Traveling with oxygen. Have you done it? My experience so far.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

The last few times I have flown have been a little scary so I talked to my doctors about it.
Turns out they have a test to see if you have altitude problems and if your oxygen levels drop.
Mine did, so now I have the pleasure of traveling with a little oxygen concentrator machine.
It's been quite an experience with getting it approved by my insurance company.

So far I had to of course have the doctors submit the order to the DME company.
Then they submit the claim to the insurance company. It took almost a month to get an approval.
Then they bring me the machine and it didn't work so had to bring me another one.
Didn't come with a manual so had to look it up online and luckily there are pdf manuals online.
Easy enough to use, but then you have to get a form filled out by your doctor for the airlines.
Then you call the airlines and they note on your flight the info about which machine you are bringing.
Now I am awaiting a call from the airlines to coordinate all this because they may have to move
my seat to one with an electrical outlet.
You cannot block anyone so I think you need a window seat. I paid for a premium seat so we
shall see what happens with that upgrade money.

The machine is 6.5 pounds and comes with an internal and external battery plus the charging
cables and a cigarette lighter charger for the car along with the nasal cannula.
This is a lot for an older person to have to coordinate. I can see this being a hassle for someone
who doesn't have the energy to coordinate all of this. I doubt my 80 year old Mom would do this.
I wonder what happens if you just show up at the airport with the machine.
Probably nothing. I doubt they would deny you boarding but didn't want to take the chance.

My flight is next week so will see how smoothly things go.
I'll update the thread after the flight.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Wow, interesting. I knew it was a challenge, just didn't know how much of a challenge. It really is a huge amount of effort for an elderly or ill person!

Looking forward to the ongoing story.

My DH uses a cpap and I think his old machine is at the end of the line. It's not even that old, just about three years! I really dislike his durable medical goods provider, but switching is such a pain in the neck.

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

I have a cpap. It is no problem to travel with it - I just put it in the check-in bag. Mine has gotten very noisy, but my DME company told me I would have to have another sleep study and a new script to get a new one (mine is over 5 years old). I said forget it; I'll live with the noise. DH, on the other hand, hates the noise. He says it is like sleeping on the beach every night "woosh, woosh".

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I have no choice in the DME company since the insurance company only uses Univita which is the largest one in the nation.
And the bad part about all this is that they only rented the machine for me, not purchase it so I have to go thru this with
every vacation I go on that is either in the mountains or on a plane. So no more last minute trips unless they are short flights.

For me to buy this would be more than 5K since you have to buy not only the machine but extra battery packs since you have
to have 1-1/2 times the length of the flight in hours in battery life, so a 5 hour flight requires 7.5 hours of battery life.
The batteries are more than $500 each.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I have a cpap. It is no problem to travel with it - I just put it in the check-in bag. Mine has gotten very noisy, but my DME company told me I would have to have another sleep study and a new script to get a new one (mine is over 5 years old). I said forget it; I'll live with the noise. DH, on the other hand, hates the noise. He says it is like sleeping on the beach every night "woosh, woosh".

Really? That's strange.
I have a Bipap machine which is like a Cpap and the heater stopped working.
They gave me another brand new machine instead of just replacing the heater.
I didn't have to have another sleep study although now that I've lose weight I probably should.
I just don't want to hassle with the study, I just adjust my own machine.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

I have a cpap. It is no problem to travel with it - I just put it in the check-in bag. Mine has gotten very noisy, but my DME company told me I would have to have another sleep study and a new script to get a new one (mine is over 5 years old).

Go see your sleep doctor.

DH is on his second cpap. When the old one was on its way out--and all it did wrong was start getting noisy, like yours, so it bugged me, like it bugs your DH--he did have to go see his sleep doctor. He told the doctor that he just couldn't go through another sleep study, and the doctor checked him over, looked at the smart card results on the old machine, and wrote the scrip for the new machine.

BTW, they now have fingertip testers that you can use at home to get sleep study results in your own bed. I don't know of too many places that are using them, but I've heard that they are available.

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

Go see your sleep doctor.

DH is on his second cpap. When the old one was on its way out--and all it did wrong was start getting noisy, like yours, so it bugged me, like it bugs your DH--he did have to go see his sleep doctor. He told the doctor that he just couldn't go through another sleep study, and the doctor checked him over, looked at the smart card results on the old machine, and wrote the scrip for the new machine.

BTW, they now have fingertip testers that you can use at home to get sleep study results in your own bed. I don't know of too many places that are using them, but I've heard that they are available.

Thanks. I'll look into it. The company said the insurance won't pay for a new one unless it's broken, and noisy doesn't count as broken. I have honestly thought about breaking it.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Thanks. I'll look into it. The company said the insurance won't pay for a new one unless it's broken, and noisy doesn't count as broken. I have honestly thought about breaking it.

That wasn't how it worked for him. I called and said it's noisy, can you make it less noisy, and they looked it up and said it's more than five years old so he should get a new one. He did have to see his doctor. The DME company should be all over selling a new cpap, the machines cost a fortune and the DME makes a solid chunk of change from getting you a new one!

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Thanks. I'll look into it. The company said the insurance won't pay for a new one unless it's broken, and noisy doesn't count as broken. I have honestly thought about breaking it.

Well it could always fall off the night stand.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Well it could always fall off the night stand.

Did it jump? Or...was it pushed?

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Did it jump? Or...was it pushed?

What difference does it make?
It's broken, dead and gone.
It committed suicide.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

What difference does it make?
It's broken, dead and gone.
It committed suicide.

There may be an inquiry. That's all I'm saying. Best to get your story straight.

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

Oh man....I'm such a lousy liar.

[SallyHoover Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SallyHoover]

As someone who worked in airline reservations, I can tell you, they can absolutely deny boarding if you don't coordinate everything ahead of time. They would consider it as endangering the safety of the aircraft and all of the passengers vs one person who needs special accommodations. The FAA would definitely back the airline up. If you showed up and if every I and T were crossed and if you showed up sufficiently early (several hours) for the airline to check every I and T, you probably would be allowed to fly.

For example here is Southwest page on POC's https://www.southwest.com/html/custo...MER-ASSISTANCE

I would encourage you to look at whatever airline you are considering buying a ticket on before you buy to make sure that you can fly with your device.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

As someone who worked in airline reservations, I can tell you, they can absolutely deny boarding if you don't coordinate everything ahead of time. They would consider it as endangering the safety of the aircraft and all of the passengers vs one person who needs special accommodations. The FAA would definitely back the airline up. If you showed up and if every I and T were crossed and if you showed up sufficiently early (several hours) for the airline to check every I and T, you probably would be allowed to fly.

For example here is Southwest page on POC's https://www.southwest.com/html/custo...MER-ASSISTANCE

I would encourage you to look at whatever airline you are considering buying a ticket on before you buy to make sure that you can fly with your device.

Thanks.
I'm flying on AA and I already checked that the equipment that I am using is on
their list before I got it from the DME company.
And the lady at AA said I am set to go with the info but that someone would
probably call me to coordinate changing my seats or it will be done at the gate.
I've had them re-assign my seats before for other reasons but this will be the
first for oxygen reasons. I guess I can't sit in the aisle since the machine sits
on the floor so will have to be moved to a window seat.

And if all else fails I can always go back to being an "in-flight emergency".
Not that I want to do that, but if they don't play fair then I might not have a choice.
Already went thru it with Southwest.