Airport Advice and Assistance
The team at Heathrow Travel-Care often receive telephone calls and emails from passengers / potential passengers who need advice about arranging their journey to and through Heathrow safely.
We always advise enquirers to contact their airline (via website or telephone) to request specific information or assistance.
The airport operator (BAA for Heathrow) is responsible under EU regulations for offering services to ‘Passengers with Restricted Mobility’ (a legal definition, which includes people with sensory impairments) – please click here for the “Request Special Assistance” page on the BAA Heathrow website .
BAA provides these services using specialist contractors who can offer assistance with luggage and / or wheelchair passage / finding your way around the airport. This assistance is paid for by BAA and accessed via the airline / ground handling agent.
General travel advice requests received by Heathrow Travel-Care have included:
- A single parent planning a visit to relatives with an child who has autism and uses a wheelchair
- A colostomy using passenger needing advice on carrying scissors to change bags during a long-haul flight
- An accompanied terminally ill parent making a special trip to visit family, needing advice on insurance and oxygen
- A nervous flyer needing additional reassurance having booked their flight
- A passenger who is blind, going skiing, arriving by ‘tube’ needing advice on getting to the terminal
- A concerned parent of a 14 year old passenger, who had called home to advise them of a long delay
- A key worker of a person with a learning disability, who was planning ‘a trip of a life time’
- A social worker whose client was returning to Heathrow without funds after a ‘disastrous trip’
Social workers can often offer advice, reassurance or signposting to other services. In exceptional circumstances, direct assistance may be negotiated is appropriate.
Please click here for information on Air Passenger Rights.