Flying with a Flash monitor

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Titchvic

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Hi,
My husband has a Flash Libre glucose monitor and we are due to fly to Portugal in October. Just wondered if these devices go through airport x-ray security ok? Do we need a doctors letter? I've contacted the airline but they do not currently seem to know what I'm talking about as they have asked for it's weight and dimensions, like they're expecting to make room for medical equipment in the hold!
Thanks for your help
 
Titchvic said:
Hi,
My husband has a Flash Libre glucose monitor and we are due to fly to Portugal in October. Just wondered if these devices go through airport x-ray security ok? Do we need a doctors letter? I've contacted the airline but they do not currently seem to know what I'm talking about as they have asked for it's weight and dimensions, like they're expecting to make room for medical equipment in the hold!
Thanks for your help
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Never had a problem with mine, I've flown twice this year, the sensor went through the archway on my arm, the spare sensor and the reader went through X-ray, nobody batted an eyelid, or asked any questions.
 
Robin said:
Never had a problem with mine, I've flown twice this year, the sensor went through the archway on my arm, the spare sensor and the reader went through X-ray, nobody batted an eyelid, or asked any questions.
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Fab - thank you - should all be hassle free then! 🙂
 
Titchvic said:
Fab - thank you - should all be hassle free then!
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I've flown a few times with one (and a spare in my luggage) without incident. Once there's was some curiosity (asking what it was, because something set off a detector), but that's normal enough.
 
TBH I would keep all my meds and diabetic kit in my hand luggage , that way you know it have it with you . As bags going in the hold can go missing, if your husband is on insulin the hold may be too cold for it.
 
You obviously never flew with KLM in the eighties, Bruce. Getting your own luggage back after a flight transfer bordered on the miraculous. Even Aeroflot were better.
 
Blimey - well I emailed the airline and they have come back with a billion questions about how big it is, weight, size, battery type, wattage (???) They have asked me the same questions in different ways about 3 times now, and I cannot answer the wattage as I cannot access the battery of the libre reader as it is a sealed unit and we paid a lot of money for it! I am just about to email them the manual and see what they say.
Sometimes do you just wish you'd never asked??!!
 
The libre reader is surely just the size of a glucometer, and they must know about those?

I must admit it didn't occur to me to ask before flying with one, though probably I looked on Abbott's website for advice (and I seem to remember that saying that basically there's no problem).

Hold luggage may be different nowadays in that technically the Reader has a lithium ion battery (though it must be pretty small) and I think they're no longer allowed in the hold? Update: I had a quick look on the EU and UK site and don't see anything about batteries in the hold, so it's possible I'm misremembering that one.
 
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I've explained exactly what it is and they seem to have absolutely no clue. You'd think they would have come across these before. I will email the manual and see what happens, then my next step is to actually phone and speak to a real person and see what happens then 🙂
It's the lithium ion battery that seems to be grabbing their attention, and I would want to take it in the cabin, not put it in the hold. We usually take everything diabetes related with us in our hand luggage
 
Titchvic said:
I've explained exactly what it is and they seem to have absolutely no clue. You'd think they would have come across these before. I will email the manual and see what happens, then my next step is to actually phone and speak to a real person and see what happens then 🙂
It's the lithium ion battery that seems to be grabbing their attention, and I would want to take it in the cabin, not put it in the hold. We usually take everything diabetes related with us in our hand luggage
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The reason they want to know the Watt/hour value is because there's an upper limit of 100 Watt/hours (Wh) for a battery before you need the airlines permission to carry it on board.
https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Before-you-fly/Baggage/Items-that-are-allowed-in-baggage/
I've no idea what the Wh value of a Libre reader is. It has to be written on the battery, but as you say, you can't access it, and it's not in the manual. To put it into context, though, I just checked my camera battery, and it's 2.5 Wh!
It sounds like the airline have no idea, and are envisaging something the size of a small power station. I'd have thought Abbot are obliged to tell you the Wh, if you ask them.
 
INPUT have gathered info about various pumps / sensor devices handily in one place:

https://www.inputdiabetes.org.uk/airports/

Short version - nothing to worry about, but advice is not to scan during the flight.
 
Robin said:
I've no idea what the Wh value of a Libre reader is.
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The manual does say the Reader's weight is 65g (sensor is 5g). That ought to be sufficient: it's much too small to be of concern for its battery (and likely for anything else).
 
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