is CPAP machine ok inside my checked bag?

You hang on to it. "Carry on" means you carry it on.
Let me guess; you have never flown before.
When you are checking in, they tag your checked baggage and then THEY take it to the plane.
Your carry-on is measured, judged legal, and you KEEP it--WITH YOU for the entire flight.
It is easier than you think. --usually.

RestlessSleeper wrote:What is the protocol for carrying it on a flight? Do you just put it on the conveyor belt for the x-ray machine with the rest of your luggage or do you give it directly to one of the attendants?

If not instructed otherwise by TSA personnel, just put it on the conveyor as with your other carry on bags. TSA personnel seem to recognize manufactures' CPAP carrying cases and sometimes treat them differently. Sometimes I've been asked to open them and sometimes not. In any case, it's never been a problem.

Jay Aitchsee wrote:

RestlessSleeper wrote:What is the protocol for carrying it on a flight? Do you just put it on the conveyor belt for the x-ray machine with the rest of your luggage or do you give it directly to one of the attendants?

If not instructed otherwise by TSA personnel, just put it on the conveyor as with your other carry on bags. TSA personnel seem to recognize manufactures' CPAP carrying cases and sometimes treat them differently. Sometimes I've been asked to open them and sometimes not. In any case, it's never been a problem.

the only time I flew with my CPAP was with it as a carry-on. The TSA who was on the other side of the belt recognized it as a CPAP but I had to open the case and pull the 2 machine pieces out. because TSA rushes the conveyor belt fast, it got thru quicker than me so I don't know how hard it was looked at. I am planning on downloading the FAA saying it is medical and carrying that with me also.

I have never seen ANY carry-on measured. and some were clearly oversized. I hate that because that is room lost to those of us who are careful to stay legal.

DeniseR7 wrote:I will be flying to Florida in the near future on Southwest Airlines. I will have enough space to stuff my CPAP machine in my checked luggage. I was wondering if anyone has done this and was it ok? I would like to carry less thru the TSA's check points and I will already have a cell phone and an iPad.

I am skipping to the end, I am sure you have received tons of advice and I have not read more than a couple but here is my advice.

I fly at least twice or more times a month on business. At first I hand carried my S10, then started checking it in luggage. I have had no issues. I have been flying for business since the 80's, sometimes weekly, sometimes less but never less than once per month, 90 percent on SWA - I have had missing luggage a few times. Once it was for 3 days, all other times it was delivered within 12 hours or less. I find my S10 a PIA and when I am doing a single overnight I am now not even taking it (I can feel the arrows already) which means I am using it about 13 nights our of 14 right now. I do plan to buy either a Z1 or Transcend but have not yet done the searching on this site to figure out if the Z1 is significantly better than the transcend, the transcend Apap is several hundred less than Z1

Can I use my cpap while in-fright? I am planning to fly to Africa this year but the long flight means I will need some sleep a long the way .


mcPascaln

mcpascalns wrote:Can I use my cpap while the in-right? I am planning to fly to Africa this year but the long flight means I will need some slight a long the way .


mcPascaln

Either you or I are a little sleepy right now because I am not sure what you just said.

If you want to use a xpap on a flight, check with your airlines, they all seem to have different rules.

flightco wrote:

DeniseR7 wrote:I will be flying to Florida in the near future on Southwest Airlines. I will have enough space to stuff my CPAP machine in my checked luggage. I was wondering if anyone has done this and was it ok? I would like to carry less thru the TSA's check points and I will already have a cell phone and an iPad.

I am skipping to the end, I am sure you have received tons of advice and I have not read more than a couple but here is my advice.

I fly at least twice or more times a month on business. At first I hand carried my S10, then started checking it in luggage. I have had no issues. I have been flying for business since the 80's, sometimes weekly, sometimes less but never less than once per month, 90 percent on SWA - I have had missing luggage a few times. Once it was for 3 days, all other times it was delivered within 12 hours or less. I find my S10 a PIA and when I am doing a single overnight I am now not even taking it (I can feel the arrows already) which means I am using it about 13 nights our of 14 right now. I do plan to buy either a Z1 or Transcend but have not yet done the searching on this site to figure out if the Z1 is significantly better than the transcend, the transcend Apap is several hundred less than Z1

Flightco,

I respect your decision regarding checking your machine in luggage but there is no way in heck I would do that as someone who will be traveling in a few weeks. Even if the chances of it not arriving are slim and none, as bad as my sleep is on the machine, it would be worse without it. I just can't take that risk no matter how small it is.

