Traveling with younger children.

Traveling with younger children.

I was an international flight attendant before I had children, so I thought I had all the knowledge I needed to travel with children.  Knowing and doing are two different things. I made many mistakes along the way, and it has been a long time since I’ve traveled with children.  Here are my five tips to help young mothers on the journey.

1. Traveling with pre-made infant formula or breast milk is allowed through TSA.  Inform them in advance that you have liquids for your baby so that you will be processed accordingly.  Not every TSA station, even at the same airport, treats everyone the same or seems to have the same policies at times. Using clear containers for your baby’s feeding is recommended, and having just enough feedings for travel time plush a small extra is usually enough.

2. Airplanes are always equipped with babies and children in mind. Some even have special-size life jackets or supplies and activities designed for children in mind.  What is common, however, is a bathroom equipped with a drop-down changing table for babies.  Use it and not the seat. It’s unhygienic and inconsiderate to your fellow passengers.  Also, don’t hand the dirty diaper to your flight attendant. Use those airsick bags provided and dispose of them in the restroom.

3. Children have different preferences for their feedings.  If your child prefers warm bottles, make it hot before you leave, wrap it in aluminum foil and towels, and place it between diapers.  It will not stay warm forever, but it should last a shorter, distanced flight.  Towels can serve as double duty for cleanup, and you can never run out of diapers.

4. Try to arrive at the airport with time to get through security without the stress of possibly missing your flight.  Give yourself time for the realities of traveling with children and the extra security you may encounter.

5. Traveling with infants allows you a few privileges such as early boarding and gate-checking your stroller.  Use the stroller to get through the airport and to your gate.  Once there, you should check your stroller, so it is not another piece of luggage you need to worry about.  You will not need it in flight, and in most cases, it can be delivered to you when you get off the plane.

Traveling with children is indeed a stressful experience.  However, there are so many ways to make it less so and a pleasant experience.  Have you traveled with children? Do you have any suggestions? I’d like to hear.

Air Travel Realities.

Air Travel Realities.

Airplanes take several trips a day, carrying hundreds of different passengers to a multitude of destinations. As a passenger, you are but one of the hundreds who travel in the lifespan of that airplane. Whether you are a world traveler or not, here are five things constant in air travel.

Leave your shoes on when flying on an airplane. Chances are you are sitting in a seat that many have sat in before you. There’s a strong possibility the person who sat before you may have spilled their drink at best, or at worst the contents of their stomach. It has been my experience that there is no deep cleaning of airplane carpets between trips, so please keep this in mind.

  1. If you take an opportunity to visit a lavatory while on the airplane, you will most definitely want to keep your shoes on. The liquid you see on the floor, while most assume is water, is most definitely not.
  2. Having your child or toddler crawl up and down the aisle or on the floor of an airplane is at worst unsanitary, not to mention unsafe. Not every passenger is child friendly or aware, and the likelihood of your child inadvertently becoming hurt or sick is more common than you realize.
  3. Secure your items, especially the smaller objects. Items roll backward on takeoff and forward on landing. Things such as wallets, mobile phones, earbuds, or eyeglasses often go missing during these takeoffs and landings. The seatbelt sign will be on during takeoffs and landings, and you cannot search the airplane for your lost item. It is often left to the goodwill of your fellow passengers to return said items to you.
  4. You should not only secure your small items but your valuable ones as well. The person sitting next to you is someone you perhaps have never met and probably will not see again. Trusting them to leave your purse in their care when you step away from your seat is a risk in itself. Flight attendants take on many roles but policing and investigating is not one of them.

Having flown thousands of trips over my flight attendant career, these are but a few of the circumstances I have encountered from a first-hand perspective. Are they any others you have experienced? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Staycation tips.

Staycation tips.

Being a frequent traveler, COVID left me mentally exhausted.  I was living on an island state and Singapore, took the lockdown seriously.  The missed travel opportunities left me consumed with lockdown exhaustion, so when Singapore came up with the idea of a staycation, I was immediately on board.  Here are my five tips for making your staycation a pleasure.

1. A big bed! You’ll be spending plenty of time in bed so enjoy the pleasure of a nice large bed. The hotel will make your bed every day, and you’ll feel pampered sleeping in a freshly made bed during your stay.

2. A room with a view.  Staying in is part and parcel of the staycation so try to have a room with a view.  The higher the floor of the hotel, the more you will enjoy the view. Some hotels limit guests at the pool, gym, restaurants, and most public spaces in the hotel. While I understood this safety measure, it can restrict your hotel’s enjoyment, so having a nice view can make a big difference.

3. In-room service.  Dining out can be a big part of your travel plans, and dining in during a staycation was a guilt-free pleasure.  Even if it’s one meal a day, it can make your stay feel more like a travel experience and a way to pamper yourself.

4. A bathtub.  A bubble bath can be another indulging experience.  You will want to soak in the tub as long as you desire, so first, make sure the tub is clean.  Since you’re on a staycation, taking liquids such as bathtub cleaner with you only makes sense. Take your favorite bath oils, scents, or even floral petals like roses. The best part is you don’t have to clean the tub!

