4 replies to this topic

[RONBATES#88]

hi im a c5 c6 quad im going to vegas to play pool in a wheelchair tournament but havnt flown since ive been hurt just wandered if any one has flown and what they did with yur chair and a good airplane to choose from i use a power chair

[kdenon01]

My husband has always flown in his manual chair. He is going to try to fly in his power chair in May. So I don't have too much advice on that yet. But I am pretty sure they put your chair with the luggage. And our personal favorite airline is Northwest. They always bump us up to first class whenever we have flown with them.

Good luck! Have fun!

[RONBATES#88]

kdenon01, on Jan 10 2009, 03:54 PM, said:

My husband has always flown in his manual chair. He is going to try to fly in his power chair in May. So I don't have too much advice on that yet. But I am pretty sure they put your chair with the luggage. And our personal favorite airline is Northwest. They always bump us up to first class whenever we have flown with them.

Good luck! Have fun!

he4y thanks for responding yull have to let me4 know how they do it when he flies in may ty

[Scribbler]

I have no experience of flying in the US but I recently flew to Africa and took my power chair. They only allow solid or Jel batteries. They also disconnected the battery terminals, which was a pain for my PA to re connect. The chair goes in the baggage hold and can get rough treatment; it all depends who handles it.

It doesn't matter which Airline you fly with as its the baggage handlers and Airport staff who deal with your chair, which is classed as baggage. I don't think they realise we are dependant on our chairs, as they are on their legs. Cut off their legs for a day and see how far they get!!!

When I arrived at Heathrow Airport, my power chair was sat in the terminal almost in pieces, the batteries had been taken off and dumped at the side. Fortunately a couple of guys heped us out as the batteries are heavy.

I'd advise you to remove as much of the loose bits of your chair as possible, especially the controls, which can easily be damaged. We did a dummy run at home, then at the Airport we removed both arm rests including the controls and took them on the plane.; I sat on my Roho cushion.

You can read about it in "Scrib's in Africa" thread.

I hope its better for you.

[KarenFerguson]

Yep, they put your chair with the luggage.

Here's my basic travel tips:

Make sure you take your cushion off, if you don't want it lost or if you want to sit on it for the plane ride. When you check in at the airport make sure you let them know that you'll be needing an aisle chair. After going through security and getting to the gate, once again tell the the personnel that you need an aisle chair. And, if one isn't already at the gate ask them when they expect one to arrive. At this time also ask them about boarding first and where they will store your chair. Also at the gate, you can ask them about changing seats if you would like to. Often they will try to place anyone in a wheelchair in the bulk head seats at the front of the plane. While this does give you extra room to transfer, more often than not, those seats will not have removable arm rests. Not to mention you have to store all your carry on items and you can't brace yourself (hubby's almost fallen forward in the bulk head seats). We prefer to be towards the front of the plane, but not in the bulk head. Also, on some planes one side of the air craft will have arms that go up and the other will not - so check that too. Once you're on the plane and in the air, make sure that you tell the flight crew that you'll need a aisle chair when you land, that way they can call your destination airport and get one there waiting for you. After you begin your decent, check once again with the flight crew to make sure there's going to be an aisle chair.

They also might be able to store your chair (if it's small enough) on board instead of with the luggage.

Good luck!

Edited by KarenFerguson, 11 January 2009 - 11:40 PM.