air travel w/scooter

[OJoyfulOne]

Hey guys,

Looking for some advice. My sister and I have a cruise booked for the end of Nov. 2007. I've only flown one time before with USAirways.

Would anyone recommend Air Tran or Southwest for traveling with an ECV (actually two as both my twin sis and I are physically disabled)? I get a little nervous about the care taken with my EVC and how gentle the staff are getting me into the seats as I cannot walk and need to be lifted into a seat.

Thanks!

Joy

 

[hematite153]

Would anyone recommend Air Tran or Southwest for traveling with an ECV

I can't really speak to travelling with an ECV. However, my experience of the staff on the one occasion I flew with AirTran was not favourable--they were shouting (a personal conversation) over the heads of guests waiting to board instead of taking boarding passes.

That said, I've only flown with them once, so I may have just started with a bad experience.

 

[clkelley]

We've traveled with hubby's ECV with Southwest on a couple of occassions. They were very gentle with it. He drove it all the way down the jetway and then boarded from there. They took it and stored it in the hold without disassembly (just removed the seat). When we landed in Orlando, we waited by the elevator and they brought it up there. The return trip went just as smoothly. Hubby's scooter is quite old, so the battery disconnects are obvious, but the freewheel is not. We leave the key in the scooter and the ground crew gives it to the FA. Right before we depart the plane, we give the key back to the FA and he/she gives it to the ground crew at MCO.

Hubby can board the plane himself, so I don't know how the aisle chair works.

 

[eternaldisneyfan]

There is a new airplane service that allows you to fly in your wheelchair or transfers you to a seat while your chair stays in the cabin. www.iflymat.org
That is the only way that I would fly.

Christamae

 

[shovan]

We choose SW whenever we can. My DH is now in a WC but previously used a scooter. The people at SW due a great job, with the pre-boarding & moving DH from his WC to the aisle chair & into the plane seat. Let them know when you book that you will need to take the scooters to the door of the plane. They will also need to know what type of batteries you have. They will have you pre-board & move you to the aisle chair. Then will then take the scooter & put it in the cargo hold.

I would take the key & tell them how to roll the scooter instead of having them drive it. We have had the key broken off in the cargo hold more than once. Damage can happen when they put the ecv/wc in cargo but SW seems to have the greatest respect for the handling of them. Good Luck!

 

[clkelley]

We choose SW whenever we can. My DH is now in a WC but previously used a scooter. The people at SW due a great job, with the pre-boarding & moving DH from his WC to the aisle chair & into the plane seat. Let them know when you book that you will need to take the scooters to the door of the plane. They will also need to know what type of batteries you have. They will have you pre-board & move you to the aisle chair. Then will then take the scooter & put it in the cargo hold.

I would take the key & tell them how to roll the scooter instead of having them drive it. We have had the key broken off in the cargo hold more than once. Damage can happen when they put the ecv/wc in cargo but SW seems to have the greatest respect for the handling of them. Good Luck!

The key doesn't stay in our scooter in the cargo hold, the crew always hands it to the FA before closing the plane, and it is given to us.

 

[OJoyfulOne]

Thanks Everyone!

I just get really nervous about my scooter......

I'll remember to take the key out and tell them to push it or ask them to return it to me once in the cargo.

I think I'm going to try and book online with SW. SW won't need to know when booking online that I am disabled, correct? I just need to give them a call and make that known to SW after I book online?

Thanks,

Joy

 

[clkelley]

It used to be you had to call and add it. There are now checkboxes in the booking engine that allow you to list your scooter and what type of batteries you have and what type of assistance you need. It's up to you whether you fill them out or not.

 

[SueM in MN]

I would also make sure that they know that you can't walk and will be needing an aisle chair. Typically, people using ECVs can walk a little, so seeing as you have an ECV, they may assume that you can.

We have traveled several times with AirTran with DD and her manual wheelchair. They were extremely nice and careful and using the aisle chair was easy. When we landed, we reminded the Flight Attendant that we needed an aisle chair so that it was waiting for us.