A guy at work is flying for a week long vacation with his family next month. One family member (preschooler) is on a liquid medication that needs to be refrigerated. Another liquid medication does not. The timing is that he will need to access a dosage or two during their travels. These are daily usage don’t skip a dose to keep my kid alive type medications. The dosage volume is around 1mL several times a day. Beyond keeping all the medications in their original packages, what are his best options. I suggested getting a weeks worth instead of his usual allotment from the pharmacy for the trip. I do not know the shelf life. What else would help him. The special foods the child requires will be shipped to the hotel ahead of time.
What precisely is your question?
Talk to your airline’s help staff. They can give you better info than we can.
AIUI, the challenges are maintaining custody of liquid medications while on the move, and keeping them cool while on the move and while at their destination.
If the bottles are less than three ounces each, then each person traveling can be responsible for bringing one bottle through the TSA checkpoint. If any one bottle of medicine is more than three ounces, then the OP’s coworker will need to contact the airline and/or TSA to find out what his options are.
Keeping them refrigerated while on the move is a separate issue. TSA allows ice packs through the checkpoint, but they will need to be completely frozen. If the travelers take the ice packs out of the freezer at home and load them with the meds into a small cooler, and then get through the TSA checkpoint very soon after, they may be able to meet this requirement. If the ice pack is massive enough, it will be more likely that none of it liquifies before passing through the checkpoint.
Since the medications are life-critical, the traveler probably ought not hand them over to anyone else at any point during the trip; this would preclude letting flight attendants stash them in an on-board refrigerator or anything of that sort.
Presumably their hotel room will have a refrigerator. In the unlikely event that that refrigerator somehow malfunctions during the trip and causes spoilage of the medication, they’ll need to have a plan in place to obtain replacement meds in a timely manner. I don’t know if that just means calling in a prescription to the nearest pharmacy, or driving straight to the nearest ER - but they will have need to have thought this contingency through and be prepared to carry it out if necessary.
Edit: TSA allows more than 3 oz of liquid meds, but you need to declare them at the checkpoint.
Another idea, if the prescription is through CVS or Walgreens; order a refill and pick it up from a location near the vacation site.
TSA allows liquid meds without the size restriction. I travelled for work and was on a feeding tube so carried two 16 oz containers of liquid food with me. Most TSA looked and sent it through(always sent through separate not in baggage)some wiped it down for the bomb sniffer but never had a problem.
I travel with insulin (needs refrigeration) all the time.
rsat3acr is right; medication is not under the 3 oz rule. I don’t know this because of insulin, but instead because of contact lens solution and some ointment I have for eczema.
I’ve never come across a hotel that will not put a fridge in the room if requested. I make sure to request before I arrive, as they sometimes only have a few. But every hotel I’ve ever visited has a few of them and will gladly give you a room with one or move one into the room.
I keep insulin cool during travel with Frio bags. If these aren’t large enough for the OPs medication, perhaps a web search could find something similar? They work great - they hold the insulin cold (though not at fridge temp) for several days.
Hope that helps.
Have him bring a few spare zip-loc type bags in case he is concerned over the ice packs thawing. He should be able to beg some ice from a flight attendant on the plane, or a restaurant at an airport. Whatever cooler he brings might not be watertight, so the bags will help reduce leakage if he needs ice.
Also he can keep the medicine bottles in bags as well. That’ll protect them from infiltration from melting ice, and also while being screened.
You can request that the TSA screeners use clean gloves etc. when checking the contents, given that this is medication. You don’t want the meds to pick up germs from all over.
Oooh: medical devices do not count against the carry-on bag limit - e.g. 1 bag and 1 personal item. I believe the cooler would reasonably be considered in that category.
And bring copies of the prescriptions, both in case someone in Authority is feeling cranky, and in case there’s a mishap and they need medical assistance. They should ask their doctors if they can get some sort of “mini medical history”, detailing both the specific scrips and any other relevant information such as allergies or meds that they shouldn’t be given (history of bad secondary reactions for example).
I’ll pass this on to him. He leaves this coming weekend.