Requesting special assistance

In most countries assistance inside the terminal is provided by the airport or a contractor it appoints, not by the airline, while assistance on board is the airline's. The request is normally made to the airline, which passes it to the airport. That handover is where requests get lost, which is why a request made late or made only to one party is the one that fails.

Airlines generally ask for advance notice — a set number of hours before departure is common — and meeting that deadline is what obliges the airport to have someone there. Requesting earlier is always better.

Assistance is categorised by what the passenger needs at each stage: help to the gate, help to the aircraft door, help to the seat, help with a connection, help with orientation for a visual impairment, or an escort for someone travelling with a hidden disability. Naming the practical requirement gets the right category coded onto the booking; naming a condition often does not.

Be specific about the parts of the journey that are hard rather than the journey as a whole. Long walks between gates, standing in a queue, hearing announcements and following a connection under time pressure are all separately solvable.

Mobility aids are carried in addition to your baggage allowance under most carriers' rules and in several regulatory regimes, but they must be declared, and a powered chair has to be declared in detail. The battery chemistry decides whether it can be carried at all and how it must be prepared, and airlines apply the dangerous-goods rules here strictly because they are not free to do otherwise.

Give the airline the make and model, the folded dimensions, the weight, and the battery type. If you can use your own chair to the aircraft door rather than transferring early, say so — it is usually possible and it means the chair spends less time out of your control.

• Photograph the chair before handover, including any existing damage.
• Remove and carry loose parts such as cushions, joysticks and footplates where you can.
• Attach clear handling instructions to the chair itself, not only to the booking.
• Report any damage before leaving the baggage hall, and get it recorded in writing.

Carry essential medication in hand baggage, in its original labelled packaging, with a copy of the prescription or a letter from your prescriber. Hold baggage goes missing and hold temperatures are not controlled for medicines. Liquid medication is normally exempt from the standard cabin liquid limits, but you should expect to declare it at security and to be asked for documentation.

Medical devices such as portable oxygen concentrators and CPAP machines usually require the airline's approval before travel, and approval is specific to the device model. Start that conversation early, because it can involve a form completed by a doctor.

Special meals are ordered from the airline and generally need to be requested some days ahead. A meal ordered late will not appear, and cabin crew cannot create one in the air.

A schedule change, an aircraft swap or a rebooking after a disruption creates a new flight record, and an assistance request does not always follow it across. After any change to your itinerary, check that the request is still on the booking. If you booked through us, ask us and we will confirm it with the airline in writing.