Psychotomy

First day of the trip was travel. As in we left our place ~7:30 in the morning to go to my parents, shuttle to the airport, plane to jfk, flight to india, arriving ~4 the following afternoon. Short trip ;)

Flight from DCA to JFK was a small puddle-jumper commuter flight. TINY overheads, so we had to check the spare suitcase at the gate because it wouldn’t fit as carry-on. No problem, still had my duffle and kiir’s backpack, and it was only 45 minutes in the air.

Checking in for the Air India flight there was some confusion because they wanted to label EVERY bag as carry-on or checked. The car-seat is, technically, neither. That lady finally just threw up her hands, labelled it as carry on, and said we’d have to deal with it later. Which worked since it was now labelled the check-in counter had no issues with it.

But when we went to get on the flight, we four got separated by the process, so I’ve got DK and the carseat with my duffle sitting in the carseat. as we approach the causeway, they have people gate-checking items, since the plane is 100% booked they need the space. Kiir ended up checking the suitcase again, after we grabbed a few things out. In the meantime, however, I have some Air India guy telling me I have to check the bag.

It’s his carseat.
You have to check it.
But it’s his SEAT.
No, you have to check it, it’s too big.
But it isn’t a carry-on bag! FAA regulations say that an infant/toddler can have their carseat in their plane seat for protection.
No.

By now he’s getting pissed with me for not doing what he said, I’m losing my temper which I know isn’t going to help, so I yelled for kiir. Guy throws up his hands and I go to kiir to talk to the guy she was talking to, since he seemed more competent anyway. Kiir starts with him …

It’s his carseat
We have carseats
On the plane?
Yes, you have to check it

Well, hell, if the first guy had TOLD ME that they HAD carseats, THAT’s in the FAA docs as a possibility and that the airline can deny our carseat in that instance. Fine, great, happy now we handed it over to check and boarded.

When we asked the stewardess, she gave us a blank look. Danger, Will Robinson! After some more discussion, during which my dad joined us, it was established that (a) “carseat”, in india, is a basket. Basically a bassinet for laying the baby down. Uh. Not what we had. This is why we were trying to SHOW people what was in the case! Oh, and (b) we’re not in a seat that can have that carseat, even if it WAS acceptable to us.

I rushed back to try to get the carseat from the checking area, but the guard at the door of the plane told me that it was not permitted that I leave the plane after boarding it. Even though I still had my boarding pass (and my passport for ID). I wasn’t sure which way she was leaning with the stilted explanation. Either I wouldn’t be allowed to re-board, or I’d be arrested. I decided that neither was conducive to this exercise and tromped back to our seats

My dad then spent twenty minutes working his way up the chain of importance, with me tagging along uselessly but feeling like I should be there since it’s my son and my carseat :o In the end we had to get approval from the CAPTAIN to use it, after ASSURING multiple copilots and such that it was SECURE. Actually, the only reason we got that far was because my dad raised a stink about the fact that he paid for a FULL seat, FULL PRICE, not a discounted infant seat or anything, and if he’d wanted to hold the baby on our laps the entire flight he wouldn’t have bought a WHOLE SEAT for him.

Eventually they sent someone down to the tarmac to grab it for us since it hadn’t gone into the plane yet, and we got to set it up. Oi.

Apparently if anyone had asked me I could have also reassured them that the seat secures down using the airline’s seat belt. That made them feel even better when we showed them :o

We established that on the return flight we needed to make sure to mention that it was a full seat at full price, and that we probably shouldn’t call it a “car seat” but a “child safety restraint system” or something similiar. Which was in the FAA brochure, but I hadn’t really read it figuring that Kiir was there and had these answers, and it’s not like it was going to be that much of a shock to them to see a carseat. Americans have to use them semi-often, right?

Or, you know, NOT. AFAICT we were the only people to ever think of using a carseat on an Air India flight :o

OTOH, on the flight back two weeks later, we never heard a peep about it. I swear, that is a LOT of high-intensity training :o

Posted in: DK, India by attriel /