Travelling further than the bus: planes, ferries, trains and medical trips

One Person, One Fare: the free seat almost nobody claims

Say you need someone with you on a flight. Someone to help you eat, take medication, get to the washroom, or move between your chair and the seat. On a flight inside Canada, that person's seat is not supposed to cost you a fare.

This is called One Person, One Fare, or 1P1F. It comes from the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations, a federal law from 2019. Section 31 of those rules says it plainly: a carrier may not charge a fare or any other charge for a service it is required to provide.

It also works the other way round. If your own disability means one seat is not enough for you, the second seat is free as well.

Three limits are worth knowing before you plan anything:

• It is for travel inside Canada only. Victoria to Calgary, yes. Victoria to Seattle, no. A flight abroad is not covered, even on a Canadian airline.
• It binds large airlines. The law defines a large airline as one that carried a million passengers or more worldwide in each of the two years before. Small carriers are not bound by this part of the law.
• You have to ask ahead. The law gives the airline a deadline only if you ask at least 48 hours before departure. Ask later and it becomes a favour, not a right.

The three ways to qualify

The rules set out three separate doors. You only need one of them.

A support person does not have to be a nurse or have any training. They can be your daughter, your neighbour, or a friend. What matters is that they will actually do the helping, and that airline staff cannot do it for you. Cabin crew will not help you in the washroom or move you out of your seat. That gap is exactly what this rule is about.

Which airlines this actually binds

This is where we have to be careful with you, because being wrong here costs you money at the airport.

How to book it, step by step

1. Pick your flight, but do not pay yet. Note the date, the flight number and the fare. You need those to make the request.
2. Ask the airline for their form. Phone the airline's accessibility or medical desk, not general sales, and say you are requesting additional seating for reasons of disability on a flight within Canada. Ask them to email you the form.
3. Take the form to your doctor or nurse practitioner. Ask the clinic how long they need. Some charge a fee for filling in forms. Ask about that up front — some clinics waive it, and some benefit programs cover it.
4. Send the form back the way the airline tells you — usually a medical desk email or fax, not the front desk. Health information should not go to a general inbox.
5. Wait for a written approval. This is the step people skip. You want an email with your name, the flight, and the words that the additional seat is approved at no fare.
6. Then book, and book both seats together so the airline puts you side by side. Ask what the second seat costs all in, and check the total on the screen before you pay.
7. Print the approval email and carry it. Paper. Not a screenshot on a phone that might be dead by the time you reach the gate.

Give yourself time. The law says 48 hours' notice, and 96 hours when a medical form has to be read. In real life, aim for two weeks.

If they say no

An airline can only refuse for a real safety reason, and it has to be able to back that up. "We don't do that" is not a reason.

1. Ask for it in writing. If you were refused out loud, you can ask the carrier to put the refusal and the reason in writing. Ask within 10 days.
2. Complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency. They are the referee for this. Complaints are free and you do not need a lawyer. Their website is otc-cta.gc.ca and their email is info@otc-cta.gc.ca.
3. Keep everything. The booking, the emails, the form, the name of anyone you spoke to, the date and time. A complaint with dates in it moves faster than one without.

The Agency can order the airline to fix it, and can order compensation. This is slower than the trip you are trying to take, which is exactly why the written approval before you pay matters so much.

Getting help through the airport

Help at the airport comes from two different places, and this trips people up.

• The airline handles you from check-in to your seat, and off the plane at the other end. Ask when you book, and at least 48 hours before you fly.
• The airport handles the curb, the parking lot and the arrivals hall.

Victoria International Airport (YYJ)

YYJ runs a Curbside Assistance Program, 24 hours a day. Their Passenger Engagement and Safety Officers will help with bags, push a wheelchair, or guide you from the curb to check-in, and from baggage claim back out to the curb.

You can also press the intercom at the curbside assistance drop-off area, or book ahead through the form on their website. Booking ahead is better.

Other things at YYJ worth knowing about:

• Accessible parking closest to the terminal doors, and automatic sliding doors at the entrances.
• Accessible washrooms with grab rails, raised toilets and emergency call buttons. There is a Changing Places adult change table with a hoist in the lower departure lounge — rare, and worth knowing if it is the reason you have avoided flying.
• Hearing loops in the lower departure lounge gate areas. Braille on washroom and elevator signs.
• Two animal relief areas before security and one after.
• A free Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard, for disabilities people cannot see. Pick one up at Customer Service in departures or the Information Desk in arrivals. It quietly tells staff you may need more time or patience.
• Free sensory kits at the same desks, and a step-by-step visual guide to the airport in the MagnusCards app.

