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I am hoping for some advice regarding the airport assistance from those who have used them.
I will be flying later this year with my Mother-in-Law who has been suffering from some mobility issues. On good days she can walk OK without assistance, on bad days she needs her walker and on awful days she requires a wheelchair. There is no rhyme nor reason to what the day may be like (Good/Bad/Awful), so we just have to wait to the point in time.
We will be flying business class to London (Heathrow) and then over to Portugal (Faro).
She has a walker/wheelchair combo that we will be using for the holiday
So it looks like we should be taking “Service 2: WCHS – wheelchair stairs” in case one of the planes is accessed by stairs rather than runway.
The main question is, should we take the option of an airport wheelchair and put the walker/wheelchair combo into the hold at check in, or use our own mobility device and have it put in to hold at the plane door and hope they return it to us at the other end?Any and all advice or experiences shared would be very much appreciated!
Thought I would give this thread a bump just in case there is someone with experience to share who may have missed this the 1st time…
I travelled a number of times with my mother who was using a wheelchair. I’m assuming the wheelchair / walker combo that you have is similar to the one we used ( Rollz Motion ? )
We took the whole thing on board,then the seat part went in the overhead and the frame went back out and into the hold then was delivered to the door at the end when I would put it together again.
I wouldn’t trust it to the carousel and preferred to know where it was. Too expensive to be lost or damaged.
My mum wasn’t keen on being helped, other than by me of course 😀 .
You will need patience as usually the last off but of course you do get to board first.
Happy travels.Thank you for your insight @Annie
The model that we are using is the Drive Diamond Deluxe which can be easily taken apart to be put stored in a XXL wheeled holdall. We got this device 2nd hand with this trip in mind, so we would not mind if it got damaged.
So did you opt for the assistance with own wheelchair or just go it yourselves with own wheelchair? I am unsure of how well signposted the airport is for non-escalator journeys as it is not something I have had to consider before.I can’t comment on your other questions and don’t know about other airports but Heathrow T5 does has lift alternatives to escalators everywhere as far as I know. Not necessarily well signposted but reasonably easy to find, especially if you follow the BA staff who are deliberately walking beyond the escalators.
@Lyn
That is really good to know, thank youI’d say always request the assistance. You can then use it or just manage yourselves as you wish/need. No problem with wheelchair routes in LHR, MCR & BHX in my experience but I’m sure all airports have the same. In fact airports are far easier than being out and about generally. No kerbs, bumps or weather to deal with. I lost my mum last year and I still note every cracked pavement, path with no dropped kerb and out of order lift.
I’m sure you will have a smooth trip.The one thing I would add is that Mobility Assistance at UK airports can be shockingly slow. Nothing to do with the people, as they are normally great, it’s just that there aren’t enough of them, especially at Heathrow.
One more thing, we were at Faro a few weeks ago and at immigration there is a dedicated desk for assistance customers. I used that instead of the significantly longer Non-EU queue. The guard was snotty at first until I pointed out my prosthetic leg. He was apologetic and we were through in a flash.
Thank you everyone for you help with this, it will be very useful when helping my Mother-in-Law decide on what they want to do.
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