S9 on plane and other alternatives

[KathyJL]

Hi everyone! Ok, so I’m going on an overseas red eye and want to sleep. I’m taking my old S9 without humidifier. I have original power supply. Plane has outlet for 120 volt appliances. Is the S9 ok to use on the plane?
Also, for temporary situations like this, does anyone have any non-cpap alternatives? Such a pain to pull out my machine for the plane ride.

[robysue1]

Hi everyone! Ok, so I’m going on an overseas red eye and want to sleep. I’m taking my old S9 without humidifier. I have original power supply. Plane has outlet for 120 volt appliances. Is the S9 ok to use on the plane?
Also, for temporary situations like this, does anyone have any non-cpap alternatives? Such a pain to pull out my machine for the plane ride.

How long is your whole trip for? In other words, if you are taking a multi-day trip, you'll need to bring your CPAP machine with you or you'll likely be miserable the whole time you are away from home.

And when you are traveling by plane, it's important that your CPAP machine be carried on to the plane rather than checked in baggage. (It should NOT count towards your carry-on quota, however, if you are carrying it in is carry-case with only cpap related equipment/supplies.)

Now whether to drag the CPAP out of its case when you are on the plan itself is a different question. Some of us are "ok" for a night where we're sleeping sitting up in an airplane seat on a red-eye. Others? They'll tell you they'd use the machine on the plane, particularly if there is power available at your seat.

Me? When hubby and I went to Europe last year, we took both our CPAPs with us as carryon luggage, but didn't use them while we were on the plane. Our seats on Iceland Air, however, did not have power available. The only other times on the trip that one or both of us didn't use the PAPs was on two overnight bus rides (with no power at our seats) or one overnight train trip when there were only limited power supplies in a sleeping compartment with 6 people in it and hubby chose not to use his machine. (I wound up setting mine up in the middle of the night after I found that I was waking myself up every few minutes worried about whether I might be snoring loud enough to disturb the other people in the compartment.)

Those nights without the CPAPs were miserable sleep nights anyway since we were sleeping sitting up in the plane or the bus and so I'm not sure we would have felt much different had we used the machines on them; but we really didn't want to lug batteries with us for 45 days along with the CPAPs themselves. So we made the decision to not use them on those few days where we were traveling at night with no source for power.

But if we had had access to power while on the plane? I think both of us would have gotten our PAPs out of the overhead bins and set them up for the night.

[chunkyfrog]

Some airlines are anal about running medical equipnent off their power.
(((The rest are just plain anal.)))

[ChicagoGranny]

Plane has outlet for 120 volt appliances. Is the S9 ok to use on the plane?

You need to talk to the airline. Here is what ResMed has on a variety of airlines' policies - https://www.resmed.com/en-us/sleep-apne ... -policies/

Here is a section of Delta's policy for example -

Powering a Medical Device
Please note, while electrical outlets are available onboard Delta aircraft, these are not made to support medical device use. We do not provide onboard sources of power for medical devices, so you must bring a source of battery power if you’re planning on bringing a device.

You must bring batteries to power your medical device
Your assistive device must have 150% of your actual flight time in battery life, regardless of how long you choose to use the item
The appropriate number of batteries should be calculated using the manufacturer’s estimate for battery life while the device is in use

But be sure to read all of the policy. There are more sections. Once you understand the written policy, you still need to talk to a customer service rep at the airline.

[KathyJL]

Thanks, robysue1! 14-year veteran here but last time I went to Europe, I didn’t use it on the plane. This time we have biz class and beds .
I don’t understand the whole voltage, amps, watts thing, so that’s why I was asking. I will use it, but was hoping some new invention allowed me to not have to pull it out on the plane. Oh well. Have a good one!
Chunkyfrog, I agree. But I have my letter from doctor and machine paperwork so hope it goes well! The airline website said I don’t need to call, just bring that stuff.

[billbolton]

Plane has outlet for 120 volt appliances. Is the S9 ok to use on the plane?

It will definitely work, but as noted above whether the airline will let you use it is a more complex question.