Travel with Oxygen for the COPD Patient

For the person with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, especially those using supplemental Oxygen, travel can become a major problem. While driving in your car allows you to take your oxygen with you, what do you do when you are traveling on commercial transportation?

If you are taking the bus, there is no problem, except for making sure that you have enough oxygen to last your entire trip. It is often a virtual impossibility to find oxygen in some of the towns that buses stop in, and given the time of day they stop, the problem is compounded. For example, when my wife and I went from South Dakota to Washington State last year, we spent one glorious night in Billings, Montana. I seriously doubt if I had needed oxygen, that I could have found it in Billings at 3:30 a.m. Therefore, many travel professionals recommend taking enough oxygen to last you for 8 hours longer than the trip is scheduled to last. As the Boy Scouts say, "Be Prepared!"

Train travel falls into the same area as bus travel in most places. Trains do not stop long enough or at convenient enough hours to allow passengers to find a local source of oxygen if it is needed. While it is possible to have the conductor radio ahead and order oxygen to be waiting at a future stop, this is a costly alternative to being prepared in the first place. By the way, often bus companies can do the same thing through their dispatch offices, but again, this is a needless situation if proper preparation is made prior to your trip. For both bus and train travel, advance arrangements must be made with the carrier, in order to be able to travel, so again, prior planning is important.

Air travel is a different story. Airlines allow passengers using oxygen to fly with them, but the FAA will not allow the passenger to use his/her own oxygen. Many airlines charge a fee for providing oxygen to passengers, and often this fee is high. For example, typical fees run from $50 to $150 per leg of the trip. In other words, let's assume that you are flying from Chicago to San Francisco with an intermediate stop in Phoenix. If the fee is a mid-level fee, $100, then on a round trip fare, you would pay an additional $400 for your oxygen. Therefore, it is best to shop around between airlines and chose ones that fit within your budget.

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