“He moves efficiently
Beyond security
Great opportunity awaits
Airport fluorescent
Creature of habit.”
-R.E.M. - “Airportman”
I had planned to write a post about our family Christmas in Canada, but I think the pictures tell a better story than I could. Plus, my family reads this blog so I can’t tell the good stories from the holidays. I do want to write a bit about the journey itself. A trans-Atlantic airplane trip with an infant was the part of our Christmas trip that I was dreading the most. Our experience may prove helpful to other traveling parents and I’ve got a big old bone to pick with Air Canada.
I’ve become something of an airline connoisseur since living in Britain, particularly for flights to and from North America. It’s one thing to be stuck on a Ryanair cattle car for a one hour flight to the continent - another thing entirely to be wedged into an American Airlines economy seat for an eight hour epic to Orlando. So, comfort and quality are of paramount importance on long haul flights. I’ve flown several different carriers and in general, the British carriers are vastly superior to the American. British Airways and Virgin still hang on to a few vestiges of that elusive “customer service” concept that is entirely absent among the American airlines - AA and Northwest being the worst culprits. That being said, one of the best flights I’ve ever been on was a Continental return from Houston - a carrier that I’ve always considered one of the worst for their intra-national service.
For this trip we chose Air Canada. I’ve always had a fondness for this airline, probably pleasant memories of trips to the grandparents in the 70’s and 80’s when airlines liked their customers. Also I’m pretty easily won over by plastic pilot’s wings. Well, I’m here to tell you - it ain’t the 70’s or 80’s anymore and today’s Air Canada - sucks. Before laying into them, I will say that they have more leg room than any American long haul carrier - that’s a good thing. The ways in which Air Canada pissed me off are many, so I’ve included The Catalog of Air Canada’s Sins at the end of this post if you choose to read them. Basically, they did everything wrong on the trip to Canada and they owe us $200 and some vouchers for free travel which we will never use on Air Canada. They got it slightly better on the way back, but not right enough to justify ever traveling with them again.
As for traveling with an infant, I’ve always been one of those airline passengers that would sigh loudly and shoot dirty looks at parents with children that even made a peep on an airplane. So I was prepared for karmic retribution - I was prepared for eight hours of a screaming, angry uncomfortable child. But despite Air Canada’s shortcomings, and I’m admittedly not an objective commentator, Z was an absolute dream child on the trip over. Their were three other infants on board - all with bulkhead seats - and Z was the best behaved of all. Yes, apparently I’m that kind of Dad. I’m also the kind of Dad that walks my three month old son around the plane demonstrating just how well behaved - and good looking - he is. He was quiet and content for most of the trip. In the absence of a sky cot we brought a pillow from home (my idea) which allowed him to stretch out a bit and kick around. He screamed a bit on the way down, but that was to be expected. Even our surrounding passengers remarked that he was a very well behaved child. Better than the five or six year old two rows in front who screamed whenever she had to wear her seat belt.
I’m slightly embarrassed to report that I don’t have much to report from the return trip. Dr O’C tells me he was as good as gold. My family brought a bug with them from Florida which they proceeded to share. I had a touch of a fever on the morning of our return, so I thought some pre-emptive medicating was a good idea. I don’t know what is in the Canadian version of Tylenol Flu but I’m pretty sure it’s illegal in a number of countries. Apparently I was in a state of delirium for most of the flight - unable to operate my iPod or parent effectively. But Dr O’C is the only witness to this, so really
As for advice for other longhaul traveling parents of infants, here’s my suggestions:
- Bring a pillow - in the case that you don’t get a sky cot this will make your life much, much easier.
- Feed on the way up and down. This helps with the pressure adjustment in their little ears. Alternatively, water from a bottle or a pacifier.
- Bring his or her favorite toy. The familiarity helps make them a bit more comfortable.
- Walk up and down the plane as much as possible. Z loved flirting with the other passengers and it relieves some of the boredom for parent and infant.
- Ask for help from the air hostesses and other airline and security staff - use your baby to charm them if possible. If they are immune to baby charms, ask politely but firmly for the service you deserve.
Most important, it is nowhere near as bad as you are thinking it is going to be.=
———–
The Catalog of Air Canada’s Sins:
- No sky cots. For an eight hour London - Toronto flight in the holiday season this is unacceptable. There were at least four infants on board - come on guys.
- If you’re not going to have sky cots, how about giving travelers with infants bulkhead seats - that little bit of extra space makes a huge difference. Hey, maybe that extra money we paid you for an infant could go for a little extra space!
- They ran out of food for the first meal of the flight. You know exactly how many people you have on board because you sold (the very expensive) tickets. Is math that much of a challenge? Here’s a hint - one meal per person.
- The second meal of the flight was rubbish. All airline food is bad, but there are degrees of bad. Bubble and squeak is really, really bad even for a flight that originated in England.
- They lost our luggage. Actually, even worse, they chose not to take our luggage. The flight from Toronto up north was too heavy so they left our three bags (and three of my Florida family’s bags) behind. Here’s the thing - if you can’t handle 100 lbs of luggage per person, then don’t say that you can. Then we won’t bring it or we’ll fly an airline that can handle that amount of luggage.
- Once you’ve decided not to bring our luggage - give me a person that I can speak to about it and an idea of when you may deign to bring it to me. Do not give me a toll free number that puts me through to a Bangalore call center and make me describe the contents of my luggage in the hops of finding it - even though you know exactly where it is.
I’ve also found some other folks who have discovered that Air Canada sucks, if you’re interested:
Guess I should have done some research!
Image credits:
R.E.M.’s album “Up” is available from 
and Amazon
11 responses so far ↓
1 Jessica K // Jan 4, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Wow, what a terrible way to start your holiday! I’m sorry you guys had to deal with that.
