Again, the commode was shipped through with no hassle and we kept the wheelchair, but had it tagged to be checked at the door of the plane. We went to the gate counter and again, we told them of our situation and said we liked boarding last on the way here, and would like to do that again. Well, these folks had a different plan. They wanted us to board FIRST!!!! I said, "I hate to have the person in the window seat have to crawl over Mom, later." She said, "No problem." Then she paged the passenger in that seat and asked if she minded boarding early. She didn't. So, the three of us boarded.
I still prefer boarding last. By boarding first, we had to put up with all the passengers going right past Mom with their carryon luggage. It got to be pretty funny. I sat there with my arm across her, pulling her left arm away from the aisle. We got to where we could judge WHEN she would be hit by a suitcase, backpack, etc...and we'd brace for it. You really have to be careful when someone stands there and turns. Their backpack swings around and will get you every time. And we noticed that the aisle narrowed in Economy class, so almost 100% of the time, the people would be blazing through there, wheeling their little carryon suitcase, and it would get wedged in and stuck. We developed a little signal where we'd say, "THIS ONE!!!" And sure enough, it would get stuck and the person would look all shocked, and we'd just laugh.
At one point, someone tried kidding us about Mom and I being so protective of her arm. When we matter of factly said, "It's paralyzed"...the lady was pretty embarrassed. But we thought it was pretty funny. Getting off the plane and getting our luggage was no problem.
