Disability Travel - To rent a wheelchair or to bring one

We will be traveling from the states to London (for a five day stay) and then onto Barcelona for a cruise and back again. We are bringing our 90 year old grandma with us who generally uses a walker but we know we are going to have to have a wheelchair for her during this trip.

Would we be better purchasing one and bringing it with us or renting one in the UK? Would the rental company let us take it out of the country and back again?

any suggestions on what rental companies to use?

Thanks for all of your help. This is going to be a special trip for her spending lots of time with her only great grand daughter.

In my opinion you are better off taking granny to a rental place in her home town and having a wheel chair fitted to her size and needs rather than trying to do it piecemeal during your travels. Compare the cost of a rental to the cost of buying.

Then take the chair the whole way on your trip. You will not be charged for extra baggage.

The right wheel chair for comfort and safety is very important. If someone at home is willing to lend a chair, make sure it is the correct size and is in good working order.

Modern cruise ships are HUGE. Getting around on a walker is very difficult to do.

Welcome to Flyertalk, clowngal.

You don't say where you are from, but if it is the U.S., she can probably get a wheelchair free through Medicare. I did.

After thinking about this, she should get one of her own and bring it. Im my view, it's best to have your own that fits you, and has the options you need than to take a chance that you can't find the right chair anywhere.

Agree with the above. A well chosen and fitted wheelchair (which may also be lightweigt) will pay big dividends in your mother's comfort as well as being familiar to you and her. You may also want to look into those chairs which can fold easily or breakdown into component parts, depending on the design and style.

Pretty much any chair (well, except for power chairs) can be wheeled right up the jetway to the plane. Once Mom is then transferred/walked/carried on an aisle chair to her seat, the wheelchair can then be folded or broken down and gatechecked.

If there are any takeoff parts like a swingarm footwell, seat pad, or other non-permanantly attached device, think carefully about possibly taking those off and carrying on (maybe in a small duffle type bag) with you on the plane. Most airlines will accomodate those pieces. The main chair can then be stowed in the cargo hold and brought up to the jetway at the destination.

My 18 y/o daughter travels with us in her foldable wheelchair with separate seat system. I detach the seat and footwells and fold down the rest into a fairly compact unit. The seat and chair are cargo stowed while the footwells come into the cabin with us. We've taken about 8 trips with her, on small regional jets and up to a 747 and have had no troubles.

Remember that now traveling with a chair requires more trunk space to hold the chair, even when folded down. Strongly consider using a minivan type vehicle if available. I have found SUV's to be space inefficient and hard for elderly folks to climb into easily. Not sure if your choices of vehicles in Europe will suffice so make calls to be sure you get what you need.

Good Luck!

Pretty much any chair (well, except for power chairs) can be wheeled right up the jetway to the plane.

Powerchairs can be gate checked too, though I've never been brave enough to try it on an international flight due to the Warsaw Convention.

Traveling with powerchair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1LkYi4SlvQ)

Powerchairs can be gate checked too, though I've never been brave enough to try it on an international flight due to the Warsaw Convention.

Traveling with powerchair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1LkYi4SlvQ)

Hi,

Yes, I should have been clearer. One can travel with a powerchair but there are then potentially significant obstacles to deal with, especially with air travel.

Once you get to the end of the jetway with a power chair, getting it down to the baggage loading area and into an aircraft baggage hold could be quite challenging. There is not always close by elevators to transport the chair to the aircraft and getting the chair (ours weighs close to 150 pounds) onto the baggage ramp or in the hold could be troublesome. Also, would want to check that the lead-acid batteries are sealed and approved for air travel as the pressure differences could, theoretically, be an issue to them.

At destination, the reverse process could take quite a while to get a power chair back up to the jetway area. One could use the local airport disability transport though and pickup the power chair in the baggage area too. So there would need to be a lot of coordination and possibly at foreign airports so this would have to be addressed well in advance and hopefully with airline/airport representatives.

One other concern is when traveling with a power chair is having a battery charger with appropriate voltage specs and cord adapters that will work with local power. Euro and Far East are different than USA so there is that issue. Also, you will then have to get some type of transportation that would allow the power chair to roll into or be stored easily. This may limit your choices at standard car rentals. I have heard of domestic rental services which specialize in handicapped accessible vehicles but am not sure if there exists many of the same services in the international travel arena.

Well worth checking into if power chair travel is a strong consideration.

Powerchairs can be gate checked too, though I've never been brave enough to try it on an international flight due to the Warsaw Convention.

Traveling with powerchair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1LkYi4SlvQ)

Bware that while gate checking a powerchair might be an option within the US, it is not at multiple EU airports. Which basically means you will not see the powerchair until bagage claim when it is gate checked in the US.



Regarding possible charging issues MP Premier mentioned (rightfully so!!); contact your dealer. There are those out there that have chargers for rent or free usage. For instance, I know a couple of Permobil branches within the EU do it for their users when they go to the US. Actually, just got back myself from the US and have to return the 110V charger I borrowed from Permobil NL this week.