Complaint: Customer Service Preboarding issues?
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  #3  
Old Oct 7, 2008, 5:12 PM
abutterfinger25 abutterfinger25 is offline
US Department of Transportation Employee
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Washington Metro Area
Posts: 197
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JIO is wrong. Under DOT regulations, the carrier is only REQUIRED to board a passenger with a disability if the carriers does not pre-assign seats AND the passenger needs a specific seat to readily access the aircraft.

In other words, Southwest is the only carrier that is REQUIRED to allow passengers to preboard, and in those cases, only if the passenger needs a SPECIFIC SEAT for their disability.

So yes, a carrier can restrict a passenger witha disability from boarding the aircraft before his/her zone boards.