How do I get us all home?!

[CeciliaMars]

I am in Europe on holiday with my husband and 3 primary school age kids. We have a hire car that only he can drive. He has badly injured his hip, he’s been to hospital and is on strong painkillers and has crutches. He can barely walk and is in agony. We are meant to be flying home on Friday. How do we get the hire car to the airport and all of us into the airport? I am going to request assistance once we get to the airport. Also at the other end, how do I get him to our car? We are a shuttle bus away from our car. He literally can’t walk and is in agony. I truly can’t figure out the logistics of this.

One step at a time. It will all be ok. Glad he’s safe and well. A chance to show your kids how mum can sort things out.x

It should be enough for her to say she can't drive it. If she can't drive it there is no workarounds. She doesn't need to explained why

People aren't obsessed, but perhaps if you tell us WHY you can't drive the hire car, we might be able to come up with a solution. Can you not drive at all? Can you only drive auto and it's manual? Are you just scared of driving on the other side of the road? These are all fair questions, you've asked for help, how can we do that if you're being vague about specifics?

Does the hire car have breakdown insurance? If so might be worth looking to see if there an incapacity clause.

Sounds like a nightmare hope you find a solution that's suitable for all of you.

How did he damage his hip so badly?
(irrelevant but at least I’m not banging on about why the OP can’t drive the car hire)

People just want to hear that you don’t want to drive abroad and scoff at your ineptitude.. please ignore!

take things one step at a time. See what the hire car company say. What country are you in?

She hasn't asked for help with that.

Seems to me that there's quite a lot more to consider and the insurance company should be helping you through it.

You can't just rock up at the airport with a damaged hip and expect to fly - the airline will want to know that he is medically fit to fly. He may need special arrangements, eg first class or business class seat so that he can lie flatter and/or extend the damaged leg. The clinic will advise on this and provide a "fit to fly" certificate.

This is incredibly reckless advice. Pressuring someone to drive when they aren’t fully confident about it, in a foreign country and an unfamiliar vehicle is exactly how accidents happen.

OP, please don’t feel you should push yourself to drive no matter what anyone says. You’re doing the right thing by not adding that stress to the situation.

Well we are never going to know are we, as OP won't tell us 😂

And if that was the issue, the advice might be to contact the hire car company and ask if it would be possible for them to collect the current car and deliver an auto.

I imagine the OP is dealing with the phone calls she previously mentioned.

You call the holiday insurance people, they will provide solutions

Anyone can ask for "special assistance" at the airport , you are not required to give an explication

Ridiculous responses. Stop fretting about why OP isn't going to drive the car. She isn't. End of story.

If you had an accident and the car couldn't be driven, what would happen? I think you would have a number to phone and then they would recover the car. The situation isn't much different - the car can't be driven, they will have a process to come and get it, no question.

An alternative could be to ask someone, a neighbour perhaps, if they could drive the car to the airport? Long shot though if you don't know anyone, or the distance might be crazy.

But early posters are right, this is all down to insurance: hire car insurance then holiday insurance, that's what they're there for. It's also when you find out exactly what's covered...

As a left-field suggestion, given you are only in Europe, do you have a friend / family member that could fly out to meet you and drive you all back in the hire car (after getting permission to take it out of the country); this would seem to get round the whole airport / flying issue altogether. You then just need to get the hire car back to the right country at some point, but if you've used one of the international brands you might, at a cost, be able to return it somewhere in the UK.

Otherwise, you'll need to get a fit to fly note for the airline, get the hire car collected from wherever it is, get a taxi to the airport and then fly back. If he is fit to fly then special assistance back in the UK will wheel him to the car, though if you have booked off site car parking you'll probably have to leave him waiting outside arrivals while you and the children go and get the car and come back for him.

If he's not fit to fly then you'll definitely have to throw it all in the direction of the insurer, accept that you'll end up separated and he'll be flown home as a medical repatriation, or when he's fit to fly.

Seriously this place is obsessed with everyone must be able to drive. It’s like they don’t realise not every does or needs to!

We can help by just accepting that she can't drive the car, and making suggestions based on that. If there was a workaround, she'd already have thought of it.

Agreed. It just re rails the thread, offering pointless arguments to facts that have already been explained.
What a waste of time.

No advice to add OP except to say it sounds like you are working through the possible options and awful as it must be at the moment, you will get home. Wishing you and the family all the best.

I've shared driving in Europe before and will again but I couldn't last year, for medical reasons which are no body else's business.

The OP has stated she is not driving. she doesn't have to justify that. So why keep asking? She was asking for advice about getting home with injured husband.

Not to mention that she'd be driving someone who is in agony. It would be madly stressful to be driving abroad for the first time, with a passenger in agony and unable to support or navigate. And with children in the back, terribly unsafe.

I’m so sorry that your holiday has ended this way. I had to book airport assistance a couple of weeks ago and I was really impressed with the service both at Dublin and Gatwick. You should book in advance so they know to expect you and I did it online as an amendment to my flight booking. It was free to book with Ryanair so I’m sure that’ll be the same with other airlines.

Travel agent here - I guess you have already discovered but the hire company coudl arrange for collection - at a charge but they can do it . Then book a taxi . However if your insurance company is involved then they should and could arrange for correct transportation for your husband and maybe extra seats if needed. Generally 1 person can go with the paitent. You have insurance and they should step up !

Perhaps, like me, OP has only driven automatic and the hire car is stick shift.

You call the hire car company and explain. You call your insurance company and file a claim.

How did he get injured?

How will he cope on a plane?

Well, it was utterly stupid to hire a stick shift if only one of them could drive it.