Flight to Salt Lake

I got a call early Monday morning that our flight had been can canceled. I panicked for a minute, then after listening to the whole message, realized that it was rescheduled for the better. Instead of spending 3 hours in Dallas I was only going to spend about an hour and a half there, and leave later from Cincinnati. Marc’s mom drove us to the airport and helped me get through security. I had to laugh, because they picked her for a random screening even though she wasn’t even getting on the airplane.

I told the gate agent that I would need a little help getting on the plane and instead of pre-boarding me, she made me wait until everyone was on, then helped me carry the car seats on the plane. We were on a little tiny plane that has a gang plank in the outside so you can hear how loud the airplane is and it’s a little scary to walk over. My arms were full of bags so I couldn’t carry the kids and Bryce just freaked out and started screaming. Not being able to pick him up, I was pushing him from behind with my belly. So here I am walking on to the plane with a screaming kid, hitting people on the head with all of my bags, and making everyone wait. We got all the stuff put down and were in the process of buckling in the car seats when the flight attendant came up and told us we just couldn’t sit there because it was “behind the exit row”(???) I know he was just trying to get the plane in the air, but he was so rude and so non-sympathetic to the situation. He was practically yelling (Bryce was still screaming at this point) to the three people behind us that they needed to trade us places. So we FINALLY got everyone moved, kids buckled, bags stowed, and I just sat down and cried. It was awful. I sat in a single seat by myself and the kids sat across the aisle from me….if Tyler had needed anything I wouldn’t have been able to help him at all but apparently they can’t sit in the single aisle seat by themselves. At least the kids zonked out shortly after take off and slept for most of the flight. We put in a DVD and that kept their attention the rest of the time.

So at least the flight attendant was a little more helpful getting off the flight. I think he realized that he’d be there a lot longer unless he helped me out, so he and the captain helped me carry out the car seats and a bag. They told me that they had called for a “cart” to help me get to the next terminal, but after waiting for about 10 minutes nobody ever showed up. I was able to load all of the bags and seats onto a stroller that my AMAZING friends in Cincinnati bought for me and the kids helped me push.

We learned the flight to Salt Lake was delayed an hour…meaning I had 2.5 hours to kill. The Dallas airport is huge and has all of these different terminals that you get to by taking a tram/train which was fabulous for my kids. We went and found the gate we were supposed to be at, played for a while, ate “dinner” and then went back and rode the train for a few loops around the entire airport.

The departure time kept getting pushed back and as I talked to Marc and found out about the bad snow storms that were going through Utah at the time, I was really starting to get worried about getting out of Dallas that night. It was a definite relief when they started boarding the plane!!

Once again, I approached the gate agent well before the flight and told him that I’d need some help getting on the plane. He looked at me all flabbergasted like “what do you expect me to do about it” I stuck out my belly a little bit and said, “I’m 7 months pregnant, I’m traveling with twins by myself and I have a ton of stuff to get on the plane. I can’t do it all by myself is there anyway you can help me??” He goes “we don’t really CARRY stuff….but we can figure something out” Then pretended to type something into his computer. I told him that I expected to be pre-boarded then and that they needed to give me time to make two trips if that’s all they would do. I was so pissed off!! American Airlines customer service is PATHETIC!!! Honestly, if I had been in a wheel chair they would have had somebody come carry me on the plane and made sure I was all set, but because I was still walking and able bodied for the most part, I was just a nuisance. I was able to board the plane right after the people in wheelchairs and I drove the stroller with all the stuff on it all the way to the plane got the kids and the bags on first, then got off the plane to grab the car seats….I know some of you are thinking, “wouldn’t it have been so much easier to have just checked the car seats??”” and the answer is yes and no. Yes, it would have been easier to not haul them around, but I am convinced that they made all the difference in how well my kids behaved and slept on the airplane because they are already used to being in their car seats and they were strapped into them the entire time without the option of a lap belt to undo and play with.

The plane was bigger this time, but you can’t have a car seat in an aisle…so I took the aisle and the kids had the middle and window. Tyler slept all but the last 30 minutes of the flight, but he was in the middle seat so it was kind of a pain to try and get things situated for Bryce who was awake the entire time. Thank goodness for portable DVD players and the “Polar Express”. The flight attendants were much nicer this time (they were also women who had kids of their own so much more sympathetic to the situation). They were kind enough to help me carry the car seats all the way from the plane to Baggage Claim where my brother was waiting for me.

If you can avoid American Airlines, do everything you can to not fly with them!! They charge you for any bags that you check, their customer service is the worst that I have ever dealt with, their flights are delayed and canceled most of the time leaving you high and dry, and the so called “extra leg room” doesn’t exist any more. It was the worst day of flying I have ever had….but at least we all got to Utah along with our bags in one piece and that’s what was most important.