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Special Assistance
Advance Notice Needed

Advance Notice Needed

We recommend that all of our customers make their reservations as far in advance as possible. While we do not require disclosure of the nature or extent of your disability, the more information we have concerning any special assistance you may require, the more prepared we are to meet your needs during your trip.

Booking Your Reservation

On AA.com
On AA.com, you can record your request for assistance from among the following selections:

Wheelchair Assistance (one of three options):

  • Passenger can walk but requires wheelchair for distance to/from gate (see agent for wheelchair)
  • Passenger can walk but needs assistance up/down stairs. A Special Assistance Coordinator will contact the passenger to make arrangements.
  • Passenger cannot walk and needs assistance to seat on plane. A Special Assistance Coordinator will contact the passenger to make arrangements.

Therapeutic Oxygen
For customers who require therapeutic oxygen inflight, a 48-hour notice is required. A $100 charge is assessed per flight segment.

Visual Disability
Passenger is blind or has low vision and needs assistance.

Hearing Disability
Passenger is deaf or hard of hearing and needs assistance.

On Other Travel Websites
If your reservation was booked on a Website other than AA.com, you may make arrangements for special assistance by calling Reservations.

Please let us know if you:

  • Require a wheelchair
  • Need assistance getting into and out of the aircraft seat
  • Require adjacent seating for yourself and your personal care attendant
  • Are traveling with a service animal
  • Are traveling with a battery-powered medical device
  • Will need disassembly and battery packaging for your mobility assistive device
  • Have any other special requirement

We require at least 48 hours advance notice and that you arrange for the services below when making your reservation:

  • Therapeutic Oxygen
  • Portable Oxygen Concentrator usage
  • Travel with a group of 10 or more people with disabilities
  • Travel with an emotional support or psychiatric service animal

Note: 72 - hours advance notice is required for cancellations of therapeutic oxygen to ensure reusability of the oxygen unit.

Special Assistance Coordinators

Within our Reservations Department, an exclusive team called "Special Assistance Coordinators" facilitates your travel. Specially trained to arrange for the special needs of customers with disabilities and/or medical conditions, they document your reservation concerning your special service requests to alert our airport staff. In certain circumstances, if you have requested special assistance at the time of making your reservation, they will contact you by telephone prior to departure to ensure all advance medical paperwork requirements or special assistance requests are arranged. For this reason, it is helpful to have a valid, complete telephone number available within your reservation.

Although not required to do so, our customers with disabilities advise us that pre-arranging for special assistance helps travel proceed more smoothly. Assistance from a Special Assistance Coordinator is arranged for at the time of booking with an AA Reservation Representative or with your Travel Agent upon identification of your service request.

Pre Reserved Seating

For customers with a disability who are traveling with another individual who is assisting them inflight as an attendant, seats can be arranged side by side. For those who use an aisle chair to access their seat and cannot readily transfer over a fixed armrest, there are many seats with moveable aisle armrests. If you are traveling with a service animal or you have a fixed or immobilized leg, please advise us so we may assign you a bulkhead seat if you prefer one.

We recommend that you indicate your seating preference when you make your reservation.

Please contact Reservations to request specific accommodations.