And by the way, I found out when I travelled last year taking the machine for the first time, I hated having to do that as I found lugging an extra bag a royal pain in the neck. So yeah, it would have been easier for me to check it in. But that isn't happening.

49er

flightco wrote:

DeniseR7 wrote:I will be flying to Florida in the near future on Southwest Airlines. I will have enough space to stuff my CPAP machine in my checked luggage. I was wondering if anyone has done this and was it ok? I would like to carry less thru the TSA's check points and I will already have a cell phone and an iPad.

I am skipping to the end, I am sure you have received tons of advice and I have not read more than a couple but here is my advice.

I fly at least twice or more times a month on business. At first I hand carried my S10, then started checking it in luggage. I have had no issues. I have been flying for business since the 80's, sometimes weekly, sometimes less but never less than once per month, 90 percent on SWA - I have had missing luggage a few times. Once it was for 3 days, all other times it was delivered within 12 hours or less. I find my S10 a PIA and when I am doing a single overnight I am now not even taking it (I can feel the arrows already) which means I am using it about 13 nights our of 14 right now. I do plan to buy either a Z1 or Transcend but have not yet done the searching on this site to figure out if the Z1 is significantly better than the transcend, the transcend Apap is several hundred less than Z1

glad im not the only one.

The bag for my machine has a strap across the back that slips right over the handle on my roller carry-on bag.
This way the cpap sits right on top of the rolling bag, within reach, so I can ease my anxiety by touching it.

I carry it on board, I've had luggage go missing for a day or two, and I've also had broken luggage. The rough handling checked luggage gets, I don't want to risk having something happen to it. It's a pain to lug it through the checkpoint, around the airport and onto the plane, but at least I know it is safe. Every airport I've traveled through, TSA always asks me to take the machine out of the bag. Hose, mask and power brick can stay in the bag. If your cpap bag will fit into your main carry-on along with whatever else you'll need onboad, you should be able to do that. In my case, I usually don't have room once I've packed the things I need onboard the plane.

If someone still wants to check their cpap, the odds in favor of nothing bad happening
are still better than 99.33%. --of course "Murphy" is a busy guy.

chunkyfrog wrote:If someone still wants to check their cpap, the odds in favor of nothing bad happening
are still better than 99.33%. --of course "Murphy" is a busy guy.

Some of us got pregnant on those odds.

BlackSpinner wrote:

chunkyfrog wrote:If someone still wants to check their cpap, the odds in favor of nothing bad happening are still better than 99.33%. --of course "Murphy" is a busy guy.

Some of us got pregnant on those odds.

my cpap got a little bit lost and destroyed on my last flight, eh?

library lady wrote:I carry it on board, I've had luggage go missing for a day or two, and I've also had broken luggage. The rough handling checked luggage gets, I don't want to risk having something happen to it. It's a pain to lug it through the checkpoint, around the airport and onto the plane, but at least I know it is safe. Every airport I've traveled through, TSA always asks me to take the machine out of the bag. Hose, mask and power brick can stay in the bag. If your cpap bag will fit into your main carry-on along with whatever else you'll need onboad, you should be able to do that. In my case, I usually don't have room once I've packed the things I need onboard the plane.

That's interesting, I've never been asked to take mine out of the bag (ResMed carrying case). On some occasions, I've been asked to open the bag and one time the agent stuck a wand of some sort (I'm guessing it was some sort of sniffer) in around the stuff in the bag. I put all the equipment, including blower and humidifier, in zip lock bags in the carrying case and I've never been asked to open a zip lock. I've traveled thru a mix of large and small airports like PDX, RSW, MSO, ATL, DFW, ORD, DEN, IAH, etc. and it has never been much of a hassle. However, the treatment seems to vary with TSA staff rather than airport. Sometimes at the same airports, I will be asked to open the bag and sometimes not. I suppose that might be part of the randomness designed to thwart potential terrorists.