I have got a form open in another tab asking if I need special assistance and I cannot make myself tick it.
Three weeks after knee surgery, walking with one stick, and I know full well I cannot do a big airport terminal on my own with a bag. But every time I go to book it I think about someone who actually needs a wheelchair not getting one because I took it, and I close the tab. Is this a thing other people have felt or have I invented a problem?
You have not invented it, it comes up here every few months. And you are wrong, kindly.
It is not a fixed pool of wheelchairs that you are stealing from a more deserving person. It is a service the airport is required to provide, and they staff it based on the bookings they receive. If anything, booking it early is the helpful thing to do, because that is how they know how many people to roster.
#3August 23, 2026, 8:52 am I felt precisely this, and I got it wrong the first time, so let me be useful rather than reassuring.
After my back operation I did not book anything, because I was forty-something and walking and it felt like a fuss. I then had a terminal change, a long walk, and I arrived at the gate so wrung out that the flight itself was much worse than it needed to be. The second time, after the knee, I booked assistance without agonising about it and the whole journey was unremarkable. That is the actual comparison: not whether you deserve it, but whether you arrive at your seat with something left.
The practical bits. Book it with the airline at least 48 hours ahead, and it is free at most airports. You are not committing to a wheelchair; assistance covers a range of things, and being met and walked slowly to the gate with someone carrying the bag is a normal version of it. Say what you actually need when you book. If your journey also involves a medical clearance form for the airline, that is a completely separate process through their medical desk, and that also wants about 48 hours, so start both in the same phone call. There is more on the airport side in staying mobile while recovering and on the clearance side in medical clearance to fly after surgery.
"Whether you arrive at your seat with something left" is the sentence that got me. Booked. Also asked about the seat while I had them on the phone, which I would not have thought to do.
One thing to watch. Book it for both ends, and if you are connecting, check whether the assistance is arranged through to the second airport or stops when you land. Mine stopped, nobody told me, and I stood at a gate for twenty minutes assuming someone was coming.
Keith is right and I would add: turn up early anyway. Twice now I have booked assistance and had to wait for it, which is fine if you have built the time in and stressful if you have not.
Lena, the fraud feeling does not really go away, for what it is worth. I still get it. I just book it anyway now and let the feeling be wrong.
Mildly against the grain here. I booked it after my knee, did not really need it in the end, and felt more self conscious being wheeled past a queue than I would have felt walking slowly.
Not saying do not book it. Saying you are allowed to book it and then decline it on the day if you turn out to be having a good one. That option is what made it easy for me to say yes the next time.
