We arrived here in Italy safe and sound, but I just have to vent for a moment about international air travel with a little person.
A 10 1/2 hour flight with a lap baby just doesn't work.
United airlines claims to accommodate families; however, the only remotely baby/kid-friendly gesture they extended (and they really played it up too) was giving us the cheap plastic wing pin (thanks, but I don't think that's safe for a one year old to have access to on a plane).
The airline information line I called before our departure assured me that if we arrive at check-in 2 1/2 to 3 hours before the flight we would almost certainly be able to retain a bassinet which would also allow for more leg room and space to function. (Sounds lovely, doesn't it?) There is no way to reserve those seats in advance, but they would put a note on our reservation. (Not sure what good that would do if it doesn't help our chances of getting a bassinet, but sure, note the request, why not?)
Unfortunately, when we arrived at the check-in desk no one had a clue about what to do about a baby like it was everyone's first day on the job and they couldn't care less. I won't go through all their excuses (actually, yes I will: we were supposed to request the bassinet in advance -- which we did; we were supposed to reserve the seats with the bassinet when we checked in online -- there's no possible way of knowing what seats those are, they were already reserved anyway, and none of that matters because we weren't able to check in online since we haven't traveled on United since their computer system was recently updated so our information wasn't in the system -- what!?). The argument (yes, it went there) ultimately resulted in no bassinet. No one was helpful. No one was friendly. We told them so. It didn't help. They didn't care.
The three of us were so cramped in coach that Alex handed the baby life vest right back to them saying we didn't have space for it. He said if the plane went down we'd all be gone anyway. Somehow they were okay with that.
Disclaimer: Ava is the best, most adaptable baby in the world and only had a couple meltdowns during the flight (which for her means she cried for more than 30 seconds and she stopped as soon as I got up and walked around with her). Of course that was too much for the woman sitting next to us in her acid wash mom jeans and pullover sweater trying to impress her tall dopey travel companion. Did we have to sit next to the only person on the flight who hates babies? She literally rolled her eyes every time Ava said a thing and muttered complaints under her breath about Ava squirming and fussing and blowing her nose.
But thanks United for making traveling with a toddler such an enlightening experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment