Cheds

Hello, I'm Cheds and I'm new. I'm 16 and have learning disability ( so my dad is typing this) and live in the north of England.

Now, if I get on a bus, I travel free and so does my carer ( I can't get round on my own)
If I get on a train, I have a card which I buy for £20 per year. This gets me a third off all fares, and a third off for my carer.
The car which Dad/ carer drives for me gets a tax concession of round £200 per year.

All this is a help towards travel costs because sadly I can't go out to earn money.

So are there any airlines which offer fare concessions in some form? Thank you

chgoeditor

Hi Cheds, and welcome to Flyertalk. It's been a couple years since I lived in England, but my suspicion is that the travel discounts/tax breaks you're getting are essentially a form of government aid. (I believe English trains are now privately owned, but suspect the discount card may be government mandated as part of the rail privatization.) Since airlines, in contrast, are for-profit carriers it's unlikely you'll be able to find a similar discount.

In the United States, some airlines have special fares for medical emergencies and others will donate free travel that hospitals can use to transport passengers from their home to the hospital. However, all of these seem to be centered around travel that is essential for medical treatment, and do not apply to routine travel (for business or leisure) for the disabled.

I'm not disabled, but saw that your question had gone unanswered and wanted to chime in. Hopefully one our members who has firsthand experience with this can offer more insights.

Stez

Hi Ched,

I'm from Northumberland, so probably not too far from where you are.

In general there are no discounts for air travel that I'm aware of for disabled travellers. I say in general, my relative who require two full time carers was able to secure a concession for free name changes for one of the carers on a low-cost orange airline as it was not possible to name a second carer so early in the booking stage for travel the following year.


This was a one-off, goodwill gesture for him, so it may well depend on the agent in customer services... prepared to accept there may be no concessions forthcoming.

It's possible that some very remote areas with government subsidising airlines or private charters to fly unprofitable routes may have some concession rates.