BBC Archives - The Parent Social https://www.theparentsocial.com/tag/bbc/ Sharing all things lifestyle and parenting Thu, 11 May 2023 10:52:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 https://i0.wp.com/www.theparentsocial.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cropped-android-chrome-512x512-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 BBC Archives - The Parent Social https://www.theparentsocial.com/tag/bbc/ 32 32 47739018 Fitness to Fly Certificate: Another Pregnancy-related Cost https://www.theparentsocial.com/the-fitness-to-fly-certificate/ https://www.theparentsocial.com/the-fitness-to-fly-certificate/#comments Sat, 17 Aug 2013 06:36:26 +0000 http://www.theparentsocial.com/?p=1390 Pregnancy is an expensive time. There’s the baby clothes, maternity wear, nursery furniture, pram, car seats – and the rest. I then discovered about the cost of the fitness to fly certificate when pregnant. Pregnancy isn’t just demanding on your wallet, it can also be pretty demanding on you physically and emotionally. We went on [...]

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]]> Pregnancy is an expensive time. There’s the baby clothes, maternity wear, nursery furniture, pram, car seats – and the rest. I then discovered about the cost of the fitness to fly certificate when pregnant.

Pregnancy isn’t just demanding on your wallet, it can also be pretty demanding on you physically and emotionally. We went on holiday for the last time as a couple and as a family of three before the arrival of babies two and three. I definitely recommend it by the way, especially the last holiday as a couple!

The Fitness to Fly Certificate

Why NHS doctors charge patients for letters – BBC News – BBC.com

During my first pregnancy we took said trip to go and visit my family in Italy. We were taking a short EasyJet flight to Nice (we fly to France and then cross the border) when I was 25 weeks pregnant and definitely in the honeymoon period of the second trimester. I mentioned the trip in passing to my midwife when she next visited and discovered that lurking on top of the cost of the holiday was an additional pregnancy-specific expense: the fitness to fly certificate. She advised me that I should get one from my GP. I was charged £20. The minimum charge I’ve heard of is £15 and the most is £30.

My letter consisted of a few short sentences, which I thought was pretty scandalous, especially as the doctor didn’t even see me; it was all on the midwife’s advice. She’d checked my blood pressure, urine etc and she relayed this info to the doctor along with my travel dates. I later learnt that the letter isn’t even normally required until after 27 weeks (and I was still just under 27 weeks on my return flight).

Airline policies

It’s all quite confusing. After looking into it further, I found the rules vary quite a lot – according to carrier – as to when a letter/certificate is required and also at what point in the pregnancy you are not permitted to fly. There are also different rules for multiple pregnancies (which I discovered second time around). It is definitely worth checking out before booking those flights. This guide is very handy.

I do question this charge as the doctor didn’t even ask to see me and it was a very standard letter. £20 for this seems rather excessive. See me talking about it in more detail on the BBC.

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