Transcription of tweet thread:
(THREAD): While I was in Hamilton on #ONpoli election night, my aunt had a massive heart attack. She died later that week. My mom waited until the next day to tell me because she knew I was working & didn’t want to distract me. That immigrant work ethic never sleeps, y'all.
My mom is executor of my auntie’s will. Anyone who has lost someone knows how hard this is to do under the best of circumstances. Now add in the fact that my aunt lived in Jamaica. So now my mom has to fly back home, so I go online to buy her ticket.
My mom wants to fly with @WestJet because she likes that they’re Canadian, their “employees are owners” & their staff is unionized. What a great company, right?
So I assume, reasonably, that she should be able to get a bereavement fare. I call their phone line. Unfortunately, @WestJet’s bereavement fares require travel be completed within a 14-day period.
This isn’t possible given the duties my mom has to conduct. Plus, it’s taken 3 weeks for a death certificate (among other crucial things) to be issued. Her sister is dead. She lives in another country. She needs more than 2 weeks to sort this out. No dice, says @WestJet lady.
We pay much more to get her a normal fare on short notice. My mom leaves tomorrow, she’s gotten her bags together. In addition to her things, she’s also bringing some things for family. This will be a problem. More on it in a moment, after this informative side-bar.
Side-bar: The Caribbean (including Jamaica) is “the most tourism-dependent region in the world”. But only 30% of money spent by foreign visitors remains in the Caribbean. And tourism development has driven up the cost of land, food & pretty much all goods/services.
So for example, a fan you could buy in Canada for $30 costs $120 CAD in Jamaica. A $250 laptop costs $600 CAD. And so on. Jamaican salaries, of course, do not correspond to these inflated costs. The average Jamaican salary is about $26,000 CAD a year.
As anyone from the developing world will tell you, we send a lot of money & stuff home. Globally, Latin America & Caribbean expats send home more than $97 billion CAD a year. At the worst of times, when someone has died & a family needs support, more help is needed.
So, back to the story. I’m checking the baggage info to see what my mom will have to pay to bring an extra suitcase/or one that is “oversized”. And I come across these policies from my mom’s favourite airline & corporate citizen, @WestJet.
In case you missed it. Here is @WestJet’s policy. Only on flights to Jamaica or Trinidad & Tobago: 1) No extra bags 2) No oversized bags, with the exception of one golf bag that must contain golf clubs
At this point, I am fuming. But I call @WestJet customer service directly, put on my nicest voice, & after being put on hold for 45 minutes & bounced from person to person, ask if we could please get a bereavement exemption if we provide a death certificate.
“Zero exemptions.” So I begin asking questions. Why do only flights to Jamaica or T&T have these restrictions? Surely the money of customers traveling there is as good as everyone else’s? Why the restriction on oversized bags? I’m told it’s a weight distribution issue.
Then why are oversized bags containing golf clubs permissible? What unique property do golf clubs have when packing the cargo hold of a plane, @WestJet? Besides the fact that they tend to belong to tourists & not people going home to bury their loved ones? The line goes dead.
Suffice it to say, I won’t be flying @WestJet again. But beyond that, this is a reminder of the many ways we treat newcomers & immigrants (particularly black & POC ones) as less-than. Not just through immigration policy, but in everyday situations.
So now, in addition to poring over a funeral program & writing a eulogy, I’m thinking (for the millionth time) why it is so hard for some folks to just treat people with dignity.
To the people at @WestJet, please think on this: Why is my mom’s care package for our grieving family less worthy of space on your plane than a tourist’s golf clubs? Is that really who you want to be? And now that I’ve said something, what’re you going to do about it?
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