Your wheelchair or scooter on a plane

This is the fear that keeps a lot of people at home, and the law is stronger than most people think.

If the airline damages, loses or destroys your mobility aid, or does not give it back to you in the usual time, it must:

• give you a temporary replacement that meets your needs,
• pay back what the problem cost you,
• arrange the repair, and
• if it cannot be repaired, or it is gone, give you a suitable replacement or pay the full replacement cost.

Full replacement cost means what the chair costs today, not what you paid for it years ago. The Canadian Transportation Agency has said an airline cannot cap it at the old purchase price.

Practical things that save chairs:

1. Photograph the chair at the gate, all sides, on the day. It settles arguments about what was already scratched.
2. Take the joystick, the cushion and any headrest with you into the cabin. They are the parts that get snapped off.
3. Tape written instructions to the chair — how to disengage the motors, how to lift it, what not to push on. Include your phone number.
4. Ask for gate delivery so the chair comes back to the aircraft door, not the baggage carousel.
5. Report damage before you leave the airport. Get a written report with a file number. Do not go home first.

Service dogs and oxygen

Service dogs

A trained service dog travels in the cabin with you. If your dog is too big to lie down safely in the floor space of one seat, the adjacent seat is one of the three doors to a free extra seat — see the three ways to qualify.

Airlines can ask for proof: an identification card from an accredited training organisation, or a signed statement about the dog's training. Ask at least 48 hours ahead.

Oxygen

We are not going to give you a rule here, because each airline sets its own and we could not confirm them. What we can tell you is what to ask, well before you book:

• Do you allow my portable oxygen concentrator on board? Which models?
• How many batteries do I need to bring, and how do you want them packed?
• Do you supply oxygen on this flight, and what does it cost?
• What form does my doctor have to fill in, and how many days ahead?

Ask for the answers by email. Oxygen is one of the few things that will genuinely stop you boarding if the paperwork is wrong.

VIA Rail

VIA does not run trains on Vancouver Island. The nearest VIA station is in Vancouver. But if you are going east, the rules are good and a lot of people do not know them.

• A support person travels free, in the same class of service as you. Not half price. Free.
• The support person must be at least 13. If you are travelling with a child under 13, the support person must be 18 or older, unless they are the child's parent.
• One certified service dog travels free. Ask 48 hours ahead and have the dog's certification ready.
• Most stations have wheelchair lifts, rated up to 272 kg (600 lb). Narrow wheelchairs are available on board.

To get the free support person seat, you need one of two things: the Request to Travel with a Support Person form, filled in by a health professional — a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse practitioner, audiologist or optometrist — or a valid card from a recognised disability organisation.

Send the form to support_person@viarail.ca, or fax 506-859-3943, or mail it to VIA Rail Customer Centre, 77 Canada Street, Moncton, NB E1C 0V3. Ask 48 hours ahead, or 96 hours if they need to read medical documents.

BC Ferries and the AFI card

Here is the thing people find unfair, and it helps to know why it is so.

The federal One Person, One Fare rule covers big airlines, VIA Rail, ferries that cross a border, and buses that cross a province line. BC Ferries sails only inside British Columbia, so that federal rule does not reach it. That is why an attendant on the ferry gets a discount rather than a free trip.

What BC Ferries does give is the Accessible Fare Identification card — the AFI card. It used to be called the Disabled Card, and searching the old name will not find it.

So a couple driving on with a car pays full price for the car and half price for two people. That is still worth having, and it adds up over a year of hospital trips.

Two more things about the card:

• If you hold a CNIB card, you get the discount without applying for an AFI card at all.
• The card has to be renewed every two years. It expires quietly and the discount just stops. Put the date in a calendar the day you get it.

Get the application at bcferries.com/accessibility, or phone and ask them to mail you one. Show the card to the ticket agent at the terminal — the discount is not automatic.

If you need help getting on and off, book it 24 to 48 hours ahead. Terminals and the larger ships have a limited number of manual wheelchairs, and elevators at the terminals and on board. Parking near the elevators on the car deck is limited, and on a busy sailing you may be asked to take a later boat. Guide and service dogs are welcome in all public areas.

