Additional Needs

Our flying experience with a wheelchair

Posted by Amy Sweeney on 18th June 2019 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities, Travel Tips

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When it comes to going on holiday with children, going on a plane can be a nerve wracking thought.

Will they be ok? Will they disrupt the whole flight? What if they’re sick!?

And about a million other questions.

Now, add on top of that a child that’s a full time wheelchair user and those nerve wracking thoughts intensify. A lot.

So, I’m currently on a plane with my son who is unable to sit or stand without support while I’m writing this and I thought I would share my experience.

To begin with, did you know that airlines allow 2 extra pieces of luggage for a disabled flyer? This made a huge difference as we could easily take his wheelchair and his Firefly GoTo Seat without having to pay any extra in luggage allowance - brilliant!

We made sure we arrived in plenty of time (plus an extra hour on top!) for the flight, there was no way I was prepared to rush about.

We made the airport experience part of our holiday and had food, had a walk about the shops and looked at the big planes.

When it came to checking in we didn’t have to wait in huge lines, we were able to go through special assistance and it was fairly quick and stress-free.

It was time to board our plane and again, we didn’t have to wait in a huge queue, we were able to go to the front and get help from the special assistance team on the lift up to the plane.

One worry we had was having to lift our son up the stairs to the flight but we got a lift right up to the door and was able to wheel him right to his seat on the flight! Once we had got to our seats, I attached our firefly goto seat to the plane seat easily and safely and I could completely relax knowing that he would be comfy for the flight.

I took his ear defenders just in case and although he doesn’t have a dummy during the day anymore, I took that with us too (I figured it might help with the pressure of taking off)

We had lots of snacks and the iPad for the journey and I can honestly say - we had a good flight.

After we landed, his wheelchair was brought right to us and there was no having to lift him anywhere.

Especially when we landed, the airport staff were amazing.

I forgot to add too - we had my sons medications in our hand luggage and because we took a letter to state that it was prescribed to him, there was absolutely no problems with taking it on with us.

Overall, we had a great experience and will definitely be doing it again!