Thread by @Ilde_Leaf

@Delta Don't treat me like cargo.

In fact, cargo is treated better than I have been. In my last 3 flights, at least once at every stop, I have been overlooked by wheelchair assistance. At least once at every stop I have had to request a wheelchair attendant more than once.

At least once at every stop I have had to combine the luck of having a delta employee in shouting distance with that employee not being busy with other things in order to be able to move about the gate, whether to get food, drink water, or use the restroom. It is dehumanizing.

At least with my bags, I can find out where my bag is, looking in the app. With your accessibility services, I have gotten used to the cadence of how employees call for a wheelchair attendant, because it has to happen multiple times.

I am currently in DCA. I am sitting at the charging station at gate 22. I was told by Calvin, a "red jacket" that the attendant who brought me here needed to communicate that I exist with the gate agent so that they know I am here.

In case I wish to move anywhere other than the charging station in the following 2 and a half hours until my flight. You see, I try to be a "good" passenger. I show up early to make sure that I don't have security delays. I check my app frequently for gate changes.

I call ahead and check in to make sure I will have wheelchair assistance. And all the while, these failures continue. Oh, did you notice how I didn't mention whether or not the attendant actually spoke with the gate agent?

That's because not only did they not do so, they didn't tell me they were leaving, there wasn't an agent at the gate, and I have no idea if anyone knows I am here or not, because there is certainly nobody from Delta in range for me to speak with.

This is galling.

And this isn't even the most of it.

I am nonbinary trans. My pronouns are they/them. I make no attempt to hide this, and when I am in the chair I keep my bag on my lap, covered in pins that not only call out my pronouns, but that I am trans.

(and queer, and ace, and bi, and an activist, but that's another story). Do you know what's even more dehumanizing than basically begging multiple people to make the ability to travel accessible to me? Having to then also ask them to give me the dignity to respect my gender.

Nobody at delta has *ever* asked my pronouns. Nobody at delta has *ever* looked at my bag and thought perhaps I should concern myself with this person's presentation.

Do you know why that is? Because the interaction I had this morning with Calvin was the most eye contact I've had with a Delta employee in a year. I complain about these things, and get lip service. I get customer service conflict avoidance techniques.

I haven't flown in 9 months without having some kind of voucher from delta because these issues are as chronic as the pain that hampers my flying.
When I get into the chair, I'm invisible. While I'm in the airport, my gender is invisible.

Right now I am sitting at my gate, in a hot little corner next to a tiny metal table that has two people's refuse on it. That's a really great summary of how my travel experience feels right now.

Make me feel seen.

Postscript: Another "red jacket" named Janelle came by and checked on me as I was typing this. I told her (truthfully) that she was the first person that had ever specifically come over to me while flying with wheelchair assistance, to check on how I'm doing.

Postscript: Do you know what she told me? Apparently there's a policy that passengers who require assistance are supposed to be checked on every 15 minutes. I cackled. I felt bad for laughing in her face, but hearing that is genuine absurdity to me.

Postscript: I thanked her. She is a good egg. She is an example of the kind of assistance that makes me feel as if I can travel the same as abled persons. She is the first person, in any airport, to do so since I have been travelling with assistance.

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#ChronicPain #Spoonies #CompaniesBehavingBadly