A couple weeks ago, I was unfortunate to have experienced a bit of ableism (a term I normally hate using) aboard a WestJet flight from Ottawa to Calgary.
After a bout of turbulence on an already shaky flight, I was feeling a little queasy, and had to use the washroom, badly! My Dad and I had booked seats in the fourth row, since it was closer to the washroom and situations like this have happened before.
I got up to go to use the facility, and was told by one of the attendants that the plane's front washroom was reserved solely for Premium customers, the eight people in the three rows ahead of me. After some complaining and explaining my situation and disability to an attendant, the flight crew was kind enough to make an exception for me, and I did my thing just in the nick of time!
I'm grateful for the kindness of the crew, because if they hadn't I would've been stuck making my way from the fourth row all the way to the back of the plane, likely having an accident of some kind halfway there. Thankfully, the flight home was a much better experience. Still, the whole situation bugged me.
I've written to WestJet about the incident, explaining my disability and the events, including praise for the crew, because at least they deserve credit. I actually went as far as to call the whole Premium seat thing discriminatory (another word I don't like using), because that's what it is, really. It's not fair to people with mobility issues, or even those with little kids to have to go that far just to use a washroom.
Anyway, just a rare incident to write about.
Cheers!
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