Flying with a powerchair is hard, but making those memories (even the hard ones) are priceless. We started with a regular wheelchair, then a travel electric chair, finally a powerchair. I did not have any idea you could do air travel with a 400lb powerchair, but you can. After numerous airline trips with my daughter, navigating ALS, airline mistakes, and more stress than I can count , here's everything I wish someone had told us before we started.
This isn't the official airline version. This is the real version of what I do to make travel work.
Always. I mean it.
With ALS, anything can happen. I've had to cancel four trips since Erin was diagnosed, and 2 of those were non-refundable and that hurt financially a lot.
Even when you think everything is stable, things change fast in ALS, I would always factor that in and pay for the flexibility if you can.
I've tried travel insurance twice. Both times, they denied the claims.
The first time, they covered "lost luggage" but not a lost wheelchair, which is unbelievable, considering the wheelchair is the most important thing we travel with.
The second time, our trip was canceled because stem cells weren't available, and they denied it because it wasn't considered a treatment prescribed directly by a doctor.
So I lost the trip money and the insurance money.
Read every word before you buy. Ask specifically:
Do not assume.