Friendly flight insurance Travelling companion Carla McDonald offers a helping hand to people who can't, or won't, fly alone, but she's been grounded by the pandemic By: David Sanderson Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Saturday, May. 16, 2020

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/05/2020 (2270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This was going to be Carla McDonald’s year.

As the owner/operator of Travelling Guardian, a chaperone service that offers companionship to people nervous or reluctant to fly on their own, or assists those unfamiliar with Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport get from Point A to Point B while remaining by their side until they board their flight, McDonald was just beginning to reap the benefits of 2 1/2 years of hard work when the new coronavirus turned the airline industry on its ear.

McDonald launched her one-person enterprise, which she believes to be the only one of its kind in the country, in September 2017, a month after retiring from a 38-year career as an airline customer service agent. Business coaches who’d been tutoring her along the way predicted it was probably going to take a couple years for her venture to, uh… take off. Their assessments were spot on, she says, seated in the living room of her neat-as-a-pin River Heights bungalow located seven minutes from the airport. Yes, she’s timed it.

At the beginning of March, McDonald was approached by someone who relies on a wheelchair to get around. He was hoping she could accompany him to an annual work conference in Quebec he’d always wanted to attend, but never had because he was fearful of travelling alone.

Around the same time, another person inquired whether she’d be willing to fly to Chile to escort one of his elderly family members back to Winnipeg to ensure they made their connections on time. Somebody else wondered if she could meet him in Naples to help him get to Toronto, and from there to his winter home in Florida. You bet, she told each of them.

Then COVID-19 struck. Not only did she lose all her prebooked assignments but her phone hasn’t exactly been ringing off the hook lately, she says with a laugh.

“I haven’t put an announcement on my website that I can’t currently accept bookings to other cities due to quarantine restrictions, because if people have questions or are hesitant about flying now or in the future, I want them to call and talk to me directly,” she says, leaning over to scratch Hank, her 18-month-old beagle-cross, behind the ear.

“I was a ticket agent almost my whole life, I know my way around airports and reservation systems, and I know there’s going to be a lot of apprehension about travelling when things return to normal, or whatever normal is going to look like. I want people to know I’m available for advice during these trying times, whether they need my services or not.”

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“I want people to know I’m available for advice during these trying times, whether they need my services or not.” – Carla McDonald

McDonald grew up in St. James. She recalls sitting on the steps of John Taylor Collegiate moments after getting her Grade 12 diploma, listening to her best friend discuss a travel course she’d just signed up for at Success Business College. That sounded interesting, she thought. A few days later she enrolled, as well.

McDonald was 19 when she landed a job at O’Brien Travel Service, located in Polo Park. Those were the “good old days,” says the mother of two grown sons, when airline or cruise company representatives habitually wined and dined travel agents in an attempt to get them to steer customers their way. She left the agency after three years, accepting a service agent position with Canadian Pacific Air Lines. She was still with that carrier, renamed Canadian Airlines International in 1987, when it was acquired by Air Canada in 2000. She spent the rest of her career with Air Canada, splitting her time between the downtown reservation office on Portage Avenue and the new airport, once it opened in October 2011.

One morning a few years ago, she was at the airport checking in customers when two men approached her station. Only one of them was carrying a suitcase and the one who wasn’t announced in a gruff manner, “I’m not traveling but my brother is. He has an intellectual disability, his meds are packed and I’m double-parked. So, bye.”

A day or two later, an elderly woman in a wheelchair was dropped off at the curb by a relative. As McDonald was explaining to her where she needed to go next, and how to reach the correct gate, the woman said in an exasperated tone of voice, “I just wish somebody could come with me, all the way home.”

After witnessing enough similar scenarios, she began thinking there should be some type of personalized service available for people who could afford it, so they didn’t have to travel alone if they were apprehensive. In February 2017, six months before she was due to retire, she began working hand-in-hand with the Women’s Enterprise Centre of Manitoba and World Trade Centre Winnipeg to make her dream a reality.

Initially, McDonald approached seniors facilities exclusively, hoping to spread the word about her fledgling enterprise by speaking with residents in a common-room setting. She was rebuffed time and time again, to the point she seriously considered heading to the lake and using her brochures to start a bonfire. It wasn’t until she asked an administrative assistant why they weren’t allowing her to do a presentation that she figured out who her target audience truly was.

“When all this COVID stuff passes, it’s my sincere belief people are going to want peace of mind more than they ever did before, when they’re putting their mom or dad on a flight back home.” – Carla McDonald

“This one person, whom I’m eternally grateful to, said, ‘Carla, I think what you’re attempting to do is honourable, but I don’t want the sons and daughters of my seniors calling and saying their parent just talked to you and now they’re off to Amsterdam to see their brother, especially if they’re suffering from dementia and it turns out that brother in Amsterdam died five years ago,’” McDonald says.

“That’s when I had my “a-ha Oprah” moment and realized I should be approaching younger people, ones who would love to fly home with a parent or grandparent to make sure they got there safely, but because of family or work commitments aren’t able to do so.”

Besides an hourly rate, McDonald’s clients are also responsible for paying for her return airfare. It’s not uncommon, she points out, for her to land in a city at noon and, after making sure her companion has their luggage and has made it to their destination safe and sound, be back in Winnipeg by 5 p.m. after catching the next flight home.

To date, McDonald, who willingly does everything from check clients in online to help pack their bags to pick them up in a taxi on the way to the airport, has dealt primarily with people living with mobility issues. She’s also dealt with children on their way to see grandparents, as well as people suffering from aviophobia. If you don’t think fear of flying is a thing, ask her to show you a picture of her forearm, pockmarked with fingernail imprints.

Besides serving as an in-flight companion, she also conducts information seminars for organizations such as the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba, Parkinson Canada and the Reh-fit Centre, letting attendees know what they should be watching out for when they travel, including carry-on restrictions, how to pack their medications, how to handle flight delays… everything under the sun, pretty much.

A positive sort, McDonald still feels she’s on the cusp of success, despite the multitude of travel restrictions in place for the foreseeable future. That’s because whenever she’s been asked in the past what it is she’s selling, her reply was always the same: peace of mind.

“When all this COVID stuff passes, it’s my sincere belief people are going to want peace of mind more than they ever did before, when they’re putting their mom or dad on a flight back home, or when they’re headed somewhere themselves but need assistance,” she says. “That’s where I’ll come in, reassuring them they don’t have to worry about a thing because hey, I’ve got this.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca