Hi there, we’re finally plucking up the courage to try to plan a holiday abroad… and then the thought of how to fly with and insure my powered wheelchair came up! Is anyone able to recommend an insurance company when going abroad please? Especially if you’ve had to make a claim and it’s been handled well? I’d be absolutely lost without my wheels now!
Thanks in anticipation
Jx
hiya j
no idea re insurance but i very recently got my first portable powerchair. lots of rules about what weight carers can lift and weight for on plane. i didnt realise just how complicated it was!
hope you find the info that you seek.
ellie
Definitely get insurance for your powered chair. Word of warning: normal policy includes accidental damage, ie tree falls on you. But DOES NOT cover “mechanical or electrical damage”. What happens most with electric chairs? Y ou guessed it - the LATTER! So take out both, it is worth it in the end. Speak to the airline in advance, WELL in advance, batterys have to be disconnected or disabled and have the specs for your chair to hand, you will need to be clear on dimensions, weight, etc to tell them.
do you have lead battery, lithium ion, or nic-cad? Contact the manufacturer and enquire about regs, some have to be in the hold but must be wrapped in a certain way.
Hello J
It will really help to have breakdown insurance.
I recently flew with Turkish Airlines who were brilliant. They asked if the batteries were dry and I said yes, assuming all new chairs had dry batteries.
Speak to the airline first if you have any doubts.
There are a few travel bloggers out there who’d be quite willing to answer any other queries.
Best wishes, Steve
Oh my goodness! It’s a nightmare! Thanks so much for all of your advice
Thank you!
all the best, Jx
Can i just say trust no one, not even Family(if they are as useless as me!) and if i may now share a slightly amusing holiday wheelchair story!
Before we knew about the possibility of my wife having Ms when her problems just seemed to be nerve damage to her neck but this did give her a lot of problems so i had to help her by doing most cooking, cleaning etc as well as helping her to wash hair etc, we decided to go to spain(where we have a house) as we have many times.
We took our daughter who has cerebal palsy and is fully wheelchair dependant and loves it out there the only downside is it means she is in manual chair as we couldn’t get her big heavy powerchair from airport to our town.
With my wife unable to do much care for her and with me now doing a bit to look after them both on this trip i dubbed myself SUPER CARER! and it was going very well until after a morning out with my mum and dad we arrived back to their house and opened the back doors of hire car to find no wheelchair!
After lifting Kayleigh into side door i had somehow driven off leaving the chair in the road. So me,my mum(the best spanish speaker amongst us,but very limited still) and Kayleigh (as she was kind of stuck unless we used a wheelbarrow) headed back 25mins to where we had left if. I was slightly nervous but we had the biggest laugh ever joking about it on the way there,its not like anyone’s going to nick a wheelchair is it? Even if the place we were at is a town which is known to be rough and where we often see heavily armed police doing roadblocks as we pass if we are on a late flight, and the locals near us would consider it a no go zone.
When we got there it wasn’t anywhere to be seen! surely the barman where we had been (directly opp)had seen it and whipped it in til we came back? He was no where to be seen as there had been a shift change and other geezer knew nothing. The reality that some lowlife had pinched it was now dawning on me and i was ready to give up and find a mobility shop and waste money we couldn’t really afford!
The door of the house we were parked outside now had people home and front door open,we could hear them but no amount of hollering bought them out(front gate locked). Eventually a couple of young kids came out to play and we managed to get some info that “hombre in taxi he took it away”, she didn’t know where he took it.
We spoke to a woman a few doors down and after getting her son who spoke some English she tried to ring police for us but couldn’t get trough! The son then taught us to use google maps on kay’s phone and set it up to take us to the gardia civil.
It took my mum about 20 mins to explain to plod how we “abandoned” wheelchair and it was now gone, Before i managed to get in about taxi and the guy suddenly picked up the phone and made several calls. Another one not in uniform came in and took over desk and the original picked up his guns and came out and was going to walk us somewhere but i said no we take “coche” as kay was sat in it,She nearly died of shock when this burly copper with guns got in back next to her!
Anyway he told us taxi driver had taken it to medical centre,but they had closed and had taken it to mayors office next door where they ran an old people/disabled day centre. When we got there to collect it they were so thankful to us!! as they were worried what had happened to person from chair!
It really was one of the most strange days and was amazing how much assistance we got from complete strangers and just cant imagine the English Police being as helpful to a stupid foreigner who abandons something in street and is surprised its gone when he comes back an hour later!