Foot in a cast/boot
 

So I sprained my ankle pretty bad last week and have had it in a boot ever since. I've been on crutches but can walk without them, just slowly. I'm supposed to go easy on my foot and not walk too much.

Crutches are kind of big, would they be checked at the gate? Or can you carry those on? Ideally I would leave them at home so I don't have to deal with them. But then I would probably want to use a wheelchair around the airport to go easy on my ankle, and wouldn't have use of the crutches at my conference.

Any comments on what UA will do with my crutches if I try to bring them?

They will either stow in their closet or put in the overhead above. They will be really good and help you get them down when you need during your flight. You can still get wheelchair assistance to get you to/from the gate so as to not wear yourself out. Safe travels.

baglady's right. Bring your crutches, request wheelchair assistance. Your crutches will be stowed on the plane (in the overhead if it's big enough, in the closet otherwise).

Thanks for the replies.

For security will I have to take the boot off and walk through, or just get extra screening in the wheelchair? I can walk slowly and gingerly on my ankle without the boot if necessary.

They will give you a patdown - probably in the wheelchair. So far they have done all of mine in the wheelchair but I cannot put pressure on my ankle right now. Allow some extra time through security for the pat down. Safe travels.

It is up to you, of course, but if it were me I would ask to have the cast swabbed rather than removing it.

Since I can walk short distances without a problem I walked through with the boot, then sat back down and had them swab the boot. Went pretty smoothly.

It must be rough needing a wheelchair at peak travel times though.

Thanks for reporting back how it went - I'm glad it was smooth.

At LAX yesterday, my aircast didn't pass the swab test. They asked me to open it and they did a manual search. It wasn't too awful, but a few days ago it would have been. Not sure what they would have done if I told them no.

Welcome to my world. I broke my foot in October and have been traveling every week for work since. The cotton swab thing generally doesn't take too long and UA and Jetblue I've found to be quite accomodating about going down the jetway early, storing crutches in the closet, etc.

No, it's only rough when you're new to the world of wheels. Glad that it went well for you.