Air travel

That sounds hard work. We did our first holiday without our daughter earlier in the year - it was great, No responsibility, stay out latte at night, eat in 'grown up places - excellent.

We're doing it again in February - already booked our character dining experiences in The Animal Kingdom and in The Contemporary Resort.

Dressing for dinner = clean t-shirt.

I might go diving with sharks again in The Seas in Epcot.

Plastic said:

We cannot understand why people take masses of stuff on holiday - most doesn't get used so they are just making their lives more difficult.

Often if I'm travelling I also have morris dancing kit, so that will be at least 3 sets of white shirt & white trousers, all nicely ironed, as well as white trainers. Not to mention the musical instruments as hand luggage.  When we went to a festival in New England, we needed warm & cool weather clothes in addition to the costumes.

Our next holiday, the first 'proper' one in at least 15 years (without children :) ) is to Sri Lanka, so we will mostly need shorts & t-shirts. But for temples we will need long trousers & shirts, and cool weather kit for up in the highlands where the temperature can get down to 4 or 5 at night.  Plus sandels, beach shoes and normal shoes.  We're not 'dressy' people, so neither of us will be taking 2 or 3 changes of clothes for each day (breakfast-wear, pool-wear, evening meal stuff, high heel shoes...). But we will probably take 2 suitcases with clothes split between them, partly in case of suitcase loss but also so they're not too heavy to lug to and from the car from our front door.  At least we don't have to pack for the children now.

I like the idea and concept of travelling light, but somehow can't make it work. The best I can do is if I'm playing at a one-night festival and staying in a hotel - where I only need one set of costume, the trousers & shirt I'm wearing plus a spare shirt & pants.

I'm now booked to fly to Brussels from Birmingham in December. If people are interested, I'll update this thread on that experience too.

capers123 said:

I'm often mostly packed at least a week in advance, apart from medications

When we do Florida, we go in winter so we're already wearing any jackets & jumpers. In the hand luggage is 8x t-shirts, socks & pants + 1 extra pair or jogging bottoms. Add all the meds and that's it.

It all easily fits in a small backpack/bag. Total weight is a couple of kg.

Total packing time = 10 mins.

No bags in the hold = much quicker through the airport.

Buy all the toiletries at the other end - and if I need an extra t-shirt, then I can stretch to the $2 in the cheap shops.

We cannot understand why people take masses of stuff on holiday - most doesn't get used so they are just making their lives more difficult.

Plastic said "On the day, get packed". On the day?  I'm often mostly packed at least a week in advance, apart from medications

I have a similar routine to Plastic, apart from some minor changes:

For many years we've used Air Miles to buy many of our flights and have tended to upgrade to Business Class, which takes care of priority check-in, fast-track security, business lounges, early boarding. Curiously we were doing this even before I thought I/we might be Autistic - as we really didn't like the stress.  A couple of times we've used normal class on the way back, but then do book the upgrades.

At Heathrow we like 'Pod' parking - a car park connected to the terminal by little 4-person vehicles that run along a track to T4.  But more recently we've discovered 'Valet parking" - you drive in to the 1st floor of the short term car park, into a special area by the lifts and hand over your car keys.  Your car is moved to another car park, although my car tracking told me it was higher up in the same car park, then delivered back to the collection zone ready for when you return. No extra bus needed.

My daughter's partner has used the 'hidden disability' special assistance at Luton with Easyjet and found it very good - she could use which bits she needed, so fast security, quiet area and pre-boarding.

I completely lost it on two occasions when there were delays of more than 6 hours and no one told wtf was going on. A lot of people got impatient and angry with me in turn and made to feel like a pariah. I felt deeply ashamed afterwards. 

You sound unlucky with those stupid bureaucrats. I actually have a textbook on Business English I have taught from, which has an article on Air Rage. A lot of it has to do with cost cutting on oxzgen quality on the plane, too little room on seats, bad food and did I say, lack of information??? And those cattle pens on cheaper airlines!!

I just try to go on autopilot as much as possible with all the usual queuing and waiting for....

AWESOME! Glad to know it went well for you.

Hi all. So...I made it! The Stansted experience was excellent. The Hannover experience, not so good.

In both cases, I had to fight against myself, with my inner voice saying "why are you doing this?" and "why can't you just go through an airport without assistance?" I had to remind myself of what happened when I went to Norway in January (shutdown plus vertigo attack), or Brussels in September (panic attack plus stress-out leading to nightmare evening on arrival). So, I accepted the assistance and then learned how valuable it was, as I was helped through all the nasty stuff and consequently arrived at my destination in a reasonably calm state.

