a tale of two flights

Flight 1:

On Westjet, between Toronto and Edmonton. Madeline hadn't slept nearly enough during our Toronto holiday with Chris, but she was happy to discover that cartoons and children's programming were on all the time on her in-flight seat-back television. She particularly liked The Wiggles and The Backyardigans, grooving in her carseat while they were on. She also gave the in-flight snack of Oreos a thumbs-up. Managed to drink her water from a regular cup really well. It was actually me who spilled water all over her *blush*. A member of the flight crew carried her carseat onto the plane for me, leaving me to merely wrangle the toddler and the diaper bag. The flight was about three hours, and I was very happy with how content Madeline was the entire time. Another Westjet employee owner (as they say in the ads) carried her carseat for me again, all the way from the jetway into the airport!  There was also no problem getting her a box of juice to have for her ears during take-off. The wee little bathroom frightened her - she kept pointing to the door while we were in it saying "go plane!" anxiously, so I think she thought we'd actually left the plane!

Flight 2:

On Westjet again, this time from Edmonton to Calgary for a change of planes, then from Calgary to St. John's, with stops in Toronto and Halifax. Well, Madeline was super sleep-deprived this time, despite my efforts to get her to nap and into bed early. She fussed/howled/screamed in her carseat while the plane sat on the runway. I was disgruntled, having to have toted Madeline, the diaper bag, and the carseat down the aisle of the aircraft myself every single time, which meant getting stuck because of my cargo, and also progressing at the pace of a snail with Madeline the Explorer.  We were on a plane for the entire day, pretty much, and went though several packages of cookies and lots of stickers. The television wasn't that interesting until we were on the Halifax - St. John's leg - just over an hour in length. Madeline did sleep for about forty minutes on the way to Toronto, and for most of the Toronto - Halifax leg.

I would definitely choose to fly with Westjet over Air Canada for all of my future domestic air travel needs, but I was surprised that no one asked me if I needed any help on my return journey. Despite being overtired and cranky, I think that Madeline did alright on the trip. Spending nearly twelve hours in transit on any one day is a lot for anyone, not just two year-olds! I'd take her on a 3-hour flight on my own twice a week with no hesitation. The carseat was super-easy to install, though I did end up twisting the belt stalk on one side in lieu of requesting a seat-belt extender to get it to buckle on the side of the seat, instead of in the middle (where I would not be able to unbuckle it). And those cheap airline headphones were worth at least two hours of amusement for my little travelling companion - very much worth the $1 investment!

Comments

[Alexandra]

Sounds like she did a pretty good job overall. Go Madeline! And go mamma!

[Jaime]

Exactly overall was pretty good. I feel for you doing it by yourself. Wonder how the 2 trips could have been so different. My mom and I were just talking today about customer service and the lack there of at most places. Are you going to write and let them know of your experience? Might step up some service for the next single parent with toddler travellers.