Our Toddler’s First Transatlantic Flight: A Pleasant Mess
A number of months in the past, I wrote about how we’d be taking our son, Miles, on his first transatlantic journey, coinciding together with his second birthday. Whereas I gained’t be writing a full journey report (sorry, it’s exhausting to doc the whole lot once you’re carrying 17 luggage and have somebody yelling “no no” at the whole lot), I did need to share some common ideas on our expertise. 😉
On this publish, I’ll be overlaying our outbound journey, which was a multitude and a half. But oddly after we landed at our vacation spot, we let loose a sigh of reduction, and had been really sort of completely happy about how the entire thing went.
Fundamentals of our son’s first journey to Europe
Our son turned two again in early August. Previous to that, we had carried out a good bit of brief haul journey with him, however hadn’t but taken him on a protracted haul journey. Ford and I are fortunate that we each earn a living from home, so we get to spend far more time with our son than most individuals who need to go to an workplace. Then for the conditions the place we traveled lengthy haul, our household liked with the ability to spend time with him, because it was very particular for everybody.
Frankly up till not too long ago, we didn’t suppose Miles would really get something out of lengthy haul journey. I imply, when you will have an toddler, they’re extra eager about making an attempt to place their fingers in each outlet in a brand new surroundings, and gained’t take away a complete lot from a visit, in my view.
Nonetheless, as he will get older, we wrestle extra with being other than him, so like taking him alongside. Moreover, we figured we needed to rip the band-aid off, and at last take a protracted haul journey with him, simply to see how it’s.
With that in thoughts, we took Miles to Greece for his first journey, as we had been visiting some pals there. The outbound portion was shortly earlier than his second birthday, whereas the return was simply after his second birthday (which is attention-grabbing as nicely, since he could possibly be a lap toddler on the best way out, however not on the return).
Since we had been touring with household, we ended up needing 5 seats. As you’ll have guessed, discovering 5 enterprise class award seats in late July to Greece isn’t tremendous simple. So I ticketed the perfect factor I may discover, which was American enterprise class from Miami to Madrid, for 62,000 AAdvantage miles per particular person. We ended up reserving Miles his personal seat, since our hope was that him having a enterprise class seat would enable him to simply move out for the whole flight (“hope” is the operative phrase right here).
There was no award availability from Madrid to Athens, so we ended up reserving money tickets on Iberia in enterprise class, which had been moderately priced. Tickets had been $300 per particular person, solely about $75 greater than financial system. However we may additionally e book simply 4 tickets on this flight, and have Miles journey as a lap toddler, since intra-Europe enterprise class consists of financial system seats with a blocked center (so he may sit between us within the blocked center seat).
Our messy journey from Miami to Madrid to Athens
To be sincere, I used to be dreading the outbound portion of our journey, and was anticipating the worst. I used to be most likely in my head a bit an excessive amount of. I in fact get that individuals on planes don’t love screaming toddlers, and I used to be decided to do the whole lot potential to forestall that.
Properly, what I hadn’t factored in is that we’d simply have a kind of terrible journey days, the place most issues go flawed, unrelated to our son. Let me clarify…
begin on the Flagship Lounge Miami
Our journey began off on a very good word. After checking extra luggage than I care to confess and heading by way of safety, we visited the American Flagship Lounge, and we had been excited. I’ll let Miles’ facial features converse for itself. Nothing can cease us now… oh, wait…
Uh oh, right here comes a rolling delay…
Actually a minute after sitting down within the Flagship Lounge — it was nearly comical — I acquired a push notification from the American app that our flight was delayed by 75 minutes. I believed “okay, nice, we’ve a 5 hour layover, so this can simply make that simpler, and Miles will likely be extra prone to sleep onboard.”
At first, Miles loved the aircraft recognizing, and the fabulous American Airways catering (he extremely recommends the cookies and bread).
Then I appeared up the explanation for the delay, and noticed that it was listed as being as a result of crew availability. Properly, I imply, certainly it could’t be that tough to search out one other crew member at a hub, proper? I went to talk to a consultant within the Flagship Lounge, to get extra of a way of what was occurring.
