So we’ve got our holiday booked (Planes, trains and automobiles). I’ve packed (almost) all of our belongings and we’re ready to go. It’s an early start. The enormous taxi is booked for 2.30am to carry us and our mountain of suitcases to the airport.

On arrival we make ourselves known to Special Assistance. We’re reassured that they know Quinns’ name and were expecting us.  We get given a VIP lanyard to get us through check-in and security. We manage Quinns in his support buggy (the Bug) and the luggage including the car seat on two trolleys between the three of us (remember Big Sister is only 7 and pushing a full trolley worth of luggage!)

Check-in desk ask us if we need assistance at the gate and we say yes please. They phone to check that that will happen. Now our hold luggage is checked in, we still have 4 hand luggage bags, the car seat and Quinns, of course. That means we still need one trolley but we’re not allowed it beyond security. Somehow we manage to the gate.

Special assistance passengers get called to board first but there’s still no-one to help us. In an attempt to be helpful we suggest Dad goes first with Big Sister to get the car seat installed while I wait behind with Quinns and a couple of bags. We watch while all the other passengers walk past. Parents of small children leave their buggy’s beside us. I get sympathy and reassurance from a member of the cabin crew. She’d help but she needs to stay at the gate till boarding is finished.

Special assistance finally arrive. He takes Quinns in the Bug leaving me with the luggage. I’m not entirely comfortable with him walking off with my 2-year-old but he’s here to help. He explains that they don’t take luggage onto planes nor do they help children on because parents usually prefer to carry their own child.

By now we’re at the door of the plane. I need to lift Quinns, the luggage that was left behind and also collapse the Bug so it could go in the hold. No, it was never going to happen!

I leave my special assistant with the Bug and the luggage and attempt to get onto the now crowded plane. To help you visualise I’m only 5ft tall and Quinns weighs about 13kg and is floppy like a rag doll.

Cabin crew have to radio to the crew at the back to tell Dad he needs to come back to the door to bring the luggage on and collapse the Bug. Fortunately the majority of passengers he had to squeeze past (he’s a bit taller than me at 6ft) were reasonably sympathetic.

So I’m fairly sure we made some mistakes ourselves but it was our first time (where was the information telling us what to expect and not expect – some sort of a leaflet from Special Assistance would have been good). Surely we’re not the first parents of a child with CP that Special Assistance have helped get onto a plane but it certainly felt like it! I’d love to hear other people’s experiences so we can hopefully do it better next time.

Being the parents of two young children is hard work. Having one with additional needs is extra hard work. We decided we needed a holiday to recharge after some busy and stressful times.

To make life as easy as possible we went to the travel agent and asked them to sort us out with a week in the sun. First off there is no way to search the database for hotels that are accessible. Surely that’s a basic searchable? Already we can see scope for improvement or perhaps even a new business. Let me know if such a thing exists.

So we trawl through the possibilities until we find one that might work. The travel agent was great and phoned the hotel to make sure there were no issues with steps. However she discovered that although the hotel was accessible the rooms didn’t have accessible showers. That’s ok though Quinns is small enough that I can still manage (and even prefer) to bath him. For others, that wouldn’t be the case.

Ok that’s the hotel booked. Now flights. Special Assistance will be provided including help through the airport, priority through check-in and security and lift onto the plane.  That all sounds great in theory but more on that later.

Now, how will Quinns sit on the plane? He can’t sit unaided and given half a chance will launch himself off anything (he finds it very funny when he does!) unless strapped in with a five point harness or butterfly strap. We thought he could use his GoTo seat (an awesome portable seat that allows him to sit strapped to any seat, swing, shopping trolley etc). It’s super portable and we’d planned to take it with us anyway. Airline said ‘No, it’s not approved.’

We need either a Crelling harness or a car seat. They can provide the harness for the over 3s. We’re going 3 weeks before Quinns’ third birthday!! We either need to buy one at a cost of around £100 or take our rather clunky car seat. Not ideal when you need lots of luggage to transport equipment and supplies.

It was a difficult decision but thankfully the car seat worked fine in terms of Quinns sitting on the plane and was even useful for the bus ride to the hotel. Fingers crossed the GoTo seat gets approval for airlines soon to avoid such problems for the under (and over) 3’s. And watch this space for next time we travel because they might actually let us use their Crelling harness!

 

I had been thinking about writing about our experiences with Quinns for a while but finally decided to start this blog while we were on holiday. An escape to the sun meant our first experience of airport Special Assistance. We found the help we got at the two airports so very different; at airport one we got a lanyard while at airport two we got a person.

Maybe it was down to our inexperience. Maybe we didn’t know the right questions to ask. What even is Special Assistance? I guess the more you use it the more you learn. If you never have to use it then you don’t know anything. So often when I explain situations to people they say ‘I’d never thought of that.’ That made me think, perhaps if I write about my experiences it will help others understand more and that’s got to help, right?

It’s not my intention to moan about our circumstances here. We know that we are extremely fortunate.  As a family we strive to give everyone what they need but with Quinns that comes with challenges. This blog is a place to share those challenges in making sure that we live our lives to the fullest.