I think it’s best to make yourself as comfortable as you can within your means for situations like this. Would love to see more :-)

😊😊😊

For power wheelchairs that use lithium batteries, make sure they are no more than 300 Watt Hours. My chair can store 2 batteries, but only one is needed. I could only fly with one battery because each battery was 240 Watt hours. I am an ambulatory wheelchair user so I can walk onto the plane. I find booking aisle seats make it easier. Also, carry your joystick on board with you if you can do it doesn’t get broken. I got a tag for my wheelchair with a chip so I could track where it was located and make sure it gets on the correct plane. Also no one can claim my chair is theirs because I have the tag on it. This could work with manual wheelchairs as well. Just an extra precaution so I don’t lose my chair. Fortunately the couple times I used it while flying, I rode right up to the door and then folded it up and they took it down. Same thing when we landed I just waited off to the side so as soon as my chair was brought up, I could put the battery and joystick on and go to my next gate. The one time coming home, I only had 30 minutes to make it to my connecting gate, because we were delayed leaving. Without my chair, if the flight had remained on time, I would never have made it. Fortunately I was able to make the train that connected the terminals, and made it with 10 minutes to spare. Only to then have the flight delayed and didn’t need to rush after all! So be very familiar with your chair and how to dismantle it quickly if needed. Makes it a lot easier, especially if you’re traveling alone.

Can you make a vid about managing your pain meds while flying an also compression socks etc

Yeh it would be helpful to know re what the go is with on flight medical supplies and meds. Also the end of the video captions aren’t picking up what is being said to make sense of what happened

So glad they were helpful. Enjoy your trip. I hope you get to manage the pain.

Good to know, I was going to ask about rollators.

@@TheMazinoz You just need to give them dimensions and the weight of it and I believe you have to have them strapped closed.

@@bargainbinredhead Thanks, good to know about strapping. Currently don't use a strap with it as it is stored in car or garage. I also use a cane for short walks.

@@TheMazinoz I’ve tested out strapping my rollator and found that a luggage strap threaded twice around the folding brackets work to stop it opening, keeping it compact. It’s also easy and quick to take it on and off which is important for me as I don’t want to be fiddling around doing something complex.

@@bargainbinredhead Thanks, good to know. I've only just started using one for the mega malls here. Getting around these is a bit of a workout for me and leaves me exhausted for days at times.

Oh dear. Is your chair ok now?

@@Wheelsnoheels I had to get some new shock absorbers on the chair and bend the metal holding the hand control back into place. Luckily with the NDIS here in Australia, I wasn’t off the road for long. I have been very lucky. I've seen evidence of peoples mobility aids being completely inoperable due to flying. As long as I had my dog (she went to Sydney and back with me) and a somewhat workable chair….I was happy. Didn’t even care if my luggage went missing. I couldn’t live without those two things 😊

@@kaleidoscope_pie It makes me so angry that you had to deal with the hassle of damaged equipment. Our wheels are our equivalent of able-bodied people's legs and feet. If able-bodied people had their ankles summarily broken on disembarking from a plane so that they couldn't walk anymore, there would be an uproar. When airline staff break our wheelchairs, it is the same as breaking people's legs - it leaves us unable to go where we need to go so how dare airlines trivialise damage to our equipment.

met welke vliegmaatschapij vloog je als ik vragen mag?

Yeah Schipol airport is brilliant! X

I had this issue too with my cushion. So I would alternate. I'm a bit sore as a result..

Could you take something to rest your feet on?

My cushion didn't fit on the seat but I wasn't risking leaving it with the wheelchair

Fab abi, I had a look. very informative. :)

i cant fly easyjet alone as you have to have an able bodied person with you, basically i will just burn or drown as otherhalf has to take child first should the worst happen lol

@@IceFish. OK, no easyjet for me as I am a lone traveler

@@IceFish. ABSOLUTELY! That's what I keep telling my wife and the cabin crew, "If you guys wait for me, you're FUCT!"

Ah yes. They said to me to stay seated and they will come back for me. Id probably crawl though. (have you seen my emergance transfer sling though?)

Ahh thank you so much

OO thats awesome. I flew Singapore once before to oz, and they left my wheelchair in Singapore. This was about 14 years ago so hopfully they have got better

Aww sadly not sponsored. OO the med is lovely.

Wow that sounds so exciting. I hope you have the best time

OOO thats tricky. These seats were really good the slid down.

