Talk me through Special Assistance

[jndt]

We have booked special assistance for my son through United Airlines.

Do we check in then go to the Special assistance desk or go to the desk before checking in?

We are flying from Heathrow if it makes any different.

[Lpf]

I don’t know about Heathrow or United but we did special assistance at Bristol for a European holiday recently (and am assuming it’s the same when we book for VA at LHR)

- go to special assistance desk when you arrive at the airport
- when your check in desk opens (or if already opened) they escorted us to the front of the queue by a different lane and check us in)
- escort to special assistance security Lane
- once airside, check in to their special assistance desk who give you a time to return for aircraft transfer support
- we had breakfast and a shop then went back
- minibus transport direct to the plane with no heading to the gate etc. we were first on the plane.

For a child with autism, this was brilliant.

[Lpf]

Check in and security was 9 minutes for us due to the support (and DS said that was still 9 minutes of torture for him with all the people)

[jndt]

Thank you Lpf - my son also has autism and finds it difficult. He once lay on the floor for 2 hours at LAX and no one helped us so I thought special assistance would be helpful for him. You've proved to me it's the right decision.

[TC Devon]

We contacted virgin and Heathrow and basically and they both said if hidden disability there is no help. Wear lanyard and people will help us. They did nt.

Mco- again i contacted mco x3 times, filled in special assistance form. Two autistic children and we heard nothing. I tried chasing but no one ever replied. I wore my sons lanyard once we landed, he won’t wear things around his neck. Daughter won’t wear it either. No one helped. The queue was massive we were pretty much at the end. It was nt fun. He cried and got stressed the entire time. He gets so wound up. He is almost sick

[Lpf]

Originally Posted by TC Devon

We contacted virgin and Heathrow and basically and they both said if hidden disability there is no help. Wear lanyard and people will help us. They did nt.

Mco- again i contacted mco x3 times, filled in special assistance form. Two autistic children and we heard nothing. I tried chasing but no one ever replied. I wore my sons lanyard once we landed, he won’t wear things around his neck. Daughter won’t wear it either. No one helped. The queue was massive we were pretty much at the end. It was nt fun. He cried and got stressed the entire time. He gets so wound up. He is almost sick

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You can book it as a wheelchair user / restricted mobility etc - this gets you the same support you need as a hidden disability. When you get to the desk, you just tell them what you need and decline the wheelchair. Then when you land, you ‘wait’ for your wheelchair and the staff take you, again - just don’t use the actual wheelchair (or do if the stress of the environment is too much)

Ours was booked as a wheelchair because the only other code was for intellectual disability which didn’t seem right either for autism.

[MillyMoo]

I'm glad I read this! When I looked at Heathrows website it made me think that if we wore the lanyards all would be ok and that special assistance was more for those with physical disabilities!
I'll have another look for when we go next year, thank you!

[T.jenni]

It's tricky this year, under normal circumstances my daughter will 'manage' the airport she will get upset when people stand too close to her in queues etc but she can manage for short bursts of time. There is no way she will not explode/implode if she is in a queue of angry adults for 3 hours worried about I'd Heathrow will lose her case. I'm dreading it to be honest

[AhoyShipmates]

I’ve booked special assistance twice with Easyjet when flying from Manchester. It was fine at the UK side but at a very crowded Amsterdam Schipol airport we left a train to find ourselves in a packed crowd at the foot of a staircase with one harassed staff member letting a few people up the stairs every few minutes. Our DS just about held it together until we were up the stairs but when he saw the massive queue for security he fetched the same poor man and we were taken past the queue and straight to security. The lanyard helped as shorthand both for the member of staff and for the other people queuing.

[duchy]

Originally Posted by TC Devon

We contacted virgin and Heathrow and basically and they both said if hidden disability there is no help. Wear lanyard and people will help us. They did nt.

Mco- again i contacted mco x3 times, filled in special assistance form. Two autistic children and we heard nothing. I tried chasing but no one ever replied. I wore my sons lanyard once we landed, he won’t wear things around his neck. Daughter won’t wear it either. No one helped. The queue was massive we were pretty much at the end. It was nt fun. He cried and got stressed the entire time. He gets so wound up. He is almost sick

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Not my experience at Heathrow . (or Gatwick or Dublin for that matter). Special assistance is available to get you through whether you are visibly disabled or not (or even just too old to walk long distances).
I look fine, can stand and walk unaided but can’t manage long distances of long periods of standing or walking both of which are how airports are nowadays.
At Heathrow although they prefer you to book with your airline you can just rock up to special assistance and they’ll take you through .
Virgin really dropped the ball with you though. That’s really unacceptable . I was booked with AA , just added it to my booking and they emailed back confirmation straightaway.
To say the disability must be visible is complete nonsense from Virgin.
I have a friend who is deaf , she manages it brilliantly with lip reading but airports are tricky . There’s no visible disability but she can’t hear announcements . She had assistance at Heathrow flying to Vegas this year flying Virgin. (She didn’t realise it was available until she flew with me to Dublin and the assistance guy told her to book it for herself for her forthcoming Vegas trip)