Based on her, we had been lacking a “flight engineer” (that’s how you understand she’s an old style worker!), however they had been engaged on discovering a substitute.
What adopted was essentially the most textbook American delay dealing with possible, the place there was merely no info, and the flight simply saved getting pushed again by quarter-hour at a time. On a number of events we thought we had been going to board, based mostly on the data supplied within the Flagship Lounge, so we even headed right down to the gate. On the gate, the gate brokers merely mentioned “they don’t inform us something” (they usually didn’t even make any bulletins, however reasonably that was the response when going as much as the rostrum).
quarter-hour at a time, our delay stretched from 75 minutes, to 2 hours, to 3 hours, to 4 hours, and past. Grrr! We lastly finally began boarding just a little after 7PM, and we ended up departing at 7:40PM, 4hr25min delayed (too unhealthy EU261 compensation solely applies on US airways when originating in Europe).
Look, these sorts of delays aren’t enjoyable for anybody. However they’re particularly not enjoyable once you’re touring with a toddler, they usually’re much more stress-inducing once you’re booked on two separate tickets in Europe, and also you’re going to misconnect. In contrast to in the US, airways in Europe additionally typically don’t rebook you on one other flight for free of charge. Grrr…
A sleepless(ish) flight throughout the Atlantic
My dream was that 5 minutes after takeoff, Miles would move out for the whole eight hour journey, and solely get up shortly earlier than touchdown. However I knew that wasn’t the possible consequence.
Each child is completely different. Miles is a fully unimaginable sleeper at residence. He sleeps 12 hours per night time with out exception, and he actually hasn’t woken us up in over a 12 months with screaming in the midst of the night time. Not as soon as.
Nonetheless, when he’s not in his crib at residence, it’s a very completely different story. He. Refuses. To. Sleep. Not in his automotive seat. Not in his stroller. Sadly this flight wasn’t actually an exception. I had booked him a seat in hopes of him utilizing it, however he completely wasn’t eager about sleeping on his personal (by the best way, reverse herringbone seats are clearly fairly unhealthy for households — I hoped our flight would get American’s “different” enterprise class seats).
He wasn’t drained at first, so he acquired some display time, which saved him entertained, because it’s a novelty for him, and he doesn’t get a lot of it at residence.
Ultimately he agreed to sleep, however provided that he was in somebody’s arms. He did find yourself sleeping… for perhaps a number of hours. It was higher than nothing, however a far cry from what we had (unrealistically) hoped.
A silver lining throughout our Madrid layover
We had checked luggage on this journey, and American doesn’t allow you to verify luggage by way of on separate tickets, even should you’re touring on a three way partnership accomplice. So we knew we had been going to misconnect, since our flight arrived at 10:15AM, and our connection was at 11AM.
That’s not sufficient time to clear passport management, decide up luggage, verify luggage in once more, and make a connection.
The opposite factor about Europe is that airways don’t supply a lot flexibility should you miss your flight, so that you’ll usually be requested to simply purchase a brand new ticket should you miss your flight. After all we had been taking some threat with our itinerary, however that’s additionally why I deliberate a 5 hour layover in Madrid, which ought to’ve vastly restricted our threat.
So we arrived on the Iberia check-in counter shortly earlier than 11AM, and the agent mentioned there was nothing he may do, and he directed us to the ticket sale desk. Honest sufficient, however FML. I had seen that financial system on the subsequent flight was bought out, and that enterprise class tickets price over $1,000 every. I used to be clearly not thrilled on the prospect of this, and was ready to attempt to determine another artistic plan (which is in fact all of the extra difficult when a toddler is concerned).
The 2 events on the ticket gross sales desk in entrance of us each left with out reserving tickets, after they heard the price. I attempted to be on my greatest and nicest conduct — gosh, I don’t bear in mind the final time I’ve approached somebody with such over-the-top reverence. I informed my greatest sob story, and after doing a little typing, he mentioned “I’ve good and unhealthy information.”
I used to be anticipating the excellent news to be that he can rebook us the identical day, and the unhealthy information to be that it could price us 1000’s of {dollars}. However nope, our fortunate stars aligned, and that’s not the way it performed out. “The excellent news is I can rebook you at this time, however the unhealthy information is that the flight is just at 3PM.”
