Travelling abroad?

[icerink]

Hi guys,

Going for my first holiday abroad with my CPAP machine. Going to the hospital next week to get a letter so I can travel with it as hand luggage.

Flying with Easyjet to Rhodes, so my machine will have to be my only piece of hand luggage

Has anyone ever had any problems travelling with their machine? Any advice anyone can offer? Im just a bit worried about being stopped at airport security etc etc...

Thanks

[pjgbear]

I was told by my hospital that Medical equipment does not count as part of your hand luggage, check with the airline direct.

I'm sure you've thought of it but don't forget an extension lead & a plug adapter as you may need them

[pjgbear]

Hi guys,

Going for my first holiday abroad with my CPAP machine. Going to the hospital next week to get a letter so I can travel with it as hand luggage.

Flying with Easyjet to Rhodes, so my machine will have to be my only piece of hand luggage

Has anyone ever had any problems travelling with their machine? Any advice anyone can offer? Im just a bit worried about being stopped at airport security etc etc...

Thanks

Security may want to swab your machine for explosives, if you can give them a heads up when you join the queue, they may sort your machine out quickly, it will be XRayed and you may be asked to open the bag to show them, have your doctors letter handy, do not let them check it in the hold, you can get a medical alert tag to go on bag as an identifier to help, take all the handbooks & instructions with you too.

[icerink]

Thanks guys. I checked on Easyjet's policy about medical equipment. I know im probably being a bit thick here, but I am still a little unclear as to what to do.

Easyjet's policy is as follows:

Passengers travelling with vital medication and/or medical equipment are permitted to carry up to 10kgs of medication and/or equipment free of charge in addition to their standard hold baggage allowance provided that it is carried in one bag. Where medical equipment is packed in more than one bag, the customer will be charged an additional bag charge fee.
To classify as vital medication and/or medical equipment the passenger would require medical documentation from their doctor confirming that the passenger must carry this medication and/or equipment.
Passengers travelling with controlled drugs and/or injectable materials are advised to carry a medical letter/prescription confirming details of the drugs and the intended use.
The medication/medical equipment must be carried separately from the passengers standard hold baggage to ensure ease of recognition at check-in.

Does this mean that I DO have to check my machine in to the hold? I know they are very strict about only allowing ONE piece of hand luggage.

[pjgbear]

Thanks guys. I checked on Easyjet's policy about medical equipment. I know im probably being a bit thick here, but I am still a little unclear as to what to do.

Easyjet's policy is as follows:

Passengers travelling with vital medication and/or medical equipment are permitted to carry up to 10kgs of medication and/or equipment free of charge in addition to their standard hold baggage allowance provided that it is carried in one bag. Where medical equipment is packed in more than one bag, the customer will be charged an additional bag charge fee.
To classify as vital medication and/or medical equipment the passenger would require medical documentation from their doctor confirming that the passenger must carry this medication and/or equipment.
Passengers travelling with controlled drugs and/or injectable materials are advised to carry a medical letter/prescription confirming details of the drugs and the intended use.
The medication/medical equipment must be carried separately from the passengers standard hold baggage to ensure ease of recognition at check-in.

Does this mean that I DO have to check my machine in to the hold? I know they are very strict about only allowing ONE piece of hand luggage.

Seems to me like it reads very vague - ring EasyJet, they are usually quite helpful, you do not want the CPAP to be in the hold, it may get damaged and then you will be suffering again

[Tigers Fan]

Painful

Hi Guys

It is all very simple. Regard your CPAP as if it were a hair drier and proceed accordingly.

You do not want it in the hold and chucked about by baggage handlers - so forget that part of the regs.

You do not need to use it during the flight - so forget that part of the regs.

You cannot take it as hand luggage separate from your allowance - so forget that dream.

Strip your machine to minimum volume and weight, stick it in your hand luggage bag - and go enjoy your holidays. Hair-drier - same as!

TF

ps all this is well covered in several threads over the years.

[James @ Intus]

I read that as you can have it in the cabin, but has to be bagged separately from the other stuff, so they can easily check it out. It also read to me that you can have one extra bag FOC, but your medical equipment can't be spread over multiple bags in addition to your usual bag.

One extra tip: Yuo probably don't need a humidifier but if you do bring one, empty it thoroughly, air it, then put some tissue in the chamber to catch any drops that may have been left behind. Water ingress is a killer.

