Anyone travel to U.S. with an infant?

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MaryR.

Reacher

Joined: Aug 26, 2003
Posts: 317
Location: Shanghai!
Status: Offline

Posted: June 19, 2004 - 05:37 PM
Post subject: Anyone travel to U.S. with an infant?

We´re going when our baby is 4 months old. Does anyone have experience wiht how the baby coped during the flight, and adjusted to the time difference?

Thanks for any info.

Baby_Panda

Seeker

Joined: Apr 16, 2004
Posts: 64

Status: Offline

Posted: July 22, 2004 - 10:32 AM

Hiya,

Last year I went to the US with my sister, her son and daughter. My niece was 6 months old then. We were flying from Paris to San Fran via Detroit. Quite a journey I must say, never to be repeated!! It was horrendous!!

We flew with American Airlines and boy were they hateful!! When we bought our tickets we made sure that a baby cot was booked too as there's only a couple per plane. We turned up at the airport, we had to fight our way through the check-in queue. No attendant would have given us priority if we haven't pushed for it.

Then on the plane they put us in the middle row so there was no room for the baby cot. We had to ask to be moved i.e. ask the passengers ourselves to have a window seat!! The flights attendants wouldn't lift a finger. We had to ask several times for the baby cot. Finally it arrived but after 2 hours it broke down and fell off from the wall. We put it at our feet but due to safety reasons they had to removed the cot and my sister had to carry hey baby on her lap for the rest of the flight!!
They had no other cot anywhere on the plane!
It was the worst flight of my life with the worst flight attendants - arrogant, not helpful! Never once did anyone come and ask us whether we needed anything (re-heat the bottle etc!)
And wait, we had another ordeal on the connecting flight. This time there was no cot at all!! We had to seat at the back of the plane, we took the baby car seat with us and barely managed to put at our feet but the flight attendant removed it for safety reason so again we had to hold her for the whole time.

Another thing, both planes did not have any baby belt for take-off/landing. Apparently it's not safe but how come other airlines offer it?

On the way back we vowed to call ahead and book a baby cot. And we did but when we turned up they didn't have any!!!

It was really tough and I was only the aunty! But the day I have a baby I'll wait until it's 18 years old to go anywhere again!!!

Let me know how you manage!
Good luck!