Comments by "Michael Mccarthy" (@michaelmccarthy4615) on "Flying Has Become Hell for Passengers with Wheelchairs" video.

A handicapped person is the one passenger every airline wishes would fly with someone else.... fly the friendly sky's on someone else's dime.
6
A wheel chair is check in luggage? Or does it travel for "free" as a kind gesture to a handicap person ... flying cargo around isn't cheap.
5
Money 💰, lets face it, This is why trains move freight and not people profitably. People are a pain. Shipping Containers are quiet.
3
@Nate-wf5hk I assume 100's of pounds of electric wheel chair doesn't have a check in price tag either... All ticket prices include a free carry-on bag and personal items only...
2
It probably hits the low cost airlines harder with a disproportionate amount of wheel chair bound passengers.
1
All interior features of commercial aircraft are FAA certified. A standard wheel chair bolted to the floor will not meet (all) the very rigorous requirements in their present design. That will not fly (pun intended) unless design rules are modified
1
A straight forward solution is billing a handicap person the cost and convenience for the services rendered....the medical profession does it. Can you imagine all the medical bills paid to even put a disabled person in an expensive electric wheelchair ? A handicap person could fly in a special medical transport plane just like they have for ground transportation. Who pays for all this transportation?
1
@truther001 low budget airlines charge for carry-on and anything else. I'm too tall for those airlines and already pay extra for preferential seating. I suspect that the lower cost airlines have to deal with the extreme cost conscious customers already...
1
@SarafinaSummers good question, who is going to pay for anything anyone wants or needs. Everyone knows life isn't fair. In the end it all comes down to cost and who is going to pay.... I don't know anyone who grew into old age age without it costing more money.
1
@andrewdubose9968 it appears the law is becoming more costly to all the flying public. If airlines returned to a government regulated business model, as they once where, then all costs would be figured into operational requirements with government subsidies to pay for anything extra. The US government does this for many industries and there appears no limit to what they will subsidize. We all know the government has unlimited funds. Just raise the borrowing limit, which congress should be authorizing right now. You don't hear about the extra cost burdens of passenger rail service (Amtrak) and they have been losing money each year for decades. I assume one more wheel chair doesn't effect them as much as aircraft.... The government still pays for their continued operation of moving people all around .
1
@WheelsUpWithVik I think the issue is the airline industry doesn't have a lot of extra money to make drastic changes in operations. Everything is overseen by the FAA for safety, let alone costs involved. Even the able bodied passenger seats continue to shrink in size to accommodate more people. (Irony, as more Americans become larger physically and need larger seats, not smaller ones) until the US laws are changed again, the cost burden will be shared by all airlines unequally and those costs will be passed down to consumers. That's how it's done - when one group wants something that requires funding from other groups. The laws are changed to legally force the required funding.... because one groups needs/wants in their mind, out weight the wants of others. At some point each group might take legal action to fulfill their wants. For this someone will pay. Since operating a commercial jetliner is already very expensive, why can't it become even more expensive ? It's only the cost of a plane ticket that will be effected... More then ever, Flying in a plane is mostly a luxury for pleasure with disposable income paying. Business flights are a small proportion and shrinking. Almost no one actually needs to fly anywhere. This issue has a ripple effect on all transportation options.
1
@WheelsUpWithVik sadly, we all know life is not fair. It never has been, it never will be. For some its almost cruel how unfair life is. For others, life can't be anymore fulfilling. Everyone wants a better life and the best life they can live and that can come down to individual circumstances and just plain luck of birth right. In a modern functional society which tends to benefit a majority of its denizens, by almost all standards, we are all living better than any generation before us. Let's not take this for granted. But as individuals the want for more and better will never cease... For those wants and needs modern society has created politicians and lawyers to work out the minute details.... ;)
1
@WheelsUpWithVik as I alluded to before. You will need to have lawyers speak for your group as they do for almost every other group. Of course, this will come down to money again. The lawyers will likely argue on individual rights, moral, society and financial responsibility as they have before. The US, as one of the most accommodating countries in the world for everyone, will listen to the arguments and render a compromise. A compromise no one is fully happy with, but will work well enough. So there's the solution. They just need to hammer out the details and get the FAA on board...
1