BA help with High Functioning Autistic daughter

[Guest]

Flying with BA Gatwick to Orlando. Hoping for fast tracking through customs when reaching Orlando. Also when leaving Gatwick. Has anyone had disability help for this condition with BA.?..

[catki11]

We’ve not flown with BA or from Gatwick, but Manchester has a scheme where people with ASD can get a sunflower lanyard once they get to the airport. This is recognised by airport staff so they know the person has ASD. My son has HFA and he got the lanyard when we flew from Manchester with TC in April. We didn’t require any assistance on the plane although we were told we could choose to get on the plane first or last (we had priority boarding so this wasn’t an issue for us). When we got to MCO they must have seen the lanyard and escorted us to the special assistance line. There was only one family in front of us and we were through immigration in 10 minutes! When we landed back at Manchester we were taken through the special assistance line at passport control and again had hardly any wait.

I’d check on the Gatwick website to see if they have a similar scheme, it certainly made our lives so much easier!

[catki11]

gatwickairport/at-th...-disabilities/

[nadya]

We contacted mco airport and they provided special assistance, 2 of my sons have asd.we were met from the plane and the lady escorted us through immigration, very quick and helpful,was very useful.
We used the sunflower lanyards at manchester airport too which worked well.

[bighal]

The lanyards are also used at Glasgow airport.

[Guest]

Sounds good but what happens when we land at Orlando 😱. There are 9 of us. Will we all be fAst tracked.?...

[nadya]

There was 10 of us last year,we all lived at the same address so we all went through immigration together as usual,not sure how it works if this isn't the case-maybe just your immediate family who live at the same address

[catki11]

Originally Posted by Jenni001

Sounds good but what happens when we land at Orlando 😱. There are 9 of us. Will we all be fAst tracked.?...

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It is just for those who live in the same house as your daughter. The others will have to go through immigration as normal I’m afraid

[Jakey Neverland]

Originally Posted by nadya

We contacted mco airport and they provided special assistance, 2 of my sons have asd.we were met from the plane and the lady escorted us through immigration, very quick and helpful,was very useful.
We used the sunflower lanyards at manchester airport too which worked well.

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Hi can I ask what email address you used to contact them?

[Megandllsmum]

We've used the lanyard with our daughter who also has high functioning autism, it's easily recognisable by staff who are happy to help, havent used it in florida though so can't comment on that but last October in majorca it was recognised so maybe the sunflower lanyard is a recognised thing at a lot of airports

We only fly out of Manchester and they've always been brilliant there with our daughter, before the lanyard we used their special flyer wristband but I think this was rolled out as its done in other airports too.
Edited to add once you have the lanyard it's yours to keep for future travels so ours is stored away in our holiday box with adaptors, suitcase scales etc 👍