[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a three-part series about airline travel. Part 1 was about breastpumps and the TSA and Part 2 was about Delta's poor customer service. ]
Summer and spring break are coming and, like other moms, the GeekMoms are contemplating vacations and all the logistics inherent in planning a family trip. In my house, I'm the one who worries about getting to the airplane on time, about any stops that need to be made, if we have enough food and entertainment for the day's travel, and even about bathroom breaks.
It's airplane travel that keeps me up at night because so much of this is beyond my control and, if something goes wrong, my ability to mitigate the damage is limited. So with that in mind, I asked the other GeekMoms for advice on plane travel with children.
From Jessamyn:
* If you are delayed by an hour or more, and it is the airline's fault (NOT weather), you can demand food vouchers. A lot of gate agents will pretend they don't know what you're talking about, but if you go find the real customer service desk they'll give it to you.
* The minimum time airlines can book your connection for is 30 minutes. In some airports (Atlanta and JFK) you are screwed. You have no hope.
* Airlines have a complicated algorithm for deciding who gets that last empty seat, but it always privileges those who have elite status. The leisure traveler is screwed. If you are desperate, your best bet is actually to turn to the waiting crowd and shout out "I have a sick child (or whatever), is there anyone who will give up a seat for me?"
* Airlines will not rearrange passengers who have already boarded to let you sit next to your kid, even if that kid is very small. If you are not seated together, you need to address that hopefully more than 24 hours before departure, and then at the check-in gate, and then at the boarding gate.
* Some airports have playgrounds (Dallas Fort Worth for one) which you can seek out for long layovers.
* If you send your kid as an unaccompanied minor and they miss a connection that causes them to stay overnight, they will put your kid in a hotel room with an airline employee of the same sex. Fine for girls, but boys are most at risk of sexual assault molestation by other males, and when they are under the age of 12.
* There are always blankets, bottled water, and real food snacks in first class. If your kid is having a meltdown, you can ask for these things.
* TSA is never allowed to separate you from your kids and you should make a huge stink if they so much as try to move your kid out of your line of sight. Send your kids through first. If you go through first, and you get selected for "enhanced" screening, they'll automatically do the extra screening on anyone else in your party who is not already through.
* Your panty liner or menstrual pad is enough to get you a pat-down b/c it shows as an anomaly on the bodyscan. May as well just start with the pat-down and save the time and effort.
* You will be offered a private screening for the pat-down, but don't do it. Better to have witnesses and to have it take place where there are video cameras. If you leave that area, it's just your word against the agent's.
From Andrea:
Lessons from a TSA screening that was going very, very slowly:
*We arrived at the airport an hour before our Delta flight was set to leave, so I wasn't overly concerned when we hit a giant inspection line. However, in the line, mixed in with our flight to New York were also two other flights set to leave before ours.
There was one agent set up to inspect the IDs and he was flanked by one guard with a handgun. The agent was literally spending three minutes on each person's ID, holding it up in the air, holding it next to the customer's face, leafing repeatedly through each person's paperwork..
In between this, he'd look up at the line and if the next person was too close to the little gate we were supposed to stand behind, the agent would bark YOU! STAND BACK and then start his whole examination process all over from the beginning with the person standing in front of him. The line was starting to hum with unhappiness as people were starting to think they were going to miss their flight. One gentleman asked why the guard couldn't also check ID's and was told "Her job is to watch you and protect me, not to look at IDs." Another man on line said, "I'd like to speak with a manager about this," and was told, "You'll have to wait until you are up here to make your request."
When that guy got to the front of the line, again, politely but firmly, he asked to speak with a manager. He was told, "Well, now it's going to take a couple of minutes to find a manager--are you willing to possibly miss your flight?" The passenger just said, "Please find me a manager."
A couple of minutes later, the manager arrives. The customer says, "You've got to put more agents here checking IDs or most of these people in line are going to miss their flight."
Literally 30 seconds later, there were four people checking IDs.
The lesson I draw from this is if there's a problem with the security screening, be prepared to politely but firmly ask for a manager. Most agents are competent but there are some who aren't.
From Laura Grace Weldon:
Rick Stevens has a travel podcast on NPRthat I recommend and, in particular, one with Johhny Jet. Also check outSeat Guru.
My biggest air travel nightmare? I took a group of teens to Rhode Island to compete in a national science contest. (They came in second, got to tour the Hasbro plant and meet astronauts!) But our connecting flight home was cancelled due to bad weather. I spent 14 hours with them in a severely crowded airport terminal.
We were saved by duct tape they'd packed in their carry-ons. The boys used it to make creations out of cardboard. Plus each one strolled around with sporks taped to their fingers, acting as if their hands weren't monsterish. They still remember it as fun.
From Lissa on teens traveling alone:
When my 16-year-old flew alone from San Diego to Virginia last summer, I made sure to book her layover in a city where we had friends who were available on those days in case anything went wrong with her connecting flight. GOOD THING. Sure enough, her first flight was delayed and she missed her connection. They couldn't get her out on anything else that day--she had to stay overnight in Dallas. My friends came to the rescue, picked her up, gave her dinner and a bed, got her back to the airport at 6:30 the next morning. My heroes.
From Kay Moore on college students being caught unprepared:
My daughter is in school in upstate New York and flying diagonally across the country so many times a year is a real challenge. The first time she was delayed overnight in Newark (a United hub), she used the hotel alarm clock and didn't wake up in time to catch her 7 am flight. She'd never been in a hotel room on her own before and made the choice to do that rather than use the wake- up service or her cell phone alarm.
So when you choose schools for your kids, the travel times/routes/expenses/frequencies are a big issue. Especially make sure there is someone nearby to serve as an emergency backup, because it may take you time to get there, even in an emergency.
I recently learned that she doesn't like to be routed through Chicago, because flying from Rochester, you always have to take buses to get to the transfer terminal from the teeny arrival terminal. So, no more Chicago connections.