Our Getting around Victoria guide covers the AFI application form itself, along with the bus pass, handyDART and the parking permit.

Travelling for medical care

If you are leaving the Island because a specialist here cannot see you, several programs exist. They cover different things and you can use more than one.

TAP BC — discounts on the way there

The Travel Assistance Program is for B.C. residents on MSP who have been referred by a doctor or nurse practitioner to non-emergency specialist care they cannot get in their own community. You must not already have travel coverage from another insurer.

Ask the clinic that referred you for the TAP form — they fill in most of it. Then phone with your Personal Health Number to get a confirmation number, and show the form when you book or board.

Hope Air — free flights, and often a hotel too

Hope Air is a charity, not a government program. In B.C. it runs two streams: one for cancer travel and one for every other health condition covered by MSP.

To qualify you need all three of these:

• a confirmed specialist appointment covered by your provincial health plan,
• a long enough distance that flying makes sense, and
• financial need — the cost of the trip is a real barrier for you.

There is no published income cut-off. They ask you to apply so they can look at your own situation. One escort flies free when the referring doctor confirms it is medically necessary. The escort must be 18 or older, and is covered for the flight and for hotel nights sharing your room.

BC Family Residence Program — a room while your child is in hospital

If your child is being treated at BC Children's Hospital or Sunny Hill Health Centre, and you live outside Metro Vancouver, this program covers accommodation so you can stay near them. It covers one room for up to 21 days per stay. Premature babies count.

A medical or community service professional confirms you are eligible, and the child's doctor confirms the treatment dates. You apply through Variety – The Children's Charity. The money goes straight to the approved place you stay, never to you.

Island communities that need a ferry to reach Vancouver are eligible even when they are technically close by.

Somewhere to stay, generally

The province keeps a Medical Travel Accommodation Listing of places that give discounted rates to patients and families travelling for care. It is a plain list and it is free to look at. Ask the clinic or hospital for it, or search for "medical travel accommodation BC".

Your parking permit and travel insurance

Taking your parking permit to another province

Provinces generally recognise each other's accessible parking permits, and so do most U.S. states. But we could not confirm this province by province, and the rules about where and how long you may park are set locally.

Before a trip, phone SPARC BC on 1-888-718-7794 and ask two things: whether your permit is recognised where you are going, and whether you should carry anything with it. Then check the parking rules for the actual city you will be in. Our Getting around Victoria guide explains how to get the permit in the first place, including the fee waiver.

Travel insurance with a condition you already have

Travel insurance is where people with disabilities and long-term conditions get caught. We are not going to quote you rules, because they differ by insurer and change often. What we will say is: ask these questions and get the answers in writing before you pay.

• How long does my condition have to have been unchanged for it to be covered? Insurers call this a stability period.
• Does a change in my medication dose count as a change in my condition?
• Is my condition excluded entirely, or covered if it has been stable?
• Am I already covered by a credit card, a workplace plan, or a plan through a membership? Many people are, and do not know.
• If I have to cancel because my health changes, what do I get back?

Answer the medical questionnaire honestly and completely. The most common reason a claim is denied is something left off the form, not something the insurer refused to cover.

Why people miss this

• Nobody tells you. There is no letter, no notice on the booking page, and no reason you would ever guess a free second seat exists.
• The agent has never heard of it. General reservations staff are not trained on this. Being told "that isn't a thing" by a real airline employee sounds final. It is not. Ask for the accessibility desk.
• People search the wrong words. "Free seat for carer" finds nothing. "One person one fare" and "additional seating for reasons of disability" find everything.
• The doctor's form costs money or takes weeks. Book the appointment as soon as you know you are travelling, and ask the clinic up front about the form fee.
• People ask too late. Under 48 hours and it stops being something the airline has to do.
• They assume it covers everything. It does not cover flights out of Canada, and it does not cover BC Ferries. Knowing the edges keeps you out of an argument at a counter.
• Fear of the wheelchair being broken. Understandable, but the law makes the airline pay full replacement cost on a domestic flight. The risk is real and so is the remedy.

Where to get help in Victoria

• Victoria Disability Resource Centre, 817A Fort Street — information and referral, and help with the ferry card. 250-595-0044
• YYJ Airport Services Centre — curbside help at Victoria airport. 250-953-7511
• TAP BC — 1-800-661-2668, 24 hours, for medical travel discounts.
• Hope Air — 1-877-346-4673 for free medical flights.
• The hospital social worker at the clinic that referred you — the fastest route to help nobody advertises.
• 211 — dial 211 any time for other options near you.

