Saturday, April 13, 2013

Small Children NOT Guaranteed Plane Seat Next to Parent(s)

Update Summer, 2014
In my original post below, I thought this issue was unique to one airline. Turns out that's not true. We flew last month, and this is still an issue a year later. Is it becoming the norm??? And why???  It makes no sense to me. 


Seriously, I was not even going to mention this incident.  I complained once before about something on my site, and then felt guilty about it, but this one has me baffled and I could use affirmation that I'm not crazy. Your opinion that I'm wrong is okay too, I know we can't all agree on the same things, but this is one that I have full conviction on for myself and my family.

Back Story
Last summer my daughter (then 13) and I took a flight together to Florida.  I telephoned way ahead of time (weeks) to ensure we would be seated together. I was told that was not possible. I called a manager and got a 'one time courtesy' for us to sit together. I was relieved but knew I wouldn't want to fly that airline again. And I haven't since.

New Story
I booked our Spring Break vacation through an online site that I like. It was an international flight that had a connecting flight from Detroit to Chicago, and then the reverse on the way home.  The connecting flight was through the airline who doesn't automatically seat children with parents (no one tells you this, I just knew from my previous experience), but we booked so early and it was part of the package deal, so I thought it would be okay.

A couple of weeks before the flight I called the airline to make sure I would at least be seated next to my 5-yr.-old. I was told they could not ensure that, but check at the gate and we should be fine. And on the way there, we were (fine).

When it was time for the connecting flight home, I checked to make sure things were going to be okay on our return flight home and that I would be seated next to my 5-yr.-old. I was informed that the plane was full and they could NOT seat any adult in our family next to my 5-yr. old.  Excuse me?  I'm not one to raise a ruckus, really, but there's no way my five-yr.-old was sitting with a stranger on a plane. So many potential reasons for that decision instantly came to mind.  First of all, he would have been scared to sit next to a stranger on a plane (yeah, that's a BIG deal to me). Second, and what should have been most important to the airline, there are a LOT of safety issues that could have come into play.  And third, God forbid something bad would happen, a stranger would not look out for, or comfort MY child.

So, I asked if there was another flight out that night we could take. We were willing to delay our trip to sit next to our child. There was nothing later in that same day.  I was firm that there was no way I was going to sit away from my child.  I was NOT impolite. The gal started mumbling under her breath, clearly frustrated with me, and then became not at all nice.

After some really silly rearranging we did make it home, with me next to my child, and I wrote a letter, again not rude, explaining how I felt about such a practice.

I e-mailed or wrote to any and everyone I could think of that might be able to bring some light to this kind of situation so it didn't become the norm, or accepted. Today I received a reply from the airline's customer service (as a response to an e-mail forwarded to them from a DOT Specialist, Corporate Customer Care e-mail I'd sent...the original one I'd sent the airline was never answered), that they were sorry I received rude customer service (that was their focus), but that as far as the seating went, and I quote:

We regret to hear of your experience and sincerely apologize for any
inconvenience this may have caused you. We make every effort to honor
our customers seat requests, but unfortunately, due to potential
operational changes or changes to passenger lists, we are not able to
guarantee seat assignments.


Really? 

My response to the letter was short, but I'm still shaking my head in disbelief at their stance on such an important (to me) topic:

While I appreciate your taking the time out to send me a response, I do not find it acceptable that there is ANY chance a 5-yr. old would be seated away from a parent.  I do not think I am the only one who would feel that way, and I will not be flying (name of Airlines) because of it.  We fly a lot and this is the ONLY airline I have ever come across such a thing.  Any number of potential situations make it entirely unreasonable to think it is okay to seat such a small child away from a parent on a flight.

Now I want to hear what you think? Is it in any way acceptable to have a small child seated away from his/her family on an airline flight?

