Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years ago. She still has lovely days and she has been going to the same little hotel in Portugal with Dad for thirty years, and since Dad died she keeps asking to go back. My sister and I have decided to take her, one last time while she can enjoy it, four nights in November.
The flight itself is only two and a half hours. It's the airport I'm frightened of. She gets very muddled in crowds and noise, she won't want to take her wedding ring off, and if she's asked to stand in the scanner with her arms up by a stranger I think she might just refuse. She can walk but not far, and she gets tired very quickly.
Has anyone done this? Is there help for this or is assistance only for people in wheelchairs?
Assistance is absolutely not only for wheelchairs. I'm blind and I use it every time I fly. It covers anything that makes the airport hard, and dementia is very much included. Book it through the airline and be specific about what she needs, because "assistance" on its own gets you a person with a wheelchair and not much else.
Also look at the sunflower lanyard. A lot of airports recognise it now and staff are meant to give a bit more time and patience. It isn't magic but it does change how people speak to you.
Ask for a wheelchair for her even if she can walk. Not because of her legs but because a chair means somebody pushes her, she's sitting down, and she's not trying to follow signs. My wife can walk a little too, and the chair takes so much of the strain out of the day for both of us.
#4October 2, 2026, 10:40 am AngelaT said:
Is there help for this or is assistance only for people in wheelchairs?
Angela, what a lovely thing to be doing for her. Fran and Neil have the two most important points already. Assistance is a free legal right and it covers non-visible conditions such as dementia, not just mobility. Book it through the airline at least 48 hours before you fly, and when you do, describe what she needs in plain terms: someone to take you through a quieter security lane, a calmer place to wait than the gate, boarding first, and someone meeting you on arrival in Portugal. A wheelchair for her on top, as Neil says, means she is never trying to keep up. I wrote up how to book it and what to ask for in airport special assistance.
On security, it helps to tell her what will happen before you get there, simply and one step at a time, and to tell the officer quietly that your mum has dementia. Ask whether you or your sister can stay right beside her through the scanner. Wedding rings often do not set off the arch at all, and if they ask for it to come off, that is the moment to ask for a hand search instead. The Alzheimer's Society specifically flags that people with dementia may not understand why they are asked to remove personal items, so you are right to plan for it.
The thing I would add is the familiar hotel. That is the best possible choice, because everything she knows there is one less new thing to take in. Whether the trip itself is a good idea for her health, and anything about her medication timings, is worth running past her GP or memory nurse before you go.
Put a card in her handbag with your mobile and the hotel's address. My neighbour did that for her husband and the one time he wandered off in a station, a member of staff found him and rang her within ten minutes.
This is so helpful, thank you. Rang the airline today and it took a while but they've put her down for assistance with a wheelchair at both ends and noted dementia on the booking. Lanyard ordered. Card for the handbag done. My sister thinks I'm turning it into a military operation but I'd rather that than a scene at the scanner.
Not gone yet, we fly in a couple of weeks, but rang the hotel and they remembered Mum and Dad and they're giving her the same room. I cried on the phone. Will report back.
