How to request assistance

• If you're travelling with wheelchairs or mobility aids for your own use, you can take them with you as hold baggage in addition to your free baggage allowance.
• If you need to check any essential medical equipment and/or supplies that will exceed your baggage allowance into the aircraft hold, please have a medical doctor's letter that lists the equipment and/or supplies that you are carrying. This should be presented to airport check-in staff to avoid excess baggage charges.
• Attach a bright ribbon, tag or strap to your bags so they're easier to spot on the baggage carousel.
• If you're checking in your wheelchair, attach a tag with your contact details to it.
  More about baggage

There's no charge for reserving your seat if you have a specific seating requirement because of your disability. In most cases you can select your seat at Manage My Booking but sometimes you may need to contact us, e.g. for some types of developmental impairments.

This is what you need to do:

1. Book your flight
2. Let us know about your assistance needs at least 48 hours before your flight departs through Manage My Booking.
3. Once you've completed your request for assistance, the tool will confirm if you're able to reserve your seat for free and tell you how you can do this. If you need any help, please contact us.

A few more useful details

• You can find more details about specific travel needs, e.g. for wheelchair users, in the next section. Here's some general information to help you make an informed choice:
• The seats, cabin layout and personal space vary depending on the cabin and aircraft you're travelling in.
• On flights within Europe, we use a divider between the Club Europe (business) and Euro Traveller (economy) cabin. This means that the first row of seats in Euro Traveller are not bulkhead seats and therefore less accessible than other seats.
• Many of our seats have moveable armrests – have a look at our seat maps before you start checking in.
• In First and Club World (long haul business cabin), the armrests don't lift but lower when the seat moves to the fully flat bed position.

The new Club Suite has a high wall to provide greater privacy. This could restrict accessibility, for example for customers who have no upper body strength or who don’t self- mobilise.

Online check-in

You can check in online 24 hours before your flight departs, unless you're travelling with your assistance dog in which case you will need to check in at the airport.

• Check in online at Manage My Booking and print your boarding pass
• Use the free British Airways app to check in and download your boarding pass to your mobile device.

At the airport

You can also check in at the airport on the day of departure. Please arrive at least two hours before the scheduled departure time of your flight so we can provide you with the best possible service.

If you're travelling from London Heathrow:

• Terminal 5: There is a designated check-in desk in Departures, Zone A. If you're arriving by car, follow the signs for Departures leading to the top of the building. The nearest drop-off point is at the first pedestrian crossing.
• Terminal 3: The British Airways check-in area is located in Departures, Zone D.

Depending on the cabin you're travelling in, you can use the Fast Track Security lanes (where available).

Which London airport and terminal

 
• You're welcome to board the aircraft ahead of other customers. We will make a pre-boarding announcement at the departure gate and if needed, will help you get to the aircraft and to your seat.
• We'll be able to assist you in leaving the aircraft as soon as other passengers have disembarked and the service provider has arrived. This usually takes at least 15 minutes.
• If you can't use stairs and the aircraft needs to park away from the terminal building, we can arrange for step-free access with the airport operator. Please let us know at least 48 hours before your flight departs through Manage My Booking.

On board our long haul flights, you can choose from a wide variety of films, TV programmes, audiobooks, podcasts, music and games. We also offer different entertainment options for our younger travellers.

We provide headphones that are compatible with hearing aids switched to the T-position to amplify the sound. On most of our flights you can also select some films with closed captions/English subtitles or audio description.

More about in-flight entertainment

The majority of our aircraft offers accessible washrooms but they're not large enough to accommodate wheelchairs. However, on board our Airbus A380 we're able to offer two wheelchair-accessible washrooms on the upper deck and one on the main deck. On our Boeing 787 aircraft we are able to offer one wheelchair-accessible washroom. 

Please remember that you will need to be able to look after your personal care in the washroom. Our cabin crew won't be able to help in this instance. 

Everything you need to know about flight connections with British Airways, including travelling between London airports.

Flight connections