1st time flying with extra chair

My DH uses a power chair, we are taking our extra manual chair for tender posts. What do we do with it at the airport? Does it get checked with the other bags? I will be taking a bag with his air mattress and battery charger, I guess I should put the leg rests in there too. This bag always get opened and checked. Last time we drove so there was no problem with the extra chair.

You can check it with your bags, or gate-check it with his power chair. Some people like to use the extra manual wc to carry bags through the airport, but to some people it's just more of a hassle to lug it with them. If you do gate-check it, there is a less chance of it getting trashed by the airline. So I guess it's a personal choice.

Candy

We checked the power scooter with the luggage and gate checked the manual. Easier for us.

We gate check both. My mother drives her power chair, my dad pushes the manual chair piled with our hand baggage, and I push our travel lift. We gate check both chairs and the lift. Be sure if you are taking a power chair that you remove the controls (the most commonly damaged item) and label the chair so they know how to put it in free-wheel. We do this in both English and Spanish (depending on where we are traveling).

Generally we check my husband's manual chair with the luggage and gate check his power chair. When we do so, I disconnect and put the chiair in the free wheel mode. I also take his gel seat and elevating leg rests aboard the plane with me to avoid damage.

However, when we go to Barcelona next week, we are going to gate check both chairs because two years ago they would not bring his power chair back to the plane in Heathrow and Barcelona. As a result, he had to use airport chairs which are too small for him (he's 6'2" and has a brace on one leg making it difficult for him to fully bend it.)

Thanks for the advise. I guess we will have to think this over.

Wouldn't it be nice to if they make planes accessable. Remove a seat and lock in the chair like on the bus. I know this is won't work on old planes (doors are kind of small) but new planes should be made so they could stay in there seats.

I always put the roho cushion in the seat and then I usually have to stick my carry on under his feet because they don't hit the floor.

My husband can still stand to transfer. On one budget airline which had no first class, he was able to drive his chair onto the plane and stand and turn into his bulkhead seat. It was a lot easier for him and the airline staff then transferring him in and out of an aisle chair.

There is no way the FAA would ever approve this. Wheelchairs and wheelchair tie-downs do not meet the crash test requirements for seats on modern jets. Most wheelchairs also do not have head protection that would prevent you from breaking your neck in the case of a crash or even a sudden exceleration.

(KLD)

Splinter:

I must have been unclear. My husband did not fly in his chair. Instead of transferring to an aisle chair and then to his seat, he drove his chair onto the plane and transferred directly to his seat. Then they stowed his chair with the luggage as always.

I was responding to SarahsMom, not to you.

Your method will only work if 1) the person can stand (my mother cannot) and 2) if the seats by the entrance are your seats. On many flights these are first class seats, and you cannot get to your seat in a regular wheelchair unless you can walk. Most who cannot walk or stand still have to use the aisle chair.

Splinter:

I agree. It only worked because it was abudget airline that did not have first class seats.

Splinter:

You don't know it but you just made me laugh so hard. Thinking about breaking your neck if the plane crashed. A broken neck is what got us in a wheelchair in the first place. If our plane crashes we are a goner anyway. Maybe this was only funny to me, but I could use a good laugh. Thanks.

A broken neck is what got us in a wheelchair in the first place.

Not really funny. I know two people who had paraplegia, then were in another car accident and became tetraplegic due to a cervical fracture. It would also be a much more significant disability for someone with a amputation, or other non-SCI disabilities (such as my mother's MS was when she was first diagnosed).