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.

OP- if he’s in agony, should he be going home yet? I’m surprised the hospital discharged him!

My husband flew out to Poland to do that for his parents. They were in their own car so he drove them all the way back to the UK.

As a side note, because its not clear if you can drive the UK car home? You can get single day car insurance for your UK car, IF you need a friend/relative to drive you all home. I recently used Dayinsure to drive MIL's car when ours was being fixed. It was about £42 for the day.

How old are the kids? Obviously primary school age spans from being pretty unhelpful at 4/5 or able to help push cases, etc at 10/11.

I would speak to the hire car people and arrange for them to collect the car. Get a taxi to the airport, the driver will help you get the cases out. Sit the husband on a bench with the cases and any kids that are not likely to run away whilst you go inside and sort assistance with any children that can’t be left. Assistance will probably be someone with a wheelchair who will push husband and between you and the kids you can sort the cases.

When you get back to the uk, assistance will get you all the way to arrivals. Leave husband on a bench near where you can drive up to pick up. Leave him with the reliable kids again and luggage then you go and get the car and bring it to the pick up area to collect them all.

I’d speak to insurance first though to see if they can offer any help/suggestions.

I’ve got visions of the poor OP having spent an entire day on hold to a series of unhelpful insurance staff. Hopefully it’s going better than that!

Sadly can't remember. It was about 10 years ago.

I'm struggling to think of a scenario in which the op can't drive the car which can be worked around. I assume it's not insurance because that's been suggested already. Her not wanting to is a perfectly valid reason.
I'm honestly not sure what else there could be.

Perhaps she doesn’t drive! Why are some so hung up on this? She’s asking how to get home not how to drive the hire car. If she could have, she would have!

Isn't 'not wanting to' or not feeling competent/safe enough?

Some of us have brains that won't allow us to just use a car where half the controls are in the wrong order and half are still in the right place and drive on roads where all the traffic is coming from different directions to what they are used to. People have been killed due to errors caused by these circumstances.

Plus there must be at least half a dozen reasons where the law prevents the OP from driving the hire car.

Good enough for the 'she just needs to get insurance and drive the car' crowd?

Oh god, nightmare. Really sorry that's happened to your DH and on holiday!

Request airport assistance BEFORE you get there! For one thing, people often get short shrift, told they should have arranged it beforehand, etc, if they leave it until they get there. For another, EU airports are in varying states of meltdown at the moment with EES being compulsory since the 10th. It's very possible that it'll have had a knock-on effect on any auxiliary services like special assistance.

The good thing is that if you do manage to get assistance, you ought to be wheeled straight to the front of the EES lines! My mother can only move by rollator and wheelchair but has (for complicated and bloody stupid reasons I'll not bore you with) to go back and forth to Lisbon every 6-8 weeks. She said the EES chaos was as nothing to her, as her wheelchair person just took her through the assistance channel.

Also she’s stressed out of her mind, worrying about her DH and the kids, never mind about driving an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar country! That’s enough in itself!

OP, might it be worth staying on where you are for another week, if you can afford it? He sounds as if he's in a lot of pain, and via your travel insurance you might be able to get an MRI done quicker where you are, rather than waiting on the NHS.

Helpful there are all sorts of reasons why she might not be able to drive, and if it's 'merely' a matter of her not having driven abroad before, trying that out with a carful of tiny children and an injured husband and a head full of stress is not the right time to start!

Sorry that people have got so hung up on you not driving OP. There are lots of people on Mumsnet who think EVERYBODY between 17-80 can drive confidently, anywhere!

As for what to do:

1. Ask your husband's doctors whether they think he will get a fit to fly certificate for when your flight is. If they say he probably won't, that's an entirely new ball game.
2. If they are going to give him a fit to fly note, ask what accommodations he will need, and talk with him about how he can fly as comfortably as possible.
3. Contact your insurance about changing your husband's, or the whole family's travel plans if a fit to fly is unlikely.
4. If a fit to fly note is likely, contact the airline about the accommodations your husband will need. Think about how you will transport bags etc. Airport assistance for disabled travellers should help with transporting you husband and luggage around the airport, including providing a wheelchair if needed.
5. Ask you insurance about transport to the airport, they may be able to sort taxis and/or collecting the car.
6. If not, ask the hire company if they can collect the car, and recommend a taxi firm.
7. Make sure the receieving airport know what you will need to get your husband and luggage from your gate to your car, and have it ready when you land.

Good luck!

Not everyone wants to drive
Not every is capable of driving. Some people just aren’t meant to drive, can’t concentrate, uncoordinated etc
For whatever reason that the OP cannot drive the hire car, leave her alone. The last thing she wants is bullying!

Hope you get sorted.

Keep in touch OP!

Ahh this is really tough, no advice that’s any more helpful than you’ve already had but regarding the injury you will need a fit to fly from a doctor in your current location. My partner badly sprained his ankle and we asked for assistance at the airport but the airport staff told us on the quiet that we would need to provide a fit to fly if we formally declared his injury by needing airport assistance and wouldn’t be allowed to fly home without it! Thank god she did, so we quickly rescinded the request and he had to manage to hobble through the airport/ up stairs as not leaving wasn’t an option. So definitely sort this before you go, they may have concerns about high risk of DVT etc however due to injury, and may advise he doesn’t fly yet for a period of time! So get this done asap incase you need to extend accommodation/ change flights etc. xx

Had to take some Aspirin to fly too. It was prescribed by the Doctor. The airlines are usually quite understanding if you have a fit to fly to get you on board first and off last .....and can arrange a wheelchair if necessary. So liaise with them if Insurance not doing so already. I was wheeled through the airport and someone took my bags for me.

I agree with this. Everytime someone says they can’t drive somewhere (and I have been driving for 40 years) you get a bunch of unhelpful people telling you to suddenly start driving abroad on the wrong side of the road with no previous experience or in a much bigger car or with zero sense of direction and if not, get lessons as soon as you get home. Get the fuck.

good luck OP. If it were me, and I wasn’t confident driving abroad, then I would call the hire company, you are probably covered under your insurance with them, get them to collect the car.

if you in a hotel, get them to book a comfortable taxi to the airport. Speak to your holiday insurance company and get them to manage assistance for the flight. If possible get a relative to bring you car back from the airport, or drive home at the other end, or if not possible, get a friend to bring the car back and pay for temp insurance .

seems like a nightmare right now, but you can do it x

I would expect the travel insurance company to sort out the whole thing.
When DH broke his collarbone skiing, he and I were picked up from our chalet in an ambulance car, assisted at the airport and to the plane and given an extra seat for comfort, and met in the UK by someone who drove our car from airport to home as I was not confident on driving it on motorways.
Just an ordinary policy which came with our NatWest account.
I would hope the OP’s policy would provide something similar.

Why are so many posters obsessed with why the OP can't drive? She may not actually have a licence! There are so many reasons why people can't drive, from medical conditions, to eyesight problems, to medications affecting concentration, to just because they don't bloody well want to!

Hope today has been productive and you now have a plan @CeciliaMars I was going to say if you ring the car hire company they could probably advise you the best way of sorting getting the car back etc.
Hopefully your husband is able to fly x
This is one holiday for the memory books isn’t it ❤️

It’s a mumsnetter thing. They go for the jugular if you can’t drive! Can’t understand it!

I know I am contributing to the derail but I'd love to hear your obvious workaround for the OP not being able to drive the hire car.