United Airlines screws over CPAP users

Glenn was traveling to Thailand with a group of friends. Glenn and another member of the group have issues with Sleep Apnea, a potentially life threatening disorder where sufferers stop breathing in their sleep. Fortunately, a simple medical device called a C-Pap machine can be used during sleep to correct the problem. So Glenn, being the informed responsible consumer he is, contacted the airline the group was booked on, United, to make sure that he'd be able to use his C-Pap machine during the god-awfully long trip from Boston to Thailand. United said, sure, no problem, they'd be able to get him an outlet for his machine. Then, they canceled his booking. Without telling him. But wait! It gets worse!

http://consumerist.com/368470/united-ca ... cal-device

I have found Consumerist.com to be an informative and useful website; however in the comments to this story I found many Consumerist readers to be not just uninformed (which I can understand), but jerks.

filbert wrote:I have found Consumerist.com to be an informative and useful website; however in the comments to this story I found many Consumerist readers to be not just uninformed (which I can understand), but jerks.

Yup. The mask of internet anonymity brings out the true ass in some people.

Interesting reading, filbert. Thanks for the link!

I normally read Consumerist.com (as I am a big advocate of personal liberties and not being screwed by company policies such as bag checks when you leave, receipt checks, etc.)

Reading these comments makes me disgusted, though. From what we know, to get a CPAP you need to have between mild and severe apnea. This is above (let's say) 5 apneas per hour, with an apnea described as 10 seconds or more of no air intake. That is at least 5 times an hour you can just not breathe again, and these people make it to be some kind of joke.

I found this article really interesting. I like to travel, it is the one thing or hobby that my husband and I really look forward to planning etc. I have a trip planned that will require a 6 hr flight one way, then 8.5 on the way back. Not really a big deal for the cpap since it is nothing like this article mentions. I really hope though, that the airlines get to understand apnea better and make it possible for the use of cpap on flights, especially ones longer than 12 hours or overnight. I guess this will not be something I plan for a while, but I was horrified by the crass remarks by some of the readers on that site. I think we really need to have some sort of spokesperson or have doctors do some pr work here. My doctor wrote me the note for medical need in case security is unfamiliar with the cpap, but I would not even try to use it during the flights now after reading this. One more reason that some people will use to give up I guess......(not me, I am finally seeing some positive effects) I just wanted to vent a little about the lack of education on this for many people out there, especially the airlines.