This past weekend when we went to Paris was only two days after Rachel had hurt her knee in volleyball.  Going to Paris we flew with Easy Jet and did not know when to ask for a wheelchair for her or how that worked but on the way home, we flew British Airways and asked right at the check in for a wheelchair for her.  After a bit of confusion (language barrier issues), we finally got a wheelchair.  What I didn’t know was that she was going to have someone else push her in the wheelchair through the airport.  I had been holding onto all of her important documents during the weekend (BritRail pass, passport, etc) so I made sure to stay with her at the airport and carried her crutches.

While going through the airport, we were able to skip every line imaginable.  The woman opened up the line and we just strolled on past and through security and customs like it was nothing.  Once we were at our terminal and about to board, another woman came up to wheel Rachel out to the plane.  We thought that it would just be through the little walkway to the plane, however, passengers had to board the plane from the tarmac so instead, we went through the back ways where all of the employees were and into a metal box (I really can’t think of a different way to describe it).  We had no idea what was really going on until we started lowering down onto the ground.  Well, actually, onto a truck.  A man then drove us across the runways to where our plane was, which was incredibly awesome.  The box then lifted us back up and we boarded the plane from the front door.  This was one of the most exciting parts of the weekend.  We were like little kids, laughing goofy the entire time we were in this truck.  When we boarded the plane, we realized that they waited to board everyone else until we were safely on board, which was even more hilarious to us because our flight then left 15 minutes late.

The flight itself was great too.  The British Airways flight attendants were very happy and nice.  We received complimentary apple juice and cookies which added to our happy child-like behavior as we excitedly looked out the window during takeoff.

Once we reached Heathrow, there was a man with a wheelchair waiting for us right outside the plane.  He then took us right past the line at customs, which was awesome because the actual line was quite long, and we strolled on.  Since Heathrow is so big, we had to take a train to even get to where the arrivals and customs were, which the man happily took us through.  He even brought us right where the Heathrow Express train that we needed to take into London would pick us up.  Talk about door to door service.  It was one of the funniest moments of our time here, especially since Rachel had been walking around Paris all weekend.  Now, don’t get me wrong, she really did need the wheelchair.  Since we had walked so much her knee was getting stiff and swollen and those airports are huge.  We just felt like celebrities as we didn’t have to wait in any lines and everyone was extra nice and helpful.  If you are ever traveling injured, make sure to let the airline know because they will make sure you get the royal treatment.