“Racing” to Catch a Plane while Blind

How to hurdle a truly dizzying number of systemic barriers

My wife, Gabrielle, and I arrived to the airport later than we wanted. We were flying home from Montreal where we travel often because her family lives there. We were on Air Canada for this trip, and, at least in Montreal, passengers on international flights with that particular airline have to check in two hours before their departure. We had just under 20 minutes to spare, and we didn’t know how long the line would be.

The two-hour requirement is, as Air Canada’s website and employees will repeatedly tell you, for your own good. You may not make it through passport control and security to your plane if you don’t arrive early. And of course, they are correct. This is why the flights of other airlines flying internationally out of Montreal, none of which have this requirement, routinely take off with no passengers. One stubborn flight attendant demonstrating how to buckle a seatbelt in front of an empty cabin, the other dutifully asking each chair if it wants a cookie or pretzels, all because they refuse to admit Air Canada is right.

Gabrielle and I proceeded quickly to the priority check-in line. This is not because we fly business class, or have any status with the airline. It’s because as soon as any airline employee spots that I am blind, they put us there. I categorize this as a disability perk. It’s not an accommodation. I don’t actually need a shorter line. But I get one, and I’ll happily take it. The perk is so inevitable that we often don’t bother talking to the employees at all. We just go straight to the fancy line.

But this time, we made a rookie mistake. I have to be clearly visible to the airline employees if we want unobstructed access to the priority line. I got a few too many steps behind Gabrielle as she was winding her way through that rope maze. Half way through, she was spotted by an Air Canada employee I’ll call Strict Lady. Strict Lady didn’t know that we were together.

Now why would that matter? Wouldn’t Strict Lady just assume Gabrielle was someone flying with a business class ticket and let her go? Other people ahead of us walked right past her without issue.

These are reasonable questions. Unfortunately, in our current political climate, I cannot answer them. Noting any obvious differences in physical appearance between Gabrielle, whose family is from Haiti, and the other people on the line, or suggesting that difference has any bearing on how the world functions, is considered divisive. And I don’t want to offend the current political powers that be as they grow increasingly, shall we say, enthusiastic about law enforcement. So there was NO DIFFERENCE between Gabrielle and the other people on the line. It must have been a COMPLETELY ARBITRARY stop.

So Strict Lady FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER asked Gabrielle if she was flying in business class or not.

Gabrielle said “Coach, but—”

“Then you need to go to the other line,” said Strict Lady.

Gabrielle stopped moving but didn’t respond at first. I caught up just as Strict Lady was about to repeat herself. She hesitated mid-sentence, seeing we were together. But she seemed to make up her mind and doubled down.