Boy, am I angry. I had planned to
write a nice article about the excellent disability accommodations
I'd received from United Airlines on my outbound trip to Denver,
but at the moment all I can think about is how angry I am at their
casual disregard for the law when booking my return flight.
Outbound, I'd explained my need for accommodations to the
reservations agent, and had no problems getting my accommodative
seating. In fact, while it wasn't required, the agent went so far
as to block off an entire row of seats for Glindy and I in bulkhead
so that we wouldn't have any issues. That's what I call customer
service!
However, I just got off the phone with a putative Complaints
Resolution Officer for United—but he was, in fact, just a
call-center supervisor who obviously didn't know the law. When I
asked for bulkhead seats, he told me that they would only give them
to me if I were blind or unable to walk. I asked if any blind or
immobilized passengers were currently occupying those bulkhead
seats, and he said no, but they made it a policy to hold them "in
reserve."
I told him that if they needed to move me to accommodate someone
who had greater need of those bulkhead seats than my service dog
and I, then of course I would understand, but otherwise they were
required to release one of those seats to me. He insisted that they
didn't; that all they had to do was make a "reasonable
accommodation" of some sort.
In the end, rather than not get my ticket changed at all, I agreed
to be seated in Economy Plus seating, which boasts "five extra
inches of leg room," although it's not entirely clear to me that
this is five inches in
front of the seat stanchions, which
are the main reason I avoid non-bulkhead seats when traveling with
Glindy. It doesn't do us any good if it's five extra inches in
depth
under the seats.
Alas, I didn't think to pull out my handy-dandy legal cheat sheet.
By that point, the main issue was that I needed to have my
non-refundable tickets changed before the flight left, so I was
more interested in getting the flight changed than anything else.
However, after hanging up the phone, I did a little
double-checking.
14 CFR 382.38(3) specifically says:
For an individual traveling with a service animal, the
carrier shall provide, as the individual requests, either a
bulkhead seat or a seat other than a bulkhead seat.
so clearly a disabled individual
can insist on a bulkhead
seat, whatever this guy said.
Now that I have my ticket properly changed for my homeward flight,
I plan to call tomorrow to insist that they change my seat from
Economy Plus back to bulkhead seating. It's what I asked for. It's
what I want. And even if I occasionally let myself be bullied when
I shouldn't, there's nothing that says I can't regroup, gather my
thoughts, and try again.