Before you fly

Four to eight weeks out

• Read your airline’s page on wheelair, then read the airline’s own page. We link straight to it. Policies change and ours is a snapshot with a date on it.
• Check every leg, not just the first. A codeshare booked with a big carrier may be operated by a regional partner with a much smaller hold. Turboprops are where chairs get refused: an ATR or a Dash 8 can have a hold door barely 50–70 cm wide.
• If the airline requires approval, start it now. Approval for a battery-powered chair is a real process at many carriers, with a form and a lead time of up to seven days.

Measure and document the chair

Make a single one-page sheet and carry three printed copies. This is the document that ends arguments.

• Dimensions as it will be handed over: width at the widest point (wheels, joystick, or a side guard), height with the backrest in its travel position, length including footplates. Note the folded dimensions separately if it folds.
• Weight, and the weight of the heaviest single part if it comes apart. Above roughly 120 kg many airlines need lifting equipment arranged in advance.
• Battery: chemistry (lithium-ion, gel, AGM, sealed lead-acid, wet), voltage, amp-hours and the watt-hour figure. Photograph the label. If it only shows V and Ah, multiply them and write the Wh on your sheet.
• Whether the battery is designed to be removed. This single fact decides which set of rules applies to you.
• How to immobilise it: which switch, which key, which connector. Write it in plain language and tape a copy to the chair.
• The manufacturer’s UN 38.3 test summary for the battery if you can get it — some airlines demand it at check-in, and it is far easier to download at home than to find at an airport.

When you book

• Give notice in the airline’s stated window — 48 hours is the usual minimum, and several carriers want 72 hours or seven days for a powered chair.
• Ask for the SSR code to be added to the booking: WCHR, WCHS or WCHC for the assistance you need, plus WCBD, WCBW or WCLB for the battery type. Then ask them to read the booking back to you and confirm the codes are on it.
• Get the acceptance in writing — email or a reference number. Verbal approval evaporates at 5 a.m. at a check-in desk.
• Ask specifically for delivery at the aircraft door. Many airlines return chairs to the baggage belt by default, and wheelair records which ones.

At the airport

• Arrive early. Airlines commonly ask powered-chair users to check in 60–120 minutes earlier than everyone else, and some make it a condition of carriage.
• Photograph the chair at the gate from every angle, with something showing the date. Do it again the moment you get it back.
• Remove and carry loose parts yourself: joystick, cushion, headrest, side guards, footplates. They are the things that come back broken or not at all.
• Tape your immobilisation instructions and your spec sheet to the chair frame.
• If something is going wrong in the US, ask for the Complaints Resolution Official. In the EU or UK, name Regulation 1107/2006 and ask for the reason for refusal in writing.

If your chair is damaged

• Report it before you leave the airport and get a written report — a Property Irregularity Report or the local equivalent. Some carriers impose a seven-day claim deadline.
• On a US domestic flight, the airline’s liability is the chair’s original purchase price, not the Montreal Convention cap. Say so.
• In Canada, the carrier must provide a suitable temporary replacement at its expense and repair or replace the aid.
• Escalate to the regulator, not just the airline: the US DOT, the relevant EU National Enforcement Body, the UK CAA, or the Canadian Transportation Agency.