Air travel

muppetman73

Hi All

just wondered if anyone can help, we are looking to fly to Lanzarote but due to my daughters special needs she requires an extra legroom seat, we have been told that if you get some form of medical letter the airline will provide the seat free of charge.I can't find any details of this anywhere and I just wondered if anyone had any experience of this.

many thanks
Craig

T--J

It depends who you fly with but the airlines we've flown with lately have refused to allow us to sit in the extra legroom seats because they have been exit rows which they only allocate to able-bodied people who would be able to open the doors in an emergency. Incredibly stupid when we would be sitting right next to our disabled son to be able to open the door & have easy access to get him out with us but seated further back, we'd end up blocking the aisle trying to get him out!

Probi

Hi,

Which airline is it you are flying with? They wont be allowed to let you sit in the emergency exit rows as this is against CAA rules but on certain aircraft they have medical or bulk head seats (normally row 1 on smaller aircraft, different on bigger aircraft) these are the ones that the airline will more than likely give you if you contact them.

HTH

bobajob_1966

T--J wrote: »

It depends who you fly with but the airlines we've flown with lately have refused to allow us to sit in the extra legroom seats because they have been exit rows which they only allocate to able-bodied people who would be able to open the doors in an emergency. Incredibly stupid when we would be sitting right next to our disabled son to be able to open the door & have easy access to get him out with us but seated further back, we'd end up blocking the aisle trying to get him out!

In an emergency your priority would be to help your child, whereas the priority for someone on an exit row would be to assist the crew/ open the door. You can't have it both ways!

OP, if you contact the airline they will tell you what they can offer. If extra legroom is not available/ practical, they may be able to block a seat next to your daughter to get her some extra room.

muppetman73

Hi

we usually fly Monarch and they have extra legroom seats that are not next to the exits, I don't just mean the ones with no other seats in front

thanks for the replies so far

Craig

bobajob_1966

muppetman73 wrote: »

Hi

we usually fly Monarch and they have extra legroom seats that are not next to the exits, I don't just mean the ones with no other seats in front

thanks for the replies so far

Craig

Do you mean a bulkhead row?

You need to contact the airline and ask what their policy is.

T--J

bobajob_1966 wrote: »

In an emergency your priority would be to help your child, whereas the priority for someone on an exit row would be to assist the crew/ open the door. You can't have it both ways!
...

In order to help my child, my priority would be the same as most people, to open the door to allow us (& therefore everyone else) to get out so I would be assisting the crew. I would then be able to have immediate access to assist him quickly out the door but being in a seat further back with extremely limited space means I have to stand up into the aisle to give myself room to lift my son out, thereby completely blocking the aisle to other passengers & further delaying them with trying to get him so walk down the narrow aisle. It makes no sense whatsoever not to allow 1 disabled person to sit in the exit seats when there are 2 other seats which can be occupied by able bodied people who can assist with opening the door, getting the disabled person out of the way of everyone else preventing an unnecessary bottleneck. As this is now veering it off-topic, I'm out!

Haven't used Monarch with our son muppetman73 so hope you manage to get something sorted with them. Make use of the Special Assistance if its available at your airport, it really does make things less stressful.

bobajob_1966

T--J wrote: »

In order to help my child, my priority would be the same as most people, to open the door to allow us (& therefore everyone else) to get out so I would be assisting the crew. I would then be able to have immediate access to assist him quickly out the door but being in a seat further back with extremely limited space means I have to stand up into the aisle to give myself room to lift my son out, thereby completely blocking the aisle to other passengers & further delaying them with trying to get him so walk down the narrow aisle. It makes no sense whatsoever not to allow 1 disabled person to sit in the exit seats when there are 2 other seats which can be occupied by able bodied people who can assist with opening the door, getting the disabled person out of the way of everyone else preventing an unnecessary bottleneck. As this is now veering it off-topic, I'm out!

Haven't used Monarch with our son muppetman73 so hope you manage to get something sorted with them. Make use of the Special Assistance if its available at your airport, it really does make things less stressful.

So you are saying that your child could be screaming in fear, yet you would ignore them and go to sort out the door? Human nature dictates that would not happen, at the very least you would be distracted.

covlass

I have flown with Monarch on a number of occasions they are very helpful just give them a call I have never had to provide any letters giving details of my daughters condition and as mentioned if need to use the special assistance that they provide.