Air Travel

Good news from down under. Virgin Blue recently amended their policy regarding wheelchair-users traveling solo. The result?  Now more wheelchair-users are free to fly Virgin Blue without having to shell out the extra bucks for an attendant to accompany them on their journey.

No matter how sarcastic you are, there are just certain words and phrases that you shouldn't use at airport security checkpoints. At the top of the list is the b-word. And by the b-word, I don't mean the word for a female dog or for a snarky woman that you just don't like. I mean bomb.

By now, most of you know there have been big changes in the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) this month. Suffice it to say it was time. Things have evolved over the 23 years since the ACAA was first adopted, so the law needed to be changed accordingly.

One of the major ACAA changes affects people who use Portable Oxygen Concentrators (POCs). As of May 13, 2009 all US carriers must accept any FAA-approved POC aboard their aircraft. This new rule also applies to foreign air carriers, on flights arriving or departing the US.

Sometimes it's rough to travel with kids. Throw a disability into the picture and the situation is greatly magnified. Joseph Ottenbreit certainly knows that.  His daughter, Avery, has cerebral palsy, and she lacks the trunk support necessary to sit upright in an airplane seat. And at 73 pounds Avery well exceeds the weight limit for using the only device that made air travel a reality for her -- the FAA-approved CARES child harness.

So Avery was effectively grounded.