Airports offering stroller/wheelchair drop off and collection at aircraft door
 

Dear all,

I've searched through BA's website and couldn't find a list of airports for which it is possible to drop or collect prams/wheelchairs at the aircraft door, so I'm starting this thread in order to have a comprehensive list.
the Drop below means that it can be dropped on departure, retrieve is for arrivals
LHR: Drop at door, retrieve at door
CDG:Drop at CKI, retrieve at Oversized luggage
ORY: Drop at oversized luggage, retrieve at bag belt
ANE: drop at check in, retrieve at bag belt (or straight at aircraft door if the weather is good)

Feel free to add below and I'll update as we go

You might want to amend the title, I thought this was about car transfers between the terminal and the aircraft!

My understanding is that LGW is drop off at the gate, collection at baggage reclaim, airport provided loan strollers are available at gates, and you can telephone control for a spare one if necessary.

When travelling with my Mum who uses a wheelchair, we always ask for the wheelchair to be picked up and returned to the aircraft door. (At LHR T5 it is actually delivered to the 'halfway house' area between the plane and terminal.) This has always worked at Aberdeen, LHR T5, Madrid, Granada and Malaga.

(When using the Ambulift it always is left in or delivered to the vehicle.)

I don't have any experience outside these airports, but I would imagine that BA would have to specifically say they can't pick up a wheelchair from the aircraft door or deliver it to aircraft at an airport and state why.

No idea of the exact policies for all, but can certainly give our recent experiences with a stroller over the past 12 months.

LGW- as per CWS
NCL- Drop at gate, collect at reclaim.
DUB - drop at gate, collect at door.
MCO - drop at gate, collect at reclaim.
LHR - drop at gate, collect half way up airbridge now.
MIA - Drop at gate, collect at aircraft door.
GCM - Drop at gate, collect at door.
VCE- Drop at Gate.
BCN- collect at door.
AGP- drop at gate, collect at reclaim (oversized luggage belt).

Should this be a wiki?

MAN - drop at gate, collect at reclaim
BEY - drop at gate, collect at door

You may want to correct your LHR description:

LHR - EXCEPT T5 GATE 15 (Stand 515) where there is no facility to repatriate you with a pushchair or wheelchair. If a person's own wheelchair is desperately required, it may be brought up to the corridor by Gate 13, but that is the exception rather than the rule.

Whilst on the subject, if you have got a stroller for Return to Door, you may as well relax on the aeroplane and take your time getting your stuff together. It usually takes at least 5 minutes, and often closer to 10, from the aircraft being chocked before your stroller will appear. I'll tell you why........

1. Aircraft comes on to stand, engines power down. Loaders plug in ground power cable and chock wheels.
2. Airbridge (sometimes called jetty or finger) is attached, loaders place cones to draw vehicle drivers attention to wing and engine extremities to prevent damage.
3. First Passengers are already disembarking. Loaders are operating cargo hatch doors and bringing "televator" (the machine that moves containers) and conveyor to the aircraft.

3a. If "Dry Ice" (Carbon Dioxide in solid form) has been present in the hold (Perishable Cargo is often packed in Dry Ice), then the loaders must wait for at least 5 minutes before entering the hold. Dry Ice removes oxygen from the atmosphere and there is a risk of suffocation if the hold is entered too early.

4. Pushchairs are finally brought to the building.

Why is there an exception for gate 15? :)

Few more I can think of

LIN - On departure drop at bottom of aircraft stairs after bus journey from the terminal, collect while disembarking before boarding the bus on arrival
RAK - Leave at gate on departure, collect at bottom of aircraft stairs on arrival
EZE - Leave at gate on departure

You cannot get down to the tarmac directly from gate 15

For pushchairs:

GLA: drop and return at top of jetbridge
LCY: drop at gate, return at baggage reclaim

Of course, this "Take to and Return to Aircraft Door" service only applies to small strollers/pushchairs. If you pack them into a bag or sleeve, please make absolutely certain there is a handle by which the pushchair can be carried and that the label is clearly readable outside otherwise there is a risk the pushchair may be left behind as "unauthorised."

The BA website asks families to be at the Departure Gate early in bold type for a reason. Please do not leave it until the last minute to rock up - the aircraft hold closes at exactly 10 minutes before Departure Time and any items after this time may be returned to the baggage sort area to be sent as "Rush" on a later flight. It's not to be nasty or awkward that we won't re-open the hold - if the aeroplane misses its departure slot, you may well find yourselves sitting on a remote taxiway somewhere for anything from 20 minutes up to 2 hours waiting for a gap in take-offs to let you go!

http://www.britishairways.com/assets...d-stroller.jpg

I recall being one of the first off a 744 at SEA only to watch several hundred walk past me as I waited 20 mins for the stroller/pushchair to make its way from the hold to the jetway.

I have added a wiki to this thread. It needs more work on it, and in particular if you are at LBA, EDI, ABZ, BHD, JER, IOM in the next few days it would be good if you could ask the gate staff, or even better anyone supervising boarding, what the arrangements are locally, for both drop of and return.

If you are looking at this on a mobile device the wiki may not be visible, but if you either switch to Full Site (bottom of the screen) or go on to the full PC version you should see it.

I think the situation with wheelchairs is likely to be complex due to both the size of the retracted chair, the arrangements for assistance and the ability of the passenger. So I think post 4 gives some general pointers.

I notice the places we do have listed could be suggested to be kid friendly.

Some additional comments on wheelchairs:

There may be a difference on treatment for manual versus electric models. BA always ask re dimensions and weight and, understandably, are very particular about asking if the wheelchair has batteries. I don’t have experience of electric wheelchairs, so can’t advise.

Going slightly off topic you need to be careful about the tagging of wheelchairs as luggage. There does not appear to be a seamless process for handling this, especially if the trip involves different airlines. On a recent trip MAD>LHR on IB and then LHR>ABZ with BA, at check-in with IB they didn’t put a luggage tag on the wheelchair. I specifically asked for one, but at the gate the IB agent took it off saying “if there is a tag on it, it will not be delivered to the door.” (BA have always put a tag on the chair.) At LHR the chair was there at the bridge when we arrived, and then we dropped it off again at the bridge for the LHR>ABZ sector. On arrival in ABZ, lo and behold BA had put a luggage tag on the wheelchair at the bridge in LHR.

As I understand it (at least for BA): No tag, no go on plane, so beware. I would imagine the same applies to pushchairs.