Special Assistance at US Airports: A Hidden Form of Discrimination
Special assistance at airports is essential for travellers in wheelchairs or those with mobility issues, yet in the US, they are effectively penalised by the country’s bizarre tipping culture.
Tipping at US airports
Yesterday, for some reason, the almighty algorithm showed me a Facebook post by an American user in the Rick Steves’ Europe Group about wheelchair assistance at European airports.
For those who do not know, Rick Steves is a well-known American travel writer whose company also organises tours across Europe.
In the Facebook post, the user explained that she had to request a wheelchair as special assistance at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport due to mobility issues.
She wrote: “My last stopover at JFK, when the person dropped me off at my next gate, he stopped and looked at me and said, “that’s it?” with a rather disgusted look on his face, then left.”
The user then asked a simple question to the Facebook group: “Does anyone tip these workers?”
Special assistance providers: should you tip or not?
Among the hundreds of Americans responding to the question of whether special assistance providers at airports should be tipped, there was near-unanimous agreement that they should.
One user wrote: “Everyone I know that uses that service tips them.”
Another user wrote: “Definitely tip generously! They are walking all over the airport to make it easier for us.”
PRM services
Using aviation terminology, assistance for wheelchair users or persons with reduced mobility is officially known as PRM airport services, which stands for Passenger with Reduced Mobility.
This service is provided by airport ground handling companies contracted by the airlines.
To use PRM services, you generally just need to tick a box requesting it when you book your ticket.
As part of PRM assistance, a specially trained staff member from the ground handling company will meet the passenger before departure or after arrival, guiding them through the airport to the aircraft or from the aircraft to the arrivals hall.
The services include the use of wheelchairs, electric carts, and other specialised vehicles when necessary to safely assist the passenger in boarding or disembarking from the aircraft.
PRM services are typically paid for by the airline through their contracted ground handling company or the airport authority, and are never passed on to the passenger.
Why tipping special assistance providers is insane
The reason PRM airport services are not passed on to passengers in wheelchairs or with mobility issues is simple: their condition makes it necessary for them to receive extra assistance and special care.
Most often, it is not a matter of choice!
It is therefore rather bizarre that special assistance services are free of charge, yet a tip is still expected at US airports.
Whatever you think of tipping in general, or of the current debate over tip creep in the US and service workers demanding ever higher tips, is irrelevant to tipping airport service workers, as the two situations are not comparable.
When you go out for drinks or dinner in the US, you make a voluntary choice to do so, fully aware that tipping is expected.
Whether you have a disability or mobility issues, or are in perfect health, you will still have to tip, so there is no discrimination involved.
This is completely different at airports.
Although taking a flight is a voluntary choice, being in a wheelchair or having mobility issues, and therefore needing special assistance, is not.
Simply put: requiring passengers with reduced mobility to cough up tens of dollars in tips, while other passengers do not have to pay, is morally abhorrent.
The fact that airport workers in the US are often underpaid and could use such tips, and that tipping is not compulsory, does not change this at all.
We all know that in the US you cannot escape the social pressure to tip, and it is essentially something you are forced to do.
The responsibility for airport workers being underpaid rests solely with the employer, not with passengers with reduced mobility using special assistance services.
Difference between US and European airports
Interestingly, some American users who replied to the Facebook post that prompted this rant of mine wrote that tips are also expected at European airports when you require special assistance.
As an European, I can forcefully stay that they are plain wrong.
The tipping culture between Philadelphia and Paris, or between Seattle and Stockholm, could not be further apart.
Most European airports even have clear policies banning ground handling workers from taking tips from passengers, and doing so can be grounds for dismissal in some cases.
That is not even taking into account the differing standards of morality between Americans and Europeans.
I was rather shocked to learn that passengers with reduced mobility are essentially forced to cough up tips, and I am sure that most of my fellow Europeans would feel the same.
European airport workers happily lend a helping hand to anyone requiring special assistance as a simple act of human kindness.
Moreover, they are paid a decent living wage for providing such services, from which they can afford rent, food, and a yearly holiday.
Conclusion
The insane tipping culture in the US discriminates against travellers needing special assistance at airports, as they are expected to give dozens of dollars extra in tips, unlike able-bodied passengers.
This practice is completely unthinkable in almost any other country in the world, where those providing special assistance are either prohibited from accepting tips or would be insulted if one were offered.
Passengers in wheelchairs, or those with other mobility issues, often have no choice but to request special assistance at airports, and requiring an almost mandatory tip for essential services can only be described as discrimination and a moral disgrace.