Oh wow I'd love to go there too. Have an awesome time

Assistance lounges sound wonderful! I struggle despite ear defenders and sunglasses

Ooo ild love to go to NZ too. Good questions. I missed my bed terribly, and by the end I couldnt take another day...... Pain killers. ear plugs.

Hopefully I can bring you some aussie joy.

@@Wheelsnoheels Yes, please do! ❤️

Oh I love york. Make sure you visit Betties tea room if thats your thing. If you do fly to oz. Qantas were amazing.

Heathrow Airport has good public transport connections - the Piccadilly line runs from the airport all the way through central London. TFL also have tonnes of accessibility info on their website, including a map telling you which stations are wheelchair accessible. All London buses are also wheelchair accessible - usually board using the middle doors and they'll lower the bus to match the pavement and put out the ramp. If you're taking national rail trains at any point you can book assistance, including wheelchair ramps. I think you can do it on the day, but they prefer you to let them know in advance so they can make sure they've got the right staff available. It's probably worth checking the website of the relevant train operator for more specific information, e.g. Great Western Railways run the trains out of London Paddington and South West Trains run them from London Waterloo. If you need to get a taxi, London Hackney carriages should be accessible (the typical London black cab kind that you can flag down). Outside of London or using someone like Uber, it will vary quite a lot and is worth pre-booking if you can (often taxi firms only have one accessible vehicle). They might use anything from a standard car to a Hackney carriage to a people carrier or even a minibus, so definitely worth checking!

I have flown with my chair twice but both times were in and out of the UK . The staff were great. It went really smoothly. I love my wheelchair so to help deal with my stress about something going wrong I checked and you can hire wheelchairs for 25£ a week . London wheelchair hire can deliver to Heathrow airport. and red cross hire wheelchairs too. It was absolutely not needed but I felt better knowing I had places to call.

Heathrow special assistance are fantastic!

I’ve done the Sydney to LA flight twice. The more you can sleep onboard, the better. I was so exhausted from my Disney World trips on return that I slept almost all of the 14 hours. Even embracing short naps will help both pass time and reduce pain.

A rollator is much easier and less effort than a cane or crutches, and you can sit down!

Oh wow amzing. Have you seen my disney vlogs> (they are from florda though) Do you think you would consider a wheelchair? Im sure a walker will help a lot too.

@@Wheelsnoheels I was thinking of hiring a wheelchair at the parks but for my sciatica and degenerative disc disease, sitting is the worst thing I can do and standing isn't that much better. Besides laying down, walking is the next best thing that hurts the least. So that's how I decided on a 3 wheel folding walker and then I can always take breaks whenever I need to

I used to travel a lot before I had any back issues and loved flying so much. But now after 2 hours of sitting I need a break so I've looked into flights that have a layover in Fiji so it's not the full 14 hours in a row

A small handful of what? I'm so confused 🥴

@@kt5229 maybe a toolkit and puncture repair kit? I've added spare inner tubes and cable ties to the toolkit that came with my wheelchair, it has it's own pouch under the seat and definitely gives me peace of mind. Security seem fine with it because it's related to the wheelchair and travels in the hold anyway

OMG I was obssessed with that show. Especially as we were thinking of moving there lol.

@@Wheelsnoheels There was a time when I wanted to move to Australia too, but I don’t like how the seasons are the opposite way around haha. At least here we get to look forward to spring and summer after the New Year. I don’t mean to sound childish. Like we had snow a couple of weeks ago. I would say an Australian Christmas would be very different to ours. It was a shame you got separated from your family on the plane, but from what I saw in your video it looked like you got spoilt and rightly so! By the way I only watched the Australian episodes of Wanted Down Under haha. You should have applied for it! That hotel you stayed in was amazing for a wheelchair user!

Im so sorry to hear of your loss. I hope you have a safe comfortable journy.

We call them hash browns here in the states. We normally use ketchup and salt to season it lol.

