Rolling Traveler

As I said on Tuesday, it is important to let the airline know in advance that you are traveling with a wheelchair, or indeed with an infant, with an assistance dog, or with any other special circumstance. If you’ve never had to do this, you might assume that you can just check a box on the airline’s web site as you’re doing your booking. However, this is not the case; as a rule, you have to call the airline and have them attach a note to your booking. There are a few pieces of information that you will need, and today I’d like to detail these.

The first thing to consider is whether your wheelchair is transportable. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, US airlines are required to transport passengers’ wheelchairs free of charge, and this is generally true around the world. Manual wheelchairs are generally not an issue. However, not all airlines will transport all types of motorized wheelchair: some will only transport dry battery-powered chairs, for example. If you have a motorized wheelchair, then either read through the terms and conditions of transport, or, if you can’t stomach that much legal language, call the airline before you make your booking to check their policy. To get the answers you need, you should have certain information ready: the type of battery, and the dimensions and weight of the wheelchair are the minimum. It’s also best if you can tell them when you’re planning to fly, as there may already be a motorized wheelchair on the flight, and the plane might not have the capacity for a second one. As I mentioned, manual wheelchair users don’t need to go through this step, unless they are traveling with a very small airline or to an unusual destination.

My second piece of advice is not to actually make the booking on the phone. You may think this is odd: after all, if you use a motorized wheelchair, I’ve just advised you to call before making your flight reservation. Why not make the reservation, since you’re already talking to someone in the appropriate office? I advise against it because most airlines charge an extra fee for reservations done over the phone: for example, American Airlines charges a $45 fee for telephone bookings, Delta charges $25, and British airways charges between $25 and $40, depending on the country you’re calling from.

Make your reservation online, and then, you’ve guessed it, call the airline to let them know you are traveling with a wheelchair. Whether you use a manual or motorized wheelchair, it’s best to have the dimensions and weight of the chair at hand: while larger airlines rarely ask for this information, most smaller airlines do.

It’s also at this stage that you’ll need to declare how much help you need. Can you get to the door of the plane yourself, or do you need someone to push you through the terminal? Do you need to be lifted from your wheelchair to your seat, or can you walk a short distance on crutches or unaided? Will you need an aisle wheelchair in-flight? Giving this information speeds up the whole check-in process (although for certainty, the check-in desk staff will probably ask you the same questions again when you get there).

Unfortunately, finding the phone number that you have to call can be complicated. The airline web sites do not conform to a standard format, naturally enough, as they were all designed by different companies, and I find that I sometimes have to look at a page twice to work out where the link to the phone numbers is. Some sites have links in side bars on the home page (e.g. American Airlines), others have links in the header or fine-print footer of the home page (e.g. Lufthansa), still others make the links available during the booking process (e.g. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic). In a later post, I’ll collect together the details of where to find these links as a guide to the sites.

I dislike ending on a bad note, but there is a criticism I have of many of these airlines. I would expect the numbers that you have to call to give this information (which is after all important for the airline as well as for you, the passenger) to be toll free, or at least no more expensive than a local call. However, in some cases, the calls are charged at higher rates, and I am in the process of compiling a list of the culprits in this area. It hardly seems fair to have to pay more to supply information of this nature. It may not be large amounts of money, but it’s the principle of the thing that bothers me.

That’s all for today. Have a good evening all!

Derek.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS