People sometimes have nonstandard needs, or get sick, or need to deal with another passenger's overly aggressive behavior. It's more about how the flight attendants react to those situations than to standard service.
I've started using a wheelchair recently so that's fresh on my mind. I haven't flown with it yet, but I'm nervous at the prospect of my delicate $10K power chair being smashed to bits in the cargo hold, or lost, or the flight attendants losing patience with me getting to my seat.
Are you not able to use it on the plane itself? It's been a long time since I've flown anywhere, but I seem to recall there being quite good accommodations for such things.
sadly no. ostensibly for safety reasons actually, I think, but likely more because airlines would have to sacrifice seats for wheelchair space. instead, you either have to limp (if you're able) or transfer to a transport chair so they can wheel you to your seat. it's a hassle.
it'd be a tight squeeze through the aisle if it were possible, but I could make it work in my chair.
Not a horror story but once while sitting right at the back of a rather small local airline flight I found a pair of grimy white plastic jerry cans that had come loose from under my seat and were sliding around. I flagged a flight attendant down and was told they would ask the pilots. Later they told me they usually contained coffee! I was suprised that as the flight attendant they didn't know that but given the plane was so small maybe they were new to the job.
I once had a "There is water dripping on me; can you move me to a different seat and also tell me whether I should be concerned about that?". The flight attendant wasn't too thrilled about that one, probably because it created extra work for whoever had to figure out that it was just condensation. That's the only negative interaction I've ever had with a flight crew.
I had a flight attendant admonish me for being out of my seat when the fasten seatbelt light was on. But honestly, she was right: it was way too turbulent and my butt ought to have been in a seat. Problem was that nature was calling and the turbulence seemed interminable, and wasn't helping with the nature's call part.
(I ended up taking a seat in the rear for a bit & riding it out until a slightly smoother portion. Still had to bend the rules a bit. I owe you for your patience, flight attendant…)
Although, on one flight, there was a child behind us, real young (not really yet old enough to "know better"), listening to a tablet that was playing the ABCs song. But the tablet had to be stowed for take-off (apparently). She forced the parent to take the tablet from child. Child threw a tantrum. I'm eye'ing the attendant like "you caused this. ABCs > bawling kid, and takeoff with the tablet would have been fine"
Stowing large electronic items (bigger than a cell phone) is a safety requirement, and it’s likely that flight attendants have much less leeway in safety requirements than other aspects of the job.
(Please note that I’m not arguing that’s it’s a reasonable requirement, just that FAs likely don’t have the authority to ignore violations.)
