Air travel is a hassle for wheelchair users. You don’t need to look far for proof: Social media is awash with stories of wheelchairs lost or damaged in transit, often met with minimal accountability from airlines. As we’ve noted before, “An airline losing your luggage is bad; an airline losing your wheelchair is much, much worse.” Given that reality, you’d think making air travel even marginally more accessible would be a priority. Instead, recent developments suggest things may actually be moving in the opposite direction.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal examined a phenomenon known as “Jetway Jesus.” The story described a growing trend in which seemingly able-bodied passengers request wheelchair assistance to board, only to stand up and walk off the plane upon arrival — “fully healed.” The behavior has become so normalized that some travelers now openly frame it as a hack on TikTok.
“Life hack: if the airport is real packed and you don’t want to wait in line, act injured and ask for a wheelchair,” one user shamelessly posted.
This controversy is nothing new, but according to data from the International Air Transport Association which was published in December, airlines have recorded a 30% yearly increase in wheelchair assistance requests at bigger airports, and cracking down is complicated. Imposing stricter guardrails risks unintentionally discriminating against passengers with hidden disabilities, a line no airline or regulator wants to cross.
Still, this isn’t a harmless joke. There are real downstream consequences. As The Wall Street Journal reported, spikes in wheelchair requests can create operational bottlenecks, including delays when airports run short on equipment and staff are left scrambling. It siphons limited resources away from passengers who genuinely need them — the very people these accommodations are designed to support.
Against this backdrop, the federal government appeared poised to step in. In 2024, it was widely reported that the Department of Transportation planned to roll out a series of new protections for disabled airline passengers. Among them was a requirement that airlines provide “safe and dignified assistance to individuals with disabilities,” alongside mandatory disability-specific training for airline employees and clearer guidelines to help disabled passengers deplane more easily.
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The rules also aimed to address one of the most persistent pain points for wheelchair users: damaged mobility devices. Airlines would be required to return checked wheelchairs and scooters without damage, provide loaner equipment when issues occurred and allow passengers to choose the vendor responsible for repairs. If a mobility device was delayed in transit, airlines would be required to reimburse passengers for ground transportation.
Those rules were scheduled to take effect between January 16, 2025 and June 17, 2026, with the later date applying to employee training requirements. As of last week, however, the DOT has paused enforcement of the regulations intended to protect disabled air travelers, saying it will do so “while it engages in a new rule-making process to determine whether to modify them.”
There is some good news. According to Travel Noire, the DOT will continue to uphold the protections that predated the Biden-era December 2024 final rule on airlines’ liability for damaged assistive devices. For now, airlines remain responsible for paying to repair or replace a wheelchair or scooter they damage, up to the original purchase price of the device.
The bad news is that, according to the DOT, the earliest they will revisit implementation of the Wheelchair Rule is December 31, 2026. But this is not an issue that can be put on ice. It demands attention — and action — now.
And in case anyone needs to hear it: requesting a wheelchair to breeze through security when you do not actually need one is not a travel hack. It does not make you clever or efficient. It makes you an asshole.
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