People faking handicaps exploiting the airlines to get better seats

There has been a rise in airline passengers who are falsely claiming disabilities in order to be the first to enter airplanes, escorted in a wheelchair by the airline employees

By Ray Hanania

Free/Slice-of-life/Saturday May 25, 2024

Over the past several years, especially since COVID, there has been a rise in people falsely claiming they are handicapped in order to be escorted onto commercial airplanes in wheelchairs so they can get on the planes first.

Prior to COVID, you would see maybe two or three people who needed to be escorted onto the planes in a wheelchair. Now, the numbers have grown and you will see as ma y as a dozen or more people lining up in wheelchairs, provided by the airport, waiting to be the first to find seats on planes.

The reality to everyone else who sees ths is obvious. Most of the people are not handicapped at all. I have seen them pushed to the airline’s airport gate in the wheel chairs where they line up against the wall near the boarding entrance.

And while waiting, most of them get out of the chairs and walk to McDonalds to grabbed sandwiches, fries and drinks. Several are related to each other and are traveling together, all in wheel chairs.

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

The problem was recently noted by the CEO of Frontier Airlines Barry Biffle who was quoted in the media as saying:

“There is massive, rampant abuse of special services. There are people using wheelchair assistance who don’t need it at all,” Biffle said at a Wings Club luncheon on Thursday in New York.

He said he had seen Frontier flights where 20 people were brought to the plane with wheelchairs, but only three wheelchairs were used upon arrival.

“We are healing so many people,” he joked.

Biffle is right. But people are afraid to speak out on this abuse. It’s similar to the abuse of handicap parking cards that people easily can get from the Secretary of State’s offices in many states.

Just because someone is old, or has a health issue, doesn’t mean they can’t walk or that they have any problems walking, or more importantly that they need a handicap card.

I have seen people, in Illinois, park in the handicapped parking spots with the card on their rearview mirror, and then briskly walk to the post office, the grocery store and the big box retailer. They walk out pushing carts and unload their purchases in the back of their huge SUV’s.

They’re not handicapped. They’re just hijacking a system that is supposed to help people with real handicaps who need assistance walking to and from their car.

These fake handicappers are actually harming those with real handicaps taking the spaces for themselves.

Many of the fakers are just overweight and don’t want to walk. It doesn’t look good to watch them snarf down a Big Mac at Midway Airport while sitting in their wheelchairs that they walked and bought before returning to their wheelchair at the front of the boarding line.

But what airline wants to take a chance and confront the wheelchair exploiters and handicap liars?

Something needs to be done.

The Secretary of State needs to crack down on these abuses and review all handicap cards. They shouldn’t be given out just because someone says they have a handicap. And the handicaps covered should involve walking. If you have a sight handicap, you shouldn’t be driving.

Some drivers are not handicapped but use the handicapped cards to drive legitimate handicapped people. That’s appropriate, but only when the handicapped person is with them in the vehicle.

Police should allow the public to video tape these brisk walkers who practically run into the grocery stores from their handicapped parked cars in the handicapped parking spaces and shop for hours. They briskly push thei rcarts to their cars. Unload the purchases and briskly walk to their driver’s seat.

Biffle said that the abuse of handicap needs and the use of wheelchairs is costing the airlines $30 per person.

No, it’s not costing the airline $30 a person. It is costing air travelers, like you and me. We pay the excess costs.

Just because I am 71, and recently had heart surgery, doesn’t mean that I should need a handicapped card or be wheeled to the airline gate in a wheelchair by an airline employee. I can walk. And as long as I can walk, I should walk. Walking is healthy for me and everyone, especially for the elderly.

Pretending you need a wheelchair is laziness. Greed. Disrespect. Deceit. It’s the lowest form of disrespect and thievery.

These fakers are taking away a service that should be given to people with real handicaps who really need help to board a plane, or as alternatives walk the long distances to the gates. The airlines already offer carts to carry people to and from the gates.

But the wheelchair is like a special boarding pass to get them on the plane first. That’s what they want. They don’t want to wait. They are lazy.

Most airlines have their seats assigned so it’s not about getting a good seat. It’s about being able to put their bags in above-seat storage before others get on board. Seats on Southwest Airlines are taken based on first come, first served, so it is a bigger problem with them. I fly Southwest and I see these abuses all the time.

People carry all of their bags — big bags — on to the planes because they don’t want to check their bags and then wait at baggage claim after the flight to collect their bags.

Dragging large bags onto the planes is another problem.

Airlines need to crack down on all of this. Something needs to be done.

In Illinois, Alexi Giannoulis fought to become the Secretary of State. He won the election. Now, it is his responsibility. It’s on his back to do something to fix a broken system in which handicap cards and handicap designations are being wrongly exploited.

But he is afraid to do the right thing because he doesn’t want to offend those seniors who don’t mind pretending to be unable to walk, when they in fact can walk. People who see assistance as a privilege for a better seat or parking spot, rather than as a health assistance issue.

Handicap cards for vehicles should be reviewed and limited.

Handicap service should only be awarded with a certified letter from a doctor that should be renewed.

In fact, the Secretary of State should have their own doctor making the assessments to avoid doctors who do it as a favor for their patients.

If the person miraculously gets up from their wheelchair to go to the McDonalds concession at the airport to stuff their faces, they should be fined by the airlines.

It’s disgusting that some people would do this when there are people with legitimate handicaps who need this assistance. It’s not a privilege of age or social status. It’s supposed to be a service to help people who really need help, not people who only want comfort and special treatment.