Indeed bring plug adapters. Some also bring an extension cord as some hotels have awkward positioning of wall sockets. Also pack your mask well. We are close to Heathrow and have Americans calling us every week saying they need a mask in a hurry, either because they forgot to pack it, or it was broken.

Other than that, sit back, relax and enjoy your flight

[Tigers Fan]

I think not!

Hi James

I think everything you say in your first paragraph is true except you can't have it in the cabin if you want it to travel FOC - it goes in the hold, in one bag, separate from your luggage. And the chances of it ever working again are .....?

Easyjet are relaxed about CPAP but they will warn you that Airport Security will often only permit one item of hand luggage.

TF

[James @ Intus]

Now I read it again, it looks like they mean in the hold indeed.

Whether or not the machine will withstand that, depends on the machine I guess. Given the fact we send so many machines by courier, who treat their parcels as footballs, they can withstand a lot. But it is a risk.

So indeed perhaps better safe than sorry, bring it in the cabin and suffer the extra bomb-checking procedures.

[tallishbloke]

cabin

Hi

I would definetly recommend travelling with CPAP as hand luggage - 2 reasons:
1 - it goes to the same place that you do, 100% guaranteed, and not half way round the world when it gets put on wrong flight.
2- it gets there in 1 piece guarantee, because YOU will look after 100% better than any baggage handler will.


If you do have a humidifier, you may want to consider just taking the CPAP without the humidifier if you think you can get away without it for a short period - it will make the unit a lot smaller and lighter to carry.

TB

Now I await the hate mail from all baggage handlers hahaha

[DebbieT]

I have flown with easy jet twice now with my cpap machine, i take that in its own bag along with my one piece of hand luggage, as soon as i go through any sort of checkpoint i make a point of telling them that it is medical equipment and have never even had it checked apart from it being x rayed with everything else. I have never had any problems with taking both bags into the cabin.

Just hoping airsouthwest and virgin will be as good this october.

DebbieT

[icerink]

Thank you

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I encountered no problems at all during my flight.

I ended up buying a regulation size small suitcase, put my cpap machine in its own bag in the suitcase and then used the suitcase as my hand luggage. This seemed to work absolutely fine. I just had to remove the cpap bag from the larger bag when I went through security.

[MrsDanvers]

I am due to travel to Belfast in the autumn on business and will have to stay overnight , so the CPAP is coming too. I've been trying to work out the best airline to fly with, from a rather limited choice, and as far as I can see Ryanair will allow me to take the CPAP as an addition to my hand luggage allownace, providing I get a letter from my doctor saying I must have the equipment and one to say I'm fit to fly, and fill out a questionnaire in advance and advise them of all of this well in advance of the flight. Easyjet are similar, EXCEPT ,only one piece of hand luggage , INCLUDING the CPAP and you must speak to someone in their customer services to get approval.

So,Debbie your post is interesting as everthing on the Easyjet site says 1 bag only and CPAP must be in your 1 piece of hand luggage. It looks to me like there may be flexibility at the airport, but of course, there's no guarantee of that.

As for putting it in the hold, I was told by a tech at Papworth never to do that. The last thing you want is for it to be dropped and get to the other end and it not work.

Other CPA, disability and holiday fora indicate that some airlines/airport security are flexible and even allow push-chairs as additional hand-luggage, but others are very rigid. I know that there is a lot of "old material" about taking CPAP on planes but has anyone got any recent ( 09-10) experience they can share particularly about low-cost airlines/flying out of Stansted?

[acebass]

Easyjet

I flew with easyjet last august (2009) and whilst the only allow one piece of hand luggage it is only limited by it's size and being able to lift it into the overhead locker by yourself. I used my cpap bag and put books and flipflops and other stuff into the bag and had no problems...

[Tom @ Intus]

CPAP on airplanes can very hit and miss depending on their airline.

I'm writing a blog entry on this subject at the moment (easier said than done in all honesty), so I was wondering if anyone else would like to add their experiences of using CPAP on their air travels?

I don't mean just getting it on the plane necessarily, but also actually using it, whether you used a battery or a 12V socket from the seat, things like that. There's so many different policies out there with plenty of grey areas so it'd be interesting to see what actually happens in reality, and see if we can put together a list of "CPAP friendly" airlines.

Any responses to help make this blog entry as useful and informative as possible would be very welcome!