At Stansted, I arrived nearly four hours before the flight, and waited the first couple of hours in the assistance area, which was fine. I had written down what I needed (thanks Plastic), which really helped them to understand. A very nice man named Farouk took me through Security. It was great! He looked after the boarding pass, told me where to stand and what to do, and made sure I didn't get rushed. He even thought to give me enough time to get something to eat and showed me where to go. When I went through the scanner, the woman actually signed to me in BSL, which was also great. I was escorted to the lounge, then left alone. Bliss. Then I was boarded with a minimum of fuss.

The return journey was less impressive, but they did try to help. Hannover is a very small airport. There was no assistance area, so I queued at check-in and then had to explain what I needed to the clerk. She kept trying to give me a wheelchair. Eventually someone came and escorted me to the Security area, then told me to sit and wait. I waited a long time, and it got close to flight departure time, so I began to worry and left my seat to find some advice. Eventually, someone was persuaded to phone the assistance people who turned up, once again, with a wheelchair. They took some persuading that I did not need it. We then queued to go through Security - no special treatment this time. But they did carry my boarding pass. The young man quizzed me. When I said "Asperger's" he seemed to get it. The Security area led straight into the perfume section of duty free! Even my personal ioniser was not strong enough, so I just held my nose and ran. I got on the plane ok. Well, all in all, it was not a disaster, but not ideal either.

So...onwards and upwards. I'll try to be even more specific and organised next time.

Hugers

Excellent. Hope it works out.

That should do the trick and others who need this should also consider doing the same.

Happy Holidays!!!!

Will do!

Cool - let us know if it all goes well (or not).

Update! Eurowings have just contacted me to say that they WILL now provide all the assistance I need. I'm looking forward to this experience, now.

Thanks. Both very useful pieces of advice.

Thanks Zomted! This is all new to me too, as you gather. We live and learn.

Dear Anna - thank you very much for your sympathetic reply. I found out about the special assistance possibilities too late this time, but even so the sunflower lanyard people have promised to help me at the airport, so all is not lost. I'll let you know how it goes when I actually travel. Probably it will be better than I fear, as Plastic has suggested, especially if I can be clear about my needs.

Yes, the diagnosis is really quite world-changing. I am being fairly careful who I talk to about it. A few people have already expressed disbelief, which is quite difficult to accept when it has been something of a struggle to get to this point. However, the very good news is that has been liberating in terms of the way I see my own past. I am able to understand (and forgive) why certain things happened. And generally I have a very good life anyway, so this is really a bonus.

I will remember your advice! Thank you.

I've never needed any detailed letter  - just a brief GP letter stating your headline diagnosis - all the specific details are left for me to explain my needs.

I'll give you our routine - I have a couple of health problems too - typical flight to Florida from UK

Book holiday - wait until all the confirmations come through.

Contact airline - explain my situation and my needs - get everythjing agreed

Contact airport and give them all the details / dates / requirements.

Book on-site parking - a little more expensive but worth it to reduce stress. (£70)

Book airport vip lounge. (£30 ea)

Book on-site hotel so we can travel down the night before - this removes any time pressure & traffic stress on the day of flight. (£30 /room)

On the day, get packed (we only take hand-luggage - no need for heavy clothes in Florida). Take a gentle drive to the airport in the evening - nice & quiet, no traffic. Park the car & take the courtesy bus to the terminal.

At the terminal - twilight check-in - get your seat properly allocated & solve any minor issues with no queues. Go from the terminal to the airport hotel - have a gentle evening in the hotel - food, drinks etc.

Next moring, leave hotel (got lots of time), get to terminal & report to special assistance - they will escort you through security then go to the lounge - have breakfast, watch planes out the window, read the paper - very civilised.

When it's time, special assistance come and get us from the lounge and take us to the gate in the little electric cars.

We get pre-boarded onto the plane so I go and iidentify myself to the crew - they will have a message from head office about me so they can match the person to the message.

I explain my problems and the best way to deal with it all - as previously agreed with the airline.

If we're lucky, they sit us in the empty area of the plane - whole section to ourselves.

I get picked up by wheelchair at the other end and that takes us through priority passport control, we have no luggage to pick up so they take us straight to car rental and we're off & out of the airport.

From plane touching the tarmac in Florida, we are in the hotel in under 1 hour. Faster than most people who will be still waiting for their bags.

In terms of proof, I agree you don’t need to provide a full report. Perhaps just provide the front page which confirms your diagnosis? Or ask for a letter from whoever diagnosed you for these purposes? 

It might be worth looking at info from the Civil Aviation Authority: https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/PRM/Passengers-with-disabilities-and-reduced-mobility/