The thought of flying alone with a baby or toddler can be fairly daunting.  I always worry how Baby Flyer is going to behave and if my fellow passengers are going to be understanding.  I’m always concerned that I’m going to be bothering them and they will cringe when they see they’re sitting next to a little one for the next three or more hours.  Basically, I’m hyper-aware of inconveniencing anyone.

Most of the time, passengers will smile and interact with Baby Flyer during boarding as they walk to their seat, and there will be one or two people near us that might show some interest in her periodically throughout the flight.  But for the majority of the flight, it’s me and her and, sometimes a kind Flight Attendant.  There’s always going to be the occasional seatmate that doesn’t say a word, but that could happen with or without a little one.

While this hasn’t always been the case, most of my experience traveling alone with a baby is that people are surprisingly friendly and offer to help whenever they can.  The people on our two flights back to LAX last Friday were exceptional!

It began with the person next to us in 3A saying during boarding, “Don’t worry about what happens.  I know how flying with a baby is.”  These simple words meant so much.  In all of our flights, I had never had this happen.  Yes, people have been understanding, but to say it outright at the beginning of the flight when a lot of people probably wanted to try and get some sleep meant so much.  We had an early morning flight, and boarding had started at 6am.  It was welcoming and comforting to know he understood.

Baby Flyer nursed during take off and surprisingly stayed awake for the first part of the flight.  She was active and curious, really wanting to get down and walk around but for the most part, I was able to distract her with toys and snacks at our seat.  At one point when she really wanted to get down, I tried to distract her with the camera on my phone (it’s not usually a go-to toy for us around the house) and that didn’t work to well…

Sometimes it’s just too early to smile for the camera.

She only fell asleep for the last hour and stayed asleep during landing and taxiing.  I opted to wait to eat until she took a nap since we’re at the stage where she wants to touch everything, I thought it would be fairly messy if I ate while she was awake.  After the meal service was done, the Flight Attendant stopped by and said to let him know at any point when I wanted to eat.  Again, simple act but normally when I ask to delay my meal, the Flight Attendants have seemed slightly annoyed.

We were in the bulkhead and I had taken my bag down after take off and hadn’t put it back up before she fell asleep on me.  This same Flight Attendant offered to zip it and put it up for me.  Simple gestures mean so much.

Once we landed, Baby Flyer was still sleeping but woke up right as it was time to get off the plane.  Since we were changing terminals, I took a few minutes to get organized and put Baby Flyer in our Ergo 360 Carrier.  The same friendly Flight Attendant saw that I needed to buckle the strap on my back (probably the only difficult part of putting this carrier on) and he came over and buckled it for me.  He was young and seemed really enthusiastic about his job.  I can’t say enough how much of a difference a friendly cabin crew can make in a day of traveling.

We lounge hopped, as they say, and spent our time in the American Express Centurion Lounge, and then AA Admirals Club.  Baby Flyer enjoyed the time to stretch her legs and move around.  She also had a few bites to eat.  We’ve discussed lounge memberships here before, but as Baby Flyer gets older we are finding them even more important with the amount we fly.  Having access to safe kids’ spaces, and free food and drinks, as well as generally better facilities for diaper and clothes changes goes a long way.  If you want to learn more about the best and most cost-effective way to access these spaces, you can read plenty about them at CruisingAltitude, CET’s other site, or get advice from our consulting site AltitudeConsulting as well.

A day of flying is all fun and games with a layover at the Admirals’ Club.

On our second flight, it felt like the whole cabin was playing and interacting with Baby Flyer.  She LOVED it!  I loved it too.  I stood for part of boarding with Baby Flyer facing out in the Ergo.  She was smiling, kicking her feet, yelling ‘hi!’, and doing her social laugh to everyone who passed by.  As a result, she was getting a lot of attention which she loved, and was setting the tone for the flight.  The man directly behind us kept commenting how Baby Flyer was the happiest baby he’d met…. and he had 6 kids and has 15 grandchildren!!  It’s hard to be nervous about flying on your own with a baby when you get a reception like that.

There were two men in aisle seats directly behind us who were smiling and playing peekaboo with Baby Flyer.  She was hamming it up for both of them!  It was pretty cute because neither man knew the other was doing it but both were getting big smiles.  The person next to us in 1B took a picture of Baby Flyer smiling and laughing at the beginning of the flight.  Not knowing he was doing it, I just went with it.  He later showed me a text with the photo he sent his teenage daughter who says he’s not funny anymore, that said “See, someone still thinks I’m funny!”

Baby Flyer again nursed during take off and stayed awake for the first part of the flight.  She amazingly didn’t want to get down and walk, but was content playing and snacking.  She would periodically stand up and peek over the seats at her new friends.  Sure enough, they were playing back.  One man would play peekaboo with her over the seats and down the aisle.  I appreciated the extra help with entertaining her and thanked him after the flight.  He said he enjoyed it too.  The woman across the aisle from us would occasionally reach her hand out and then take it back and Madeline would try and reach for it, which was entertaining for a couple minutes.

The Flight Attendant was amazing on this flight as well.  I asked to eat later when she was sleeping and he completely understood.  He kept checking to see if I needed anything and if I was ready to eat.  Once she finally fell asleep towards the end, he asked if I was ready and brought the tray over.  Since while holding her I can’t take out the whole tray, I asked for the main entree and served it on the mini tray they usually use for drinks and nuts.  It worked quite well.

As a bonus, while Baby Flyer napped, I was able to finish the movie, Bridget Jones’s Baby that I started on our way to Massachusetts.  I thought it was cute and entertaining, especially since I enjoy a good chick flick mid-flight.

Since Baby Flyer was sleeping at the end of the flight, I had help again putting my bag up.  (A note on seat selection here- Lately I’ve been choosing bulkhead seats to give a little more space in front of me to stand during boarding, or to let Baby Flyer stand during the flight in front of me.  It’s nice, but it does mean you have to put even small bags in the overhead for takeoff and landing.)  This time it was from the woman across the aisle from us.  Once we landed, it felt like multiple people were asking if I needed any help putting on the Ergo or getting my bags down from the overhead bin.  Everyone was SO friendly!

I’ve never experienced flights like these where so many people were so kind.  Don’t get me wrong- we’ve met plenty of nice people over our years of flying, both with and without Baby Flyer, but this day really stood out.  I surprisingly felt refreshed when we got to LAX after waking up at 3:15 and flying across the country with an almost 14 month old.  I really felt the effect of the kindness of others.

I guess in the end, experiences like this are reminders that even small acts of kindness or helpfulness can go a long way to improving someone else’s day.  It’s something I hope to keep in mind as often as possible.

Safe travels & kind wishes,

-CAR