Or call the Reachable Line. We will phone the airline with you, or sit with you while you phone them, and we will help you read the form.

Related guides

• Getting around Victoria — the bus pass, handyDART, the AFI ferry card application and the accessible parking permit.
• Caring for someone — for the person who would be the support person on that free seat.
• The PWD designation — the door to the ferry card and much else in B.C.
• The Disability Tax Credit — a doctor is filling in a form anyway; this one is worth thousands.
• All guides — the full library.

Where this comes from

Everything on this page comes from a government, carrier or airport page we read on the date shown. Airline policies change without notice. If you are reading this long after the date at the top, phone and check before you book — and get the answer in writing either way.

• Canadian Transportation Agency, Additional Seating and the One Person, One Fare Requirement for Domestic Travel: A Guide (the three categories, medical documents, 48 and 96 hours, taxes, written refusal within 10 days): otc-cta.gc.ca — additional seating guide (read 3 September 2026)
• Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations (SOR/2019-244), Part 2 — section 25 on which carriers are covered and the 1,000,000 passenger test, section 31 on no fare or charge, section 32 on 48 hours' notice: laws-lois.justice.gc.ca — SOR/2019-244 (read 3 September 2026)
• Canadian Transportation Agency, Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations Highlights: otc-cta.gc.ca — ATPDR highlights (read 3 September 2026)
• WestJet, Seating accommodations ($0 base fare on wholly domestic itineraries, Air Travel Requirements Assessment form, MedDesk email and fax, 48 hours excluding weekends and holidays, 10 days suggested): westjet.com — seating accommodations (read 3 September 2026)
• Porter Airlines, Travelling with a personal attendant and Requesting a specific or extra seat (no charge for an attendant's seat within Canada, Form A and Form B, immobilised leg, obesity): flyporter.com — disability assistance (read 3 September 2026)
• Air Canada, Air Travel Requirements Assessment Form: aircanada.com — assessment form (PDF) (read 3 September 2026)
• VIA Rail, Accessibility (support person travels free, age rules, Request to Travel with a Support Person form, email, fax and mailing address, service dog, wheelchair lift 272 kg, phone and relay numbers): viarail.ca — accessibility (read 3 September 2026)
• BC Ferries, Accessibility (AFI card 50% off passenger fare, attendant aged 12 or older at 50%, wheelchair assistance 24 to 48 hours ahead, elevators, service dogs, 1-888-223-3779): bcferries.com — accessibility (read 3 September 2026)
• Disability Alliance BC, Changes to the BC Ferries Accessible Fare Identification Card (two-year renewal): disabilityalliancebc.org (read 1 September 2026)
• Province of B.C., Travel Assistance Program (TAP BC) (eligibility, carrier discounts, escort rule, what is not covered, 1-800-661-2668): gov.bc.ca — TAP BC (read 3 September 2026)
• Province of B.C., BC Family Residence Program (one room, up to 21 days per stay, outside Metro Vancouver, Variety – The Children's Charity): gov.bc.ca — BC Family Residence Program (read 3 September 2026)
• Province of B.C., Medical Travel Accommodation Listing: csa.pss.gov.bc.ca — medical travel accommodation (read 3 September 2026)
• Hope Air, Eligibility criteria and Escort assistance (three criteria, one medically necessary escort aged 18+, flight and shared hotel room, 1-877-346-4673): help.hopeair.ca — eligibility (read 3 September 2026)
• Victoria International Airport, Accessibility (Curbside Assistance 24/7, 250-953-7511, Changing Places table, hearing loops, Sunflower lanyard, sensory kits, animal relief areas): yyj.ca — accessibility (read 3 September 2026)
• Canadian Transportation Agency, Baggage Requirements for Domestic Services: A Guide and Travelling with Mobility Aids (temporary replacement, repair, full replacement cost, the 1,288 SDR limit and the special declaration of interest): otc-cta.gc.ca — baggage requirements (read 3 September 2026)
• SPARC BC, Parking permits: sparc.bc.ca — parking permits (read 1 September 2026)

Reachable is not an airline, BC Ferries, VIA Rail, or the government. This guide explains public rules in plain language so you can go and claim them. It is not advice about your own situation. Airline policies can change between the day we checked and the day you fly, so confirm in writing before you pay.