“Priority” Seating Method
Carriers may designate an adequate number of “priority” seats for passengers with a disability who meet the above requirements and who request a seating accommodation. In this case, the carrier must provide notice to any passenger assigned to a “priority” seat (other than passengers with a disability entitled to a seating accommodation in one of the four situations discussed above) that they are subject to being reassigned to another seat if necessary to provide a seating accommodation required under the law. The carrier may provide this notice through its computer reservation system, verbal information provided by reservations personnel, counter signs, seat cards or notices, frequent-flyer literature, or other appropriate means. [Sec. 382.38(b)(2)(i)] The carrier must provide a “priority” seat to a passenger with a disability entitled to such accommodation if the passenger requests the accommodation and checks in at least one hour before the scheduled departure of the flight. If all of the designated “priority” seats have been assigned to other passengers who do not have disabilities, the carrier must reassign the seats of the other passengers to accommodate the passenger with a disability entitled to a seating accommodation as discussed above. [Sec. 382.38(b)(2)(ii)]
If a passenger with a disability does not check in at least one hour before the scheduled departure of the flight, a carrier using the “priority” seating system must provide the requested seating accommodation, to the extent practicable, but is not required to reassign a seat assigned to another passenger in order to do so. [Sec. 382.38(b)(2)(iii)]
Example: A passenger with an immobilized leg requests a bulkhead seat and checks in two hours before the scheduled departure of the flight. Your carrier employs the “priority” seating method and has designated all four bulkhead seats on the aircraft as “priority” seating. Three of the bulkhead seats have already been assigned to three passengers traveling with small service animals who have requested the seating accommodations and checked in at least an hour before the scheduled departure of the flight. The fourth “priority” bulkhead seat has been assigned to a passenger who also checked in two hours before the flight and uses an aisle chair to enplane who prefers the bulkhead seat to a seat in a row with a movable armrest. What should you do?
The passenger who uses the aisle chair to enplane should have received notice that she has been assigned a “priority” seat. Because she is not a passenger with an immobilized leg or a passenger traveling with a service animal, she is not automatically entitled to a “priority” bulkhead seat. (However, she would be entitled to a “priority” seat in a row with a movable armrest if she requested one and checked in at least an hour before the scheduled departure of the flight.) The passenger using the aisle chair to enplane should have been notified that you might have to reassign her seat if a passenger with a service animal or a passenger with an immobilized leg requests a “priority” bulkhead seating accommodation and checks in at least one hour before the scheduled departure of the flight. Accordingly, the passenger using the aisle chair would be reassigned to a seat in a row with a movable armrest and the passenger with the immobilized leg would be assigned to the fourth “priority” bulkhead seat.
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