Thursday, April 11, 2013

How Vacation Almost Killed Our Fish

SOURCE

Many of you know we went on vacation for Spring Break.  Anyone who's gone on vacation knows there's a little work that goes into the preparation beforehand. You've got to find a house sitter, hold the mail, cancel the newspaper, contact your bank so they don't freeze your card, and so on and so forth.  We did all that we were supposed to do...or so we thought.

We're fortunate to know someone who stays in our place while we're gone, but this time they could only stop in and check on things periodically because their house was full of company (gotta love Spring Break).  So, one more 'to do' item was to turn down the heater.

I didn't want the fish to get overlooked, we love our Fishy-Fish you know (that's the name my son gave him when we brought him home), so I put a self-feeder tablet in there (good to feed your fish and keep the water clean for a week).  We've done that before, so we thought we were good to go.

The first thing I did when we got home was walk in my son's room and check the fish.  He was listless, on his side, barely hanging on. Our fish was almost dead.  I got him into some warmer water right away, but it's taken several days of TLC to get him (almost) back to normal.  The worst part is, he seems to have lost his eyesight too. We're treating him with something meant to help, and I sure hope it does.  He was transferred back to his own tank last night and finally swam up to the top this morning looking for food, so I think he's going to be okay.

Lesson well learned though.  Don't turn down the heat when you leave if you have pets (even a fish! unless you have a water heater in the tank).  I suppose the reverse would be true for summer too...don't let your house get too hot if you're going on vacation, even if you have people coming over to visit/feed/care for your pets.  That time in the extreme temperatures (whether hot or cold) might be more than they can take. 

Update: Fishy Fish was fully rejuvenated by pet store medicine and back to his happy, normal self... thank goodness. Lesson learned. Forevah!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Spring Break in Dublin

Spring Break for us this year was a trip to Dublin, Ireland.  We're home now, and I'm completely behind on almost everything I need to do that requires a computer because the very first day on our trip my hair appliance fried (leaving me too worried to use the converter again...but you know, it was nice too, not to be online for awhile!).  I used my converter and adapter like I always do when we are on a European vacation, and was not anticipating any challenges, but for some reason this trip left me saying, 'What's that smell???  OH MY GOSH!! It's the straightener!" The smoking appliance went directly into the garbage, and it left me way too chicken to plug in my laptop. ;)  It also left me with curly hair for the rest of the trip, lol.

That aside, we had a fabulous trip and I'm sharing some of the pictures below.  I also want to thank each of my visiting writers who were kind enough to provide posts for the time we were gone, and each and every person who came over to visit and support them with your comments.  You gals/guys are really awesome!!


This is the Spire of Dublin.  It's about 400 ft. tall and lights up at night, which made it very easy for us to find the direction of our hotel (which was very close to it) no matter where we wandered to in the city.


The O'Connell Monument was one of many statues on O'Connell Street.  This one was named after Daniel O' Connell, an Irish political leader in the early 19th century.


We went to Trinity College and it was love at first site.  They have the most amazing library, with some of the oldest, most wonderful books in the world, including The Book of Kells.  Pictures were not allowed inside The Long Room, but it was beyond fabulous, and easily one of my favorite parts of the trip.


Despite chilly temperatures, artists and musicians still made their way out onto the streets.  The work of each person we happened by was nothing short of incredible.


Of course there was a Hard Rock Cafe, and we were excited to spot it 
(funny how that happens, isn't it?).


We like Hard Rock but we simply took a picture and moved on because we wanted to experience the more traditional Irish dishes, including a meal we had at this pub, complete with live music that featured the flute and a button accordion (and a very dark environment, where I didn't want to use a flash).



We were excited to go to Dublin Castle, only to find that it is closed until mid-summer. It was impressive from the outside, so I'm going to assume the inside was equally as nice.



Walking through Guinness turned out to be really fun, and the view at the top came from an all-glass room filled with a LOT of people and music.  You could see every direction of the city from up there, and the windows had frosted words to tell you what it was you were seeing.