“That sounds nice to us, thanks a lot!” I used to be anticipating the subsequent stage of our interplay to be for him to ask for some big fare distinction. However nope, a minute later he printed out our 5 boarding passes, and mentioned “have a pleasant flight.” As we walked away from the counter, I nearly anticipated him to nonetheless say “wait, I’ve to cost you.” However nope, we had been good to go!
Suffice it to say that this rotated our temper for the higher. Certain, we had a very lengthy day, however at the very least we’d get to our vacation spot with out spending an arm and a leg.
A good layover, and VERY lengthy flight to Athens
We had round three hours in Madrid earlier than our connection to Athens, so we spent that point within the Iberia Lounge, which labored out easily. Toddlers are fairly resilient, so long as they’re nicely fed and entertained. So we took turns entertaining him, from enjoying video games with him, to strolling across the terminal with him.
I’ve gotta say, I actually admire when lounges have excessive chairs. That was one thing that was lacking within the Flagship Lounge Miami, however that Iberia had, and that made the layover a lot simpler.
Maybe essentially the most difficult side of the journey was the final phase, from Madrid to Athens. The flight was round three hours, however truthfully, it would as nicely have been from Singapore to New York, based mostly on how lengthy it felt.
At first we may hold him entertained with some TV exhibits. However then he began saying “no Cocola!” Oy, you understand you’re in bother when your toddler isn’t eager about Cocomelon anymore.
Miles then determined that he completely wasn’t going to simply keep seated, after which he type of turned a worm, and tried to wiggle his means out of his seat and our arms. Quickly sufficient he gave in to the temptation to sleep. Regardless that I think about this was actually uncomfortable for Ford, we had been overjoyed on the sight.
We lastly landed in Athens almost 24 hours after we left our residence in Miami, and gosh did we breathe a sigh of reduction…
A merciless joke to complete off our journey
As we deplaned in Athens I refreshed my e-mail, solely to discover a message from Iberia, telling us that one in all our luggage hadn’t arrived on our flight. My first thought was “please don’t let or not it’s the bag with Miles’ stuff.” I referenced the bag tag quantity, appeared it up, and… sure, it was the bag with all of Miles’ stuff.
I began filling out the shape whereas we had been standing at baggage declare. Ultimately luggage got here out, and to my shock, all of our baggage had made it. So our frustration there rapidly turned to pleasure.
Our conclusion from our outbound journey
By the point we arrived at our lodge in Athens for the night, we had been overjoyed. The journey would’ve been exhausting with out the delay of over 4 hours, the misconnect, and so on. However we really walked away from this saying “that truly labored out fairly nicely.”
I imply, Miles normally sleeps 12 hours per night time, and on this case he traveled for almost 24 hours, and perhaps acquired a number of hours of sleep. We had been tremendous exhausted by the point we arrived in Athens, so I can solely think about how drained he was. However nonetheless, it’s an excellent reflection of how versatile toddlers are, regardless of them having such a robust will.
Humorous sufficient, as soon as we had been really on the bottom in Europe, the journey couldn’t have gone extra easily. He had no jet lag, and he undoubtedly took one thing away from the expertise. After all once you’re two years outdated, you’re not totally absorbing what you’re seeing, however we observed modifications with him after we returned from the journey, as a result of clearly he was challenged a bit, going thus far out of his each day routine.
For that matter, this journey actually made him like water for the primary time. He had taken swimming classes at residence, however was afraid of water. In the meantime we rented a home in Greece with a pool that had a gradual entry, and he has had an curiosity within the water ever since (extra on that rental in a separate publish, as I booked it by way of Properties & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy).
Backside line
Lengthy haul journey might be exhausting beneath the perfect of circumstances. So I’ve gotta say, this journey gave me a complete new appreciation for a way easy journey is once you’re not touring with younger ones.
Our outbound journey was far more difficult than I hoped for, due to a rolling delay of over 4 hours and a misconnect. However after we arrived in Athens and Miles was lastly asleep, we felt a way of happiness about the entire thing, and had been very completely happy about our choice.