Lifting Heavy Luggage: Whose Job Is It?

April 21, 2010 — -- Imagine this: You have a disabling spinal injury which makes it painful to lift anything including your carry-on bag. So you politely explain the situation to the flight attendant and ask for help.

Her response: "If I helped everyone do that all day then my back would be killing me!"

Now, no flight attendant would ever say that, right? Well, according to a 29-year old disabled woman known only as Rachel D. who shared this story on her blog, that is what a United Airlines flight attendant told her. We could not get any definitive confirmation from the airline, but according to United's Twitter feed (and to its credit) the airline took the allegation seriously enough to investigate.

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And according to Rachel D., United ultimately issued her an apology and thanked her for "shining a light" on this subject.

But since you, dear reader, are not disabled why should you care? Well, if we're all lucky, we will grow old. And age has a funny way of slowing people down and limiting their mobility. You've seen those elderly folks on the plane, patiently waiting for their wheelchairs, right? Someday, that could be you.

According to 2007 U.S. Census Bureau figures, nearly 12 million people in this country use a wheelchair, walker, cane or crutches to get around. And no doubt you've seen some of these folks in the air with you.

Mercifully, most of them don't seem to have horror stories like Rachel D.'s, but there are little indignities that must be borne even when airlines are doing everything according to the letter of the law.

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For example, passengers in wheelchairs are typically first-on and last-off the plane, which made for a frightening experience for the elderly mother of one of my employees after a coast-to-coast flight a couple of years ago. Once the plane landed, the woman sat and waited while all the passengers deplaned ahead of her, and then she watched as all the flight attendants departed as well. Where was her wheelchair? "Coming," she was told.

Fortunately, just as the pilot was getting ready to leave, he noticed the woman sitting there all alone and made some calls on her behalf. Then he sat down and waited with her, until the wheelchair finally arrived -- about 15 minutes after the plane had emptied out.

That could have been your mother or even you.