I really do not understand why airlines are so serious about weight yet let these big back packs be taken on board the aircraft.

Virgin don't have F (First Class), was this an onward Delta domestic in the USA?
In general, Cabin Crew should not be expected to assist passengers with heavy or difficult baggage, to the overheads. There are Health and Safety issues.
And more pragmatically, on this is wider across airlines not particularly VS, such crew do not get compensated or time-off should they suffer injury in helping out; quite a few learn this the hard way.
As a passenger I will not assist with heavy bags either, whereas I will assist where the other passenger is too short or otherwise finding difficulty in stowing their bag.

Me too. I have a dodgy back and so I am careful what I do - I always put my bag in the hold and take the minimum possible into the cabin. However it's annoying as I (as a middle-aged man) am just expected to manhandle huge and heavy bags for fellow passengers who are not so considerate.

Sorry I thought I was in a Delta thread. Their bags were not too heavy, the bin door opened from the bottom and wasn't going all the way down, or staying down.