Needles on EasyJet

[ilesmark]

Hi all

Am posting on behalf of a friend. She lives in Germany and has MS. She needs injections, so has to carry (prescribed) needles and medication with her when she travels overseas - like to the UK. The needles and medication need to be kept at ideally between 2 and 8 and degrees, although can go up to 24 degrees for a couple of hours. Thus she doesn't want to carry them as checked baggage. Lufthansa flies from Cologne to London and are perfectly OK for her to carry them in her hand baggage on production of the prescription, but they are expensive. Easyjet is a lot cheaper and also flies from Cologne to London BUT they refuse to allow her to fly with the needles in her hand baggage despite the prescription.

2 questions:-
1) Is EasyJet in the right and, if not, how to challenge it?
2) Would the hold get below 2 degrees in the first place, if she did check the needles/medication in?

Any thoughts would be welcomed

[Capetonian]

From easyJet's regulations

Carrier's Regulations | easyJet.com (http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Book/regulations.html#baggage)

Needles

Hypodermic needles are permitted for carriage for medical purposes only. Medical certification must be presented at check-in to permit hypodermic needles to be carried into the cabin.

Passengers travelling with needles must be advised that injections required during the flight must be self-administered. easyJet cabin crew are unable to administer injections under any circumstances.

Diabetics

Injections required during flight must be self-administered. Please ensure that you carry supplies of insulin in your cabin baggage. Diabetic insulin pens will be permitted for travel without medical documentation.

[ilesmark]

Yeah, that's what I thought. But when she has checked with EasyJet prior to booking, the response she's got is NO :ugh:

Maybe the answer is to book and then turn up at the airport with the needles/medication in 1 hand and a copy of the above terms and conditions in the other. They wouldn't be different for EasyJet flights from Germany, would they?

[Capetonian]

I wouldn't risk leaving it until she checks, it could result in an unpleasant and non-productive confrontation at the airport. I would go the airport before she travels, with the printout, and speak to a duty manager or someone senior, and get them to agree in writing or in the presence of a witness that the needles will be accepted.

I travelled with a friend who is diabetic and had her injection stuff with her (it may not have been needles, sometimes they have a little device which is not actually a needle and syringe), on easyJet from Geneva to Barcelona, and we had no problem. I don't see why the regulations would vary from country to country within Europe.

[west lakes]

As long as the friend has a medical certificate/doctor's letter there will be no problem

[paully]

I am in the category as described and have had no problem,so far, with EZY or indeed other carriers. I think its someone on the ground staff either being pedantic, a lot of them are, or just simply didnt know what the carriers rules were, more likely.

The be honest, the staff of any carrier, do not look inside clothing or cabin baggage, thats the role of the security checkers who operate to Government (ok occasionally their own as well) rules and have no idea at a busy airport which carrier you are travelling with.

All carriers have these regs in case something crops up and they have to give definitive answers. Its called belt and braces approach but for the most part if the traveller is discreet,so are they...They dont want to bite the hand that feeds them

Happy flying :ok:

[Flyer70]

I have flown with Easyjet a number of times with hypodermic needle syringes and have had no problems

[ilesmark]

All - thanks for answers. Just in case, does anyone know the average baggage hold temperature on a 737 like EasyJet uses?

[WHBM]

Baggage contents checks are not made by airlne staff at all. They are made by airport security personnel who do not take into account which carrier you are with, nor is this part of their responsibilities. The security rules are set by the relevant national aviation authority, to which certain airports may add their own issues.

The only exception is where the baggage is sufficiently large to be obvious to airline staff what it is; for example sport parachute rigs that have AOD devices (which deploy with a small explosive) may be checked or prohibited, because it is obvious when checking them in what they are. But these are the exception.

Many airlines prohibit in their rules the carriage of Christmas Crackers, or allow them in small quantities only. I can assure you that large numbers of these go westbound across the North Atlantic to the USA (where they are unknown) in pax baggage on every flight in December.

Checked baggage temperature of the contents, on a short haul flight like this, does not actually vary a great deal from the ambient at point of departure, and here I would be perfectly happy to check these (provided of course you can accept the small risk of mishandled baggage on arrival, but that is a separate matter). A minority of the holds are heated like the cabin (to facilitate the carriage of animals etc), most are not, but the temperature does not fall off a lot inside the bags. All holds on jets are pressurised like the cabin is.

[ilesmark]

Cool - thanks for clarification.

The friend apparently found out re the EasyJet prohibition because, not wanting to risk a confrontation at the airport as in Capetonian's post, she spoke to their customer services before booking any tickets. Suspect the call was routed to a centre in a certain South Asian country ;-) and was answered by someone who didn't know what they were talking about. Unfortunately, friend's non-confrontation extended to the point where she didn't even demand to speak to a manager to check this was correct. She will now have another bash at it, with the Carrier's Regulations at hand when she calls (or visits the airport beforehand).

[paully]

Ilesmark

Tell her to save herself the aggro and do what the rest of us do, there is no danger to the aircraft or persons on it. Just smile sweetly and go with the flow. Honestly its not an everyday issue for the airline...

[ExXB]

I use these (http://www.friouk.com/) to keep my insulin 'cool' while I travel. Even used them in the UAE with temperatures pushing 50C. I highly recommend them (and have no relationship with the company, other than as a customer)

They absorb water into crystals forming a gel - even so I have never had a problem at security, even when travelling with Squeezy!

[ViscountFan]

My wife also travels with medication for MS. Whenever we travel she obtains a letter from the medication provider explaining her circumstances. This letter letter specifically states the injections must be taken as cabin baggage, and provides a 24 hour helpline for use if there is a problem. We have flown in the last couple of years with Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Aer Arran, BA, Air Canada and Easyjet, and have never had an issue.

[Paphian]

Thanks for the information exXB We have ordered one after reading your post.