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[quote=Anonymous]Don't. Once someone needs this level of assistance to take a plane, you have to do a rigorous cost-benefit analysis, and commencement won't make the cut.

1. You're taking people whose functioning is on the bubble in a familiar environment and putting them through the unpredictability of airline travel so that they can spend a few days in an unfamiliar setting where they will be surrounded by noise and distracted loved ones. Not worth it.

2. They will almost certainly get dehydrated because that's what air travel does to us, plus they will probably restrict fluid intake so they don't have to use an unfamiliar bathroom (at the airport) or an awkward unfamiliar bathroom (in flight). And if it's the latter, they'll have to negotiate the aisle with turbulence.

3. Dehydration will leave them dizzy and disoriented.

4. No matter how carefully you plan and explain logistics, they will likely forget. My mother flew an hour for my brother's wedding, and she had gotten loads of travel tips from her also-elderly friends. The wheelchair to take her from place to place worked great. The part where she wanted me to meet her at baggage claim didn't, because somehow she forgot that I'd agreed to do that. It was not a great start to the weekend.

And at that point, my mom was fully mobile, driving, handling her own finances, etc. But that was the last overnight trip she took.[/quote]

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