Traveling With Oxygen

Y.P. shares:

Our daughter needs to use oxygen on airline flights. While you can purchase oxygen on some flights (not all airlines allow this anymore), it is more convenient to bring a portable oxygen concentrator. However, the only units approved for travel have been only approved for adults. We just went through the process of getting a unit approved by El Al. The Sequel Eclipse 3, suitable for children, is now approved. You can buy the unit for about $6000 or rent it for about $400/week.  Purchasing oxygen for each segment of a flight ($200 for each TLV-JFK segment on El Al and $100 for each JFK-MIA segment on American Airlines is a total of $600 (and that's if El Al does not charge for an extra seat, which they said they may have to do). We will be gone for 40 days and the cost of the concentrator will be 3500 shekels.
Note that you have to get a doctor to approve the child's need for oxygen
 
The rental was actually more expensive. I think about $1000. I don't think we would do that again, since our daughter does not usually need to have oxygen except for flights and when she gets sick. Next time we go to the States, I will rent the oxygen from the airline. It will be $200 for each leg of the trip.
 
If a child needs oxygen on the ground, too, the concentrator is probably the way to go. Or, perhaps Yad Sarah could provide oxygen tanks to them..