Medical preboarding with SWA

[drinkme]

My MIL is flying to Orlando in a couple of weeks. She is having problems with her knees and walking. She will be asking for a wheelchair to get through the airport. What is the procedure to get her the blue slip for medical preboarding? Does she need a letter from her doctor? Or does she just ask the skycap for the blue slip?

TIA!

 

[jmartinez1895]

If she has the wheelchair at the gate she does not need the blue slip. They will announce that people in wheelchair and with the blue slip need to line up for preboarding and that will be all.
She should call the airline and have it noted on her reservation that she needs a wheelchair. It is not mandatory, but it helps them know to expect her. Also once she gets to the gate to check they will see she is in a chair.
If she is not going to use the chair at the gate then she needs to tell the check in agent that she needs to preboard and explain why ( takes longer to walk, afraid of being pushed by other passengers, needs longer to get seated, exct..) They should be able to help out.

 

[clanmcculloch]

Even with the wheelchair, I would ask the gate agent about the blue sleeve. Different airports will work differently. We've only travelled with a wheelchair once but at our local airport the gate agent said that because of the wheelchair we didn't need a blue sleeve when I asked so then in Orlando I didn't bother and the gate agent gave me a hard time for not having a blue sleeve despite the wheelchair (he still let me preboard with my wheelchair bound DD but he was really rude and got my other DD who is autistic very upset).

IMO it's best to ask the gate agent. It only takes a minute out of your time where you're sitting around waiting anyway.

When talking with the gate agent, also confirm that there will be a wheelchair waiting at your destination city when you land. Even if it's not there they'll get one but it's a lot faster if there's already one there.

 

[stargazertechie]

It varies from Airport to Airport. Flying out of Chicago-midway, a skycap got me a ticket for the "wheelchair line", at which point transport took over and pushed me to the gate. At the gate, the gate agent was able to get me a blue preboard sleeve.

In Nashville, no blue preboard needed if you're in a chair.

 

[bidnow5]

I had a wheel chair and didn't need anything to preboard in Orlando on SWA I was not happy with them they asked if I could walk down the ramp to the plane I said I think I could but would be very very slow at boarding they said get up walk to the plane I was in agony by the time I got to my seat next time I would say no

 

[aubriee]

My mom had a wheelchair for both our Oct/Nov trip on Delta and also our May trip on American. She didn't need anything else to preboard for either flight.

 

[mrsksomeday]

We use SWA only, Bill uses a power wheelchair and they still ask us to get the preboard. I would ask about it to be on the safe side.

 

[geek+nerd]

Ditto to the above statement. We only fly SWA as well. I have my own customized wheelchair and I am always told to get the preboarding "permission slip." As someone else already mentioned, it will take less than two minutes to get it. It's really not a big deal.