I've found pushrim covers to be extremely helpful with grip, for adding both traction as well as diameter - Reha Design (based in Lithuania), and IntelliWheels and RibGrips (both based in the U.S.) are a few companies that make them; Grippoz (what Gem had on her last chair, not sure where they were/are based - I want to say UK, but can't remember for sure) might still be available somewhere on 3rd party websites, but I think the company itself discontinued them. There might be other companies out there that make them, those are just the only ones I'm aware of. I personally have the Reha ones, and they double (at a minimum - might be even more) the pushrim diameter as well as adding awesome grip to basically the entire pushrim surface (unlike the IntelliWheels FitGrips, which only wrap partway around the tubing circumferentially). I pair the pushrim covers with a pair of gloves (my hands are size 8) - my regular warm weather/inside gloves are just some half finger ones by RimSports (mine are sz L), got them on Amazon, but probably just about any durable and comfortable bike glove would work with the pushrim covers. If not wanting to go the pushrim cover route for whatever reason (or don't have time to - you said "soon", so not sure how much time you have before you leave), the full finger warmer weather gloves I have are the Mechanix Box Cutter gloves (mine are sz S), which have grip over nearly the entire palm and palm-side finger surface - the extra grip those afforded me meant that I didn't have to grip the pushrims nearly as hard, so much so that I could almost wheel along with just my palm/the heel of my hand. The winter wheelchair gloves I use are ski gloves by Swiss Tech (mine are sz L/XL) - the ones I have cinch at the wrist, have a small zipper pocket on the back (I use it for hand warmers on really cold days because they fit perfectly), and they also have a cuff that goes up over the end of my sleeve and also cinches down; the entire palm and palm-side finger surface is a grippy material which I've found to be really durable (the combo of SmartDrive+pushrim covers can really do a number on gloves, but all the ones I've mentioned here have held up just fine). Gem said in a video a few years ago that she uses (or at leastused to use) SealSkins gloves in the winter. Some people think that gloves don't look "stylish", but I honestly don't care how they look, I care how they function, and as long as they make my life easier, I will continue to use them. Hope that helps at least a little.

Honestly this works even for non wheelchair users but it’s sad you have to use it just to have good flights.

(worried) Do airlines destroy powerchairs/wheelchairs? I dream of travelling when I am well enough.

@@thewisepowerchair2369 US airlines lose, damage, or destroy nearly 30 wheelchairs EVERY DAY! That’s almost 11,000 per year. The US Access Board conducted a Congressionally-mandated study of on-board wheelchair securement, and found that there’s no technical or physical reason wheelchairs can’t be secured like on a bus, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigeig has taken up the challenge, but realistically Congress will have to amend the Air Carrier Access Act to require it, the Access Board will have to issue rules governing what an accessible aircraft looks like, and DOT will have to issue rules concerning when aircraft have to comply. Unlikely to happen in my traveling lifetime.

@@thewisepowerchair2369 I'd like to think they dont destroy wheelchairs. However, sadly there is always a risk.

@@thewisepowerchair2369 they're good at bumping off any parts that stick out. If you have a powerchair, check whether you can remove the joystick and bring it into the cabin. I get my husband to remove the headrest and cable tie it to the seat (wheelchair toolkit and ties are no problem if they stay with the chair). I have only been questioned once and security got quite apologetic when they realised the tools were for the chair. I also take the cushion into the cabin as it would be a disaster if I lost it. I made a bag to hang it around my neck during transfers

I think you can ask the airline if you can store it on board, depending on the size of your chair and if someone else hasn’t already claimed it. Best bet would be to check with airline and when you’re booking your seat request your chair be stored on board if they have the space. Gem has a lot of good tips. But when I traveled to California last summer, I asked if I could keep my chair on board, and even though my chair folds down pretty small. It was still slightly too big. But if your chair will fit I’d ask as soon as possible so someone else can’t get ahead of you. Hope this helps!

@@writergirl3108 exactly. Although on most of my flights the chair has been taken to the hold and its been ok. Id check out my flying to Paris vlog, as thats a smaller plane, and I have some good tips for that kind of flight. x

I strongly suggest discussing the medication issue with your GP. I also suggest that you write off the first day of the trip as recovery and adjustment. Finding out about the different beds and even pillows or even going shopping for different pillows etc.

@@Kiwiberries31 thanks for replying! Yeah, it's not so much the paying for it, although I really not sure insurance would cover me, id be too big a risk for them. It's more the anxiety of something bad happening because of a language barrier or because they don't know how to treat my conditions (I have rare ones). I have thought about starting close and then getting further away 😊

Same here I hate it so much I got rid of my handle bars ahahaha

Are you landing on Schiphol? I got great help there, for the train you have to call NS for assistents (i am from holland)

@@iveschrijen9419 I’m ambulatory so should be fine even without assistance for the train :) Even with it being tiring, at least I have the option to stand up to get past an obstacle if I feel the gap between train and platform is a bit much or so

@@ReyOfLight If it is an intercity train there will be stairs to get into the train

@@iveschrijen9419 I’m able to walk up or down some steps :)

Yes they can help. Contact the airlines special assistance team