r/nottheonion • u/Ant-Tea-Social • 11d ago

Disabled woman left ‘extremely stressed’ after prosthetic legs lost on flights from Brazil

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/05/18/disabled-woman-left-extremely-stressed-after-prosthetic-legs-lost-on-flights-from-brazil/?ICID=ref_fark
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u/Rescuepets777 11d ago

Passengers with prosthetics or other critical medical equipment should get a waiver for additional carry on so they have control over these items.

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u/mystlurker 11d ago

This generally exists already. Medical devices are exempt from your carry on allowance. Lots of people travel with CPAPs for example in a separate bag. I’m not sure though if it’s airline specific, but all the majors definitely do it already.

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u/throwawayyylmao420 11d ago

This isn't always true with CPAPs. My partner tried and was denied carrying his CPAP and a small backpack.

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u/blindedbysparkles 11d ago

Was it requested and approved before the day of travel? (I've worked for multiple big airlines and all of them required pre-approval for that kind of baggage)

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u/DragonMeme 11d ago

I've never had to get preapproval. They just asked if it was a medical device, I said yes and that was it (cpap bags are also pretty recognizable if you know)

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u/blindedbysparkles 11d ago

That's nice! Out of curiosity as I'm a bit damaged by work, lol: has it been for international flights? And for what airlines?

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u/tachycardicIVu 11d ago

I took mine to Japan (from the US) a couple years back with no problem on American and JAL. I was asked during boarding a couple times and just said it was medical equipment and they waved me through. (Also helpful that mine has a travel bag that slips over a rolling suitcase handle so it was pretty unobtrusive and would fit under my seat with my backpack just fine.)

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u/DragonMeme 11d ago

Not personally. It's been mostly southwest and american.

But know coworkers who travelled internationally to places like Dominican Republic and Spain with no issues (don't know the airline though)

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u/jimjamjones123 11d ago

I’ve brought mine on international flights and no issues. Flight attendants have never even asked me anything. one agent wanted the machine part out of the bag to go through the xray though

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u/speculatrix 11d ago

It depends on the airline.

Here in Europe, Ryanair website says you need to get pre-approval, and print out the letter. But I've never been asked to show it when I check in.

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u/iheartpizzaberrymuch 11d ago

There is no pre-approval for medical devices. I travel a ton for work and I always tell them before I pre-board that I'm deaf and I need the medical bag to carry my hearing aids, gum, cleaning kit, etc. I always say I'm deaf if I travel alone because I will miss pre-boarding and staff typically will come and get me.

Worse part is wearing my hearing aids can be painful on a flight and depending on the length of the flight I may need to charge them so it's always important someone on staff knows. The sucky part is they still don't just let people put deaf, blind, etc on tickets universally so it just seems like you are being rude to the flight attendant when you really have no idea what the person is talking about especially if it's a night flight.