Conversations with Airlines - Tweet first

The world of airlines is extremely competitive and all of them try very hard to differentiate themselves from each other. This is good for travellers in general. After all, as travellers, we are also customers and have a choice. At VoyageMD we are very keen to help airlines become much more diabetes-friendly and have suggested a number of ways to achieve this.

One thing is clear however – if you need to contact an airline to glean information, solve a problem or simply check out the latest offers then our suggestion is to use Twitter first. Avoid phoning them before tweeting as there will not be a record of the conversation and generally sending an email results in a less than helpful response usually from a individual called "customer service". A tweet is a record and in the public domain.

To help here is a list of Twitter accounts for all of the airlines currently listed on VoyageMD.com. Not all are as diabetes-friendly as they could be but at least they are listening. We will add to this as time goes on. You can always make additional suggestions to the ones from VoyageMD – soon 1 in 10 of adults will have the diagnosis of diabetes and a huge number will need to book a flight at sometime. The airlines are working with us to improve things so if one is particularly helpful towards travellers with diabetes let us know and send a tweet to help others.

Soon we will be using social media to try to have the same level of conversation with diabetes Pharma and Device companies. Their responses will be interesting to say the least.

Bon Voyage

AIRLINE	TWITTER
Air Canada	@AirCanada
Air New Zealand	@FlyAirNZ
Alaska Airlines	@AlaskaAir
American Airlines	@AmericanAir
British Airways	@BritishAirways
Delta	@Delta
Emirates	@FlyingEmirates
Hawaiian	@HawaiianAir
Jet Blue	@JetBlue
KLM	@KLM
Lufthansa	@Lufthansa
Malaysian	@MAS
Qantas	@QantasAirways
South African Airways	@SAAUSA
South West Air	@SouthWestAir
Swissair	@SwissAirLines
United	@United
Virgin Atlantic	@VirginAtlantic

An Open letter to Star Alliance Airlines

At VoyageMD.com we are delighted that Star Alliance™ has been appointed the "official airline network" for the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Meeting (EASD) 2011 in Lisbon and World Diabetes Congress 2011 in Dubai.

This means that Star Alliance Airlines will be bringing many thousands of professionals involved in diabetes care together to provide an opportunity for them to discuss the latest scientific breakthroughs and innovations for people living with diabetes. You certainly have a very impressive network:

·        Member Airlines: 27

·        Number of aircraft : 4,023

·        Number of employees: 402,208

·        Passengers per year: 603.8 million

·        Sales Revenue (in US$): 150.7 billion

·        Daily departures: 21,000

·        Number of airports: 1,160

·        Countries served: 181

How about also using working with VoyageMD to help the many millions of travellers with diabetes?

We have already been in contact with Star Alliance members but many have not replied to our simple question:

“I have diabetes and I take insulin every day. I need to travel. What do you offer to make my journey easier and safer?”

To help travellers with diabetes we would like to suggest that Star Alliance members work with VoyageMD to:

• Make sure that all aircraft carry equipment for blood glucose monitoring
• Make sure that all flight crews are trained to recognise a low blood glucose level (hypoglycaemia) and know how to deal with it
• Provide the carbohydrate content of airplanes meals to help travellers chose a safe and accurate insulin dose and
• To work with VoyageMD to create easy to use software that will
• Allow travellers to identify a “diabetes-friendly” airline
• Provide information about how to deal with crossing times zones and the impact this can have on controlling blood glucose levels
• Provide contact information at the destination in case of loss of diabetes equipment or illness

You are already offering to help healthcare professionals involved in diabetes care. We now ask that you also help travellers with diabetes.

Please feel free to contact me at David.kerr@VoyageMD.com

What is VoyageMD?

VoyageMD.com

“ A journey is measured in friends not miles”

It is said that travel broadens the mind. I agree with this and so do very many other people. Think of how important travel is for pleasure, for business and for staying in touch with family and friends. The enjoyment from travel is the anticipation and arriving at the destination. Actually getting from A to B is often the least attractive part of a journey. If everything goes according to plan and there are no delays this part of the journey is tolerable. However remember the last time your flight was delayed, the driver didn’t turn up at the airport on time or your hotel was actually not quite so luxurious as the brochure had suggested.

If you have diabetes the hassle associated with travel has the potential to be multiplied many times. People living with diabetes have an unenviable task. They need to spend on average 1-2 hours every day taking care of their condition. Taking care means checking blood glucose levels, balancing the effects of food and exercise, remembering complicated treatment regimens and at the same time putting up with the insecurity that comes with living with a chronic disease and it’s potential to cause serious complications. For people using insulin they have the considerable added challenge of taking their injections (or using an insulin pump) aiming to keep blood glucose levels within acceptable limits but avoiding the scourge of hypoglycaemia.

 If then you add on the complexity of having to travel with diabetes it is not surprising that many report real problems keeping their condition under reasonable control on a trip. Furthermore the problems of changing time zones, unaccustomed exercise, unfamiliar foods, delays, unhelpful airport procedures, loss of vital diabetes medication and monitoring equipment can wreck a holiday or a business trip for someone with diabetes.

Diabetes is not a small problem as estimates suggest that soon more than 300 million people worldwide will be living with the condition. For the 25% who need to take insulin everyday travelling with diabetes has the potential to become a nightmare.

What if a person with diabetes on insulin could chose an airline that understood the problem and could help, what if the hotel could provide important information about meals, where local pharmacies are located, who is the best local source of help for a diabetes-related problem etc. What if a person with diabetes could simply type in their destination and they could instantly access the most affordable “diabetes friendly” airline and stay at the most “diabetes friendly” hotel? What if they could on one click of a mouse also purchase the most “diabetes friendly” travel insurance?

These “what ifs” are not pipe dreams or some fantasy. They can and need to become reality and that is why I have set up VoyageMD.com.

VoyageMD

Welcome to Diabetes MD

Soon 350 million people will be living with diabetes and at least 25% will need to take insulin every day. 

Travelling with diabetes can be difficult - lack of information, hassles at the airport, delays, time zone changes can ruin a trip whether it is for business or pleasure. It doesn't have to be like that.

We will be asking major Airlines, Hotels, Travel Sites and Travel Insurance companies to help as well as companies that are already in the diabetes space - manufacturers of insulin, pumps, pens, glucose strips and the medicines that people living with diabetes have to take every day. We will also be keeping you up-to-date with advances in technology that have the potential to make travelling with diabetes just that little bit easier.

Wherever possible we will use the new Social Media to achieve our goals. Most importantly we need feedback from travellers themselves - tell us your stories, share your photographs and memories. At present we cannot cure diabetes but we can make living with diabetes a whole lot easier.