Tom Cruise was in town to see the premier of OBLIVION and people were lining up on the streets, and even climbing on the gates and in the small trees on the median strip to try and get a look at him.  He pulled up right as we were walking by (on the other side of the street) and screamed out, 'Let's make some noise!' to which the crowd obliged and then he promptly disappeared into the building.






The architecture on the buildings and the churches was beautiful, and it was everywhere you looked.



We don't usually pay for tours when we vacation, but we did want to see and learn all about Croke Park, the home of the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The love of sport was evident here, and the Bloody Sunday history of the place was heartbreaking.  It was wonderful to see the place now a very happy one, full of children of all ages enjoying the field and the museum room with hands-on activities that allow the kids *and adults, lol* to enjoy running around and testing their skills at kicking a soccer ball, using a hurling stick, and the like.  I think visiting during the season would have been fabulous. I can just imagine the energy there during game time.

It was our first trip to Ireland, and the one thing that stood out, besides the beautiful everywhere, was that the people were so nice.  Everywhere you went, the people went out of their way to be kind, it was a nice change of pace, and a great place to visit for Spring Break.

Lume Footwear

Lume Jr. Sleeve w/Pocket Boots in Hot Rod Red

Lume Footwear is a brand sold exclusively online, which makes good sense considering a very large number of people order online with regular consistency. They do so in order to pass the savings directly on to the consumer, with a living motto that premium gear shouldn't have a premium price tag.

It's hard to argue with a motto like that, isn't it? :)

They have come up with a high quality rain/snow boot for children (featured here) and women (which you can find on their website).  Kids like them for numerous reasons, and parents do too.

The Kids:
Lume Footwear knows that kids like boots (I'm willing to guess that not many people have a child aged preschool on up who doesn't like to put on a pair of boots).  They also know that if you add a durable and roomy pocket to the outside of each boot, kids are going to be over the moon happy.  My son is a collector by nature, and he likes to store things.  The pocket on the outside of his Lume Jr. Sleeve boots was the perfect place to store his special treasures while he was romping around on our recent vacation to Dublin, Ireland.  One of the days we were there took us to a place where we could press a penny (you've seen them in most places touristy, I'm sure, well my son loves to make those) and he slipped it in his boot pocket and carried it around for the rest of the trip.  There were other items that were put in and taken out of those pockets, but the penny had to stay, and he thought that was a really big deal.

Standing in front of The Church of Ireland

The Parents:

Everyone knows when you go to Dublin that there's one thing you can most always expect, and that's rain.  Lume Footwear sent us a pair of their Kids Jr. Sleeve w/pockets boots so we could take them along and put them to the test. The boots were comfortable all day long (we brought shoes along in the stroller that first day, just in case, but they were never needed), and they kept his feet dry and warm.  The boots are designed to keep feet cozy down to minus thirty degrees (Fahrenheit), and though it was nowhere near as cold as that where we were (thank goodness), it was certainly not warm. The boots did their job and kept my son comfy while we were outside, which we were a lot.

You can use the Lume Footwear for rain or snow, and I think that is uniquely awesome.  Another feature I really liked as a parent was that the Kids Jr. Sleeve boots are easy to clean.  Simply wipe w/a slightly damp cloth, and they look good as new.  A final point worth noting is the boots are extremely flexible, not bulky, so they were super easy to pack up and take along with us.

Hanging around on O'Connell St. in rainy Dublin


The Lume Jr. Sleeve boots come in six great colors:


We chose the Hot Rod Red because it goes best with the cool Spiderman look. ;)

Sitting outside of Croke

I usually give a pros and cons list for items I review, but Lume Footwear for kids gets a 10/10 for quality, style, function, and fun.  They were so nice, I'm actually considering the women's boots for myself (yep, they've got those too).

You can learn more about Lume Footwear by visiting their website:  http://www.lumefootwear.com/

You can also follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and/or Pinterest.

Disclosure:  I received a sample product to help facilitate the review.  No other form of compensation took place and all opinions stated are my own.