Gatwick Special Assistance with Mobility issues

[DiscoD6381]

Just wondering if anyone has done a transfer between terminals with Gatwick special assistance? Looking for an idea of how they will do it, do they give you a chair and let you have it or do they walk you through or do they take you on minibus or something? My wife has finally admitted that taking a bit of help is easier than killing herself walking so just trying to find out for her as she gets very embarrassed about these things.

[sprocket]

It depends on what assistance you have booked with the airline and if you have your own chair or need a chair provided and how far you intend (or can) walk.
They can either come onto the plane with a special chair and take you to the next plane, or you can walk off and meet the greater at the gate who will wheel you to the next gate.

[jakesmum]

Are you talking about getting from Gatwick north to Gatwick south with special assistance? DH and I are both disabled and we stayed at one of the onsite hotels at North terminal, we took the monorail to the south terminal as the monorial is relatively close to the hotel, then went to special assistance at south terminal who took us through to the plane.

We had to book special assistance with the airline (you can't just turn up) and there are different options, we have to get a wheelchair with lift on and off the plane as DH's ankles just can't do stairs anymore, but if your DW could do stairs she can be taken to the gate or too the bottom of the stairs (if its not a walkway to the aircraft).

With Gatwick we were actually taken on one of those little electric trollies with other disabled people, but be aware they only take the disabled person, everyone else walks (other airports have always let our kids come through with us but this may be because they were under 18 and at Gatwick my mum was with us too so took them the scenic route).

In MCO we were collected from the aeroplane door and wheeled through to the car rental, when we went home we were collected from the check in desk by special assistance and wheeled all the way to departures.

[DiscoD6381]

thanks for your experience folks.

Yes, we are doing the transfer between north and south terminals. Usually, DW can manage short distances and even a small flight of stairs but she is currently expecting so we aren't sure how that is going to affect her hip issue. I don't mind walking with my son who will be five but she hates the idea of being separated from us for ages but hopefully, we aren't too far behind if we have to separate.

[offtoseemickey]

We are never usually separated for long when using special assistance. The service will help you out on a long travel day, so even if you are separated for say 15 minutes, it’ll be worth it. The people who drive the buggies around do this day in, day out - they tent to be very friendly and chatty Hope it all goes well for you!

[DiscoD6381]

thanks for posting this. Good and helpful to get to say that it is only going to be a short while if at all. Booked the V lounge so she is looking forward to that.