When you travel with spare hearing aids, where do you keep them ـ in the carry-on bag or the checked one? Why?
Do you take off your aids when you cross security gates?
Do you have any other tips or things better to avoid when traveling as a hard-of-hearing person?
I carry my backups in my carry- on so if my checked bags go somewhere else I will still have them. I wear them through security. I just make people aware of my hearing status so hopefully they will be patient.
I travel by vehicle towing our RV trailer. My backup aids are always in a to go backpack that stays with me. That pack has my needed supplements, firstaid kit. And an emergency set of clothes. It also has battery backup packs and chargers. Snacks etc. I was in the military service 8 years, my dad was also in the military, the pack has been with me since childhood. After the military my career had me traveling on a moments notice. And now in my retirement I never know when a hospital visit or other emergency my happen.
Do you take off your aids when you cross security gates?
No- in the 30some years I've traveled (twice to Europe) I've never taken off my hearing aids in the security/TSA line. They're more worried about my laptop than my hearing aids lol.
Now that I have a back up pair of hearing aids (my last pair - Chili), going to have to remember to take them with me when I travel or go somewhere from home longer than a day. I don't think I ever did that before- mostly because either the audiology clinic took the old pair(I think that's what happened to my Sumos) or missing (oddly I'm missing one of the Widex Sensos... hm).
I don't know what the protocol is for Bluetooth on planes now and if you have to turn them off. I'm always seeing "Yes you need to turn them off" and "No don't bother". I worry because one time I was on a plane I accidentally switched my hearing aid(s) to / mode.... and heard the pilots talking.. and a lot of static. Put it back to the Mic only program quickly lol. That happened somewhere in the late 80s to mid 90s.
I travel with my rechargeable hearing aids in my ears. Never an issue with security. I carry my old battery powered hearing aids in my toiletry bag. Sometimes that's in a carry on, sometimes it's in a check bag. I was glad I had them on a recent trip because I forgot to bring the charging case for my primary ones! Doh!
It was a good experiment though because I did learn that my new Rexton hearing aids will last me 3 full days without needing a charge.
I've never had a spare set until 2 weeks ago now that I'm trialing the Sennheisers. So now my old Marvels could be used as a backup.
Eventually I'll probably try to update the program to my current
Anyway, I'll probably throw them into my travel backpack with my usb cables and such.
To date in the backpack, I have carried spare batteries for my marvels, spare domes, and a spare receiver set. Early on, well before I started carrying these spares, I was on a trip and lost a dome. Had to find a local audiologist and beg for a replacement dome. and Just a week before picking up the Sennheiser, I was on a trip and the receiver wire just suddenly broke. Good thing I had spare receivers!
So, when I decide if I'm keeping these Sennheisers, I'll buy a set of receivers and get some spare domes for my travel kit. I also plan to buy a spare charger or two becasue of the borderline battery life. Ultimately I'd like to have a charger for home, one for my truck, another for my RV, and maybe another for my travel bag
My hearing is good enough that I can get by without my aids but still, I suppose I'll also bring along my marvels as a backup. Because why not? They're small and light and I can get batteries anywhere!
while travelling I think that I remembered to put them into airplane mode once years ago when they were still new. I haven't remembered to do that since. And I've been through TSA security many times while wearing them and also through airline security in England and the Netherlands. Never had to remove them, never a problem.
Non-rechargable battery aids seem ideal for a travel backup but one also needs to bring enough batteries for each trip and the batteries can leak over time. Fewer people will have non-rechargable aids moving forward as fewer are being sold.
I don't know what the protocol is for Bluetooth on planes now and if you have to turn them off.
Most airlines don't care about bluetooth because it's unlikely to try and connect to anything on the ground. Many still ask that you turn Wifi off during takeoff and landing and all require cellular/mobile connections off for the duration of the flight because these can connect to ground-based antennas.
Now there is an idea I never thought of. I just bought a new laptop and received a pair of Pixel pods. Had no idea what I would do with them. Now I do.