On the bright side, congrats on having the most beautiful and well-behaved child on the flight! (And for the record, I think it’s great that you’re “that dad.” Jeff is too, and I love him for it!)
2 Nichole // Jan 4, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I’m glad Zach was a champion traveler! That had to make the evils of Air Canada a little bit easier. I’m also pleased that they served Bubble and Squeak, because that has to be the best food name ever.
3 MelodyA. // Jan 4, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I think it also helps to go in expecting the absolute worse. That way you’ll be pleasantly surprised when only a few things go wrong. And, if you have older children, buy them a few new activities. A brand new box of crayons for some reason is way cool.
4 strangescottishgirl // Jan 4, 2008 at 5:00 pm
man I LOVE tylenol. why dont we have it in britain? because shit like that is prescription only here. But it rocks. I took tylenol sinus day and night over christmas and stayed in bed and forgot I was ill. MAN it’s good. any canadian reading this, ship some over and i’ll sell it on the black market. mmmm mmmm
PS when you say you were walking around showing off how good looking he is were u talking about yourself or the baby? same goes for the flirting…
5 Sinead // Jan 4, 2008 at 5:47 pm
They were both only capable of doing the walking around and flirting thing on the flight over, on the flight back Chris was incapable of operating his iPOD without passing out in the process. It was really weird/scary. One minute Chris would get out his iPOD and the next he would be asleep with his finger poised over the button. The scarier thing was he would wake up and ask to hold Zach, who was sleeping peacefully and get mad when I would tell him he was incapable of doing so in his current state! This delirium lasted until we got back to Oxford.
I think the worst thing about the whole trans-atlantic holiday was the baby jet-lag. You cant really make a baby stay awake and you cant make a baby go to sleep at 2am when his body clock is telling him it is 7am and time to play. Zach was only waking once a night to be fed before we left and last night he woke 3 times and we have already been home 5 days. I’m thinking that maybe I should start dosing him with baby amounts of tylenol??
6 Jason // Jan 4, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Isn’t air travel great? One of my bags was lost on the way to NY for Christmas. I had a connection and only had 5 minutes to get to the next flight. Of course the bag didn’t make it. It got to me at 3:30 in the morning. When I opened it, I found that one of the gifts I packed for my brother was missing. I’m not sure if it was swiped by TSA or by the courier hired to deliver my bag, but what a way to start the day on Christmas! Jenelle called TSA, which connected her to the baggage screening office in Madison. Rather than offer any help or sympathy, she just got the question “well how do you KNOW it’s missing?” Well, um, I’d have to say its missing because it’s not in the suitcase I put it in!
7 CDV // Jan 4, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Jason, was your present for your brother a dirty bomb? Cause I’ve found that the TSA always takes those out of my luggage.
I’m really glad that we didn’t have to fly to the States this year - the freedom to go through my luggage, take things out at will AND never return them to me - is one of the things that really tweaks me off about the Improved Security Measures (TM). Hey - they’re keeping me safer by nicking my lighters.
8 Elizabeth // Jan 6, 2008 at 4:30 pm
We only fly British Airways (well, it’s either BA or Delta to and fro Atlanta).. they’re really good with families and we’ve only been let down by them once. Not bad considering MC passed 100,000 miles flown on our return flight today.
I hate to tell you - but jet lag gets worse the older they get! MC is 5 now and it’s not great, not great at all. I’ll be loving life at about 3am this morning, trust me!
Oh - flying is fantastic when they’re Zach’s age - take advantage of it. When MC hit 15-20 months it was not so pleasant. Thankfully we got over the hump and now she’s a champ.
Anyway - I’m rambling.. I’ve been up forever!
9 D4V // Jan 8, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Thanks for the link up..
We also had a pretty in depth conversation comparing Air Canada to other airlines in our blog. Humorous to say the least.
http://r4nt.com/blog/2006/11/23/singapore-airlines-owns-air-canada/
10 Carmi // Jan 9, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I can vouch for the Air Canada experience. I’ve flown them everywhere within Canada and around the planet and I’ve got enough horror stories to write a book. Wait…
Glad you made it home safe and decided to share the experience here. Nice to know I’m not alone
I hope you’ll drop by for a peek at my WW contribution:
http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2008/01/wordless-wednesday-vision-quest.html
I’d like to wish you a wonderful Wordless Wednesday!
Carmi
11 arizaphale // Jan 9, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Doing some catching up here! Glad your trip was successful and that Zach was a dream traveller. Since when do you have to pay for an infant on a flight? I’m pretty sure my sister and brother in law brought my nephew out here when he was eight months old for precisely that reason! I mean, they’re really just like hand luggage….aren’t they?
There definitely are differences in airlines but they all have their moments in terms of things like losing luggage and being less than helpful on the phone. My sister had the most ridiculous experience ever with Air France. She booked a huge, business class holiday to the US and India for my B-I-L’s 50th birthday, using her air miles. (she does a LOT of flying) When they got to Heathrow with their electronic itinerary in hand, the check-in person told them they couldn’t use airmiles for that flight. “But I already have,” was the reply. Bad luck, they weren’t allowed to board!!!!!! Sis suggested that she pay for the flight with credit card (and take it up with Air France later)and upgrade to business class using her airmiles. That was OK…oh except that she didn’t have enough airmiles to upgrade cos they’d been taken OUT to pay for the flight she wasn’t allowed to board!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She ended up putting 5000 pounds on credit card just so they could leave on their holiday with NO guarantee that it would be refunded later! Fortunately, after a great deal of correspondence, it was. Gotta love airlines.
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