Just back from travel with scooter

[RNMOM]

I just wanted to let you know I took my new mobility scooter on our trip via Continental Airlines from Cleveland to Denver. I drove it to the gate, they tagged it well and took it at the beginning of boarding. I had it within a minute of arrival and the doors being opened at both Denver and when we returned to Cleveland airports.

The handlers came and talked to me about how they would take it in the elevator and not disassemble it. I had the information in my seat pocket about the disassembly and the battery information but they took my word that it was a gel style battery. I couldn't have asked for nicer people or better service all the way around.

What I did to prepare was...remove all loose pieces. I took the charging cable and my basket and poncho/rain protection in a bag on the plane. I technically had an additional carryone but I had bought a second seat due to my size and wouldn't have been an issue anyway. I also took stick on address labels, crossed off my street address and put my cell phone and home phone numbers on them. I stuck them to all the parts, on the underside of things so they didn't show. I figured that if things "fell off" I would at least give them the numbers to call. I believe in OVERpreparing. LOL.

So, even though I was nervous about my scooter getting damaged I needn't have been. I used that thing the whole trip and it was great to be able to get around so easily. I even carried all the bags and purses so my family didn't have to. Yep, that's me, the pack mule. We had a nice time in Colorado Springs and even better time in Santa Fe and Albuquerque at the balloon fiesta. I got to meet my new great great nephew and tried my best to spoil him rotten. I will plan to fly again with my scooter, my new lease on life.

 

[shovan]

Thanks for the post! Glad you had a good time & everything went so well! I'm happy to know Continental handled everything well. We haven't flown with them before, so it's good to hear they did a fine job.
I know we were particularly nervous on our last WDW trip, as my DH had an almost brand new power WC (less a month old!). We flew with Southwest & they did a great job. I removed the joystick control from the arm & the flight attendant stored it in their bin.
Good idea on marking all parts! We'll use that tip next time we fly!
Thanks!

 

[Nanajo1]

Thanks for reporting. It was good to hear you were treated so well and your scooter too! I'm still nervous about taking my power chair. But it would save me a ton of money not renting an ECV each trip.

 

[SueM in MN]

What I did to prepare was...remove all loose pieces. I took the charging cable and my basket and poncho/rain protection in a bag on the plane. I technically had an additional carryone but I had bought a second seat due to my size and wouldn't have been an issue anyway. I also took stick on address labels, crossed off my street address and put my cell phone and home phone numbers on them. I stuck them to all the parts, on the underside of things so they didn't show. I figured that if things "fell off" I would at least give them the numbers to call. I believe in OVERpreparing. LOL.

thanks for the report and glad to hear it went well.
That is a good idea to mark the pieces.
As far as the number of carry ons, if the carry on is something necessary because of the person's disability, it doesn't count against the number of items they can carry on (that's the same no matter what airline).