5. A night out.  Even though all restaurants are not open, some will be.  Make a reservation well in advance at a restaurant you’ve always wanted to try.  I was pleasantly surprised to get a reservation at a Michelin star restaurant that previously had a six-month waiting list. There was plenty of social distancing at the restaurant. I just told the chef my preference, let him do the cooking and deciding. It was indeed a dining-by-design experience.

Have you taken a staycation? It is well worth the splurge and can maybe relieve your travel angst.  Not to mention no airline tickets! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

2021 Travel resolutions

2021 Travel resolutions

It’s a new year and time for travel resolutions. Due to COVID 19 and its impact on travel, many could not realize their 2020 travel resolutions. We’re still dealing with the COVID virus, and its implications for future travel is uncertain. If we keep this in mind when making our 2021 resolutions, we may fulfill many more of our travel hopes and dreams.

Travelers should decide if they want to travel internationally or domestically. With the COVID virus and its global impact, there is much to consider when traveling. Different countries have special restrictions based on where you are traveling from or where you have traveled previously. Traveling domestically also has parallel realities, with individual US states having unique requirements for entry or stay within the state.

Travel does not need to be expensive or exotic, nor does it have to be long-distance. Consider a staycation, where you check into a hotel and explore your city from a tourist point of view. It’s always eye-opening to see the many valuable travel ideas that are within our reach without the hassle of long-distance travel.

At the end of 2021, you should be able to measure your travel hopes and dreams to your travel realities. Before COVID 19, I would have advised focusing on a specific destination. I believe focusing on a singular goal keeps you motivated to one particular intent, and there is less chance of being tempted to switch travel ambitions. However, in today’s COVID climate, when you focus on a specific destination, your travel may not come to reality due to a particular country’s restrictions.

For 2021, let us decide to travel, regardless of the destination. Traveling has so much to offer, and if we keep an open mind about our travel plans, I believe we can accomplish so much more.

5 Flight attendant annoyances

5 Flight attendant annoyances

There are many things that flight attendants find annoying. Some are more annoying than others, and some may not be an annoyance based on the individual flight attendant. The following are some that I still remember as being annoying to me. For disclosure, these are from my lived experience as a flight attendant.

1.Coffee: Having been raised and based in New York as a flight attendant, if a passenger said, “regular coffee,” I understood it to mean coffee with milk and sugar. If they said, “light and sweet,” I like most flight attendants had no idea how light to make the coffee or how many sugar packets the passenger needed. Some passengers meant just a drop of milk, and others wanted half milk, half coffee. Deciding how many packs of sugar meant sweet to a person you’d never met was a pointless guess at best. Like passengers, flight attendants are people from all over the country and the world; knowing each passenger’s specific coffee requirements was most times an exercise in futility.

2.Aisle Passengers. Most passengers prefer aisle seats because of the ability to have a little extra room. This preference was often a perception that overlooked the fact that the aisle they assumed to be extra space was the flight attendant’s working space. Airline service carts could be a hundred pounds or more and somewhat challenging to maneuver. Weighted down with beverages or food to serve the number of people on board, often proved a challenge for a flight attendant to operate. Aisle passengers often extended their body parts into the aisle, and it was not uncommon for the cart to inadvertently hit a passenger. In many cases, the passenger got angry at the flight attendant without considering that the service cart was at least 3 feet long and even higher. Hence, the flight attendant seeing over the cart, and the extended body part was unreasonable at best.

3.Touching. Passengers often think it is ok to touch or poke a flight attendant to get their attention, which is often very annoying to flight attendants. A flight attendant call light is within every passenger’s reaching distance, and using this is much preferable than to be poked. Moreover, a hand wave or similar gesture is universal regardless of language. Having your body nudged several times a flight could be rather annoying.

4.Lavatory doors. They are not automatic, and standing in front of them will not make them open. Often passengers would stand in the lavatory area waiting for flight attendant instructions on how to open the door or be told whether it was vacant or not. Bathroom doors, like every other bathroom door elsewhere, has a lock. Unlike most bathrooms, airplane bathrooms have instructions, and most often, if not in the native language, there is visual signage. Along with signage, airline lavatories also have an occupied/unoccupied sign, which in most cases are red and green and are universally understood to mean the same everywhere. To be seen as a bathroom attendant is very frustrating to flight attendants.

5.Asking “where are we?” Flight attendants walk up and down the aisle, usually positioned several feet above the window level. Furthermore, like most passengers, they cannot pinpoint locations 30,000 feet above the ground. Yes, several landmarks are apparent to some, but flight attendants do not have the luxury of sitting and looking out the window on flights, nor do they have an inner GPS. Your guess is as good as theirs.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse behind the scenes. These are perceptions of my lived and actual experience as a flight attendant. I hope they’ve been eye-opening and will make for more happy travels.

Travel Value

Travel Value

Determining what you value most is an essential part of ensuring you make the right travel decisions. When planning a trip, airfare, accommodations, sightseeing, and travel budget are a few aspects that more experienced travelers think about carefully.

If travel time is not something you place a high value on and you want to get to a destination and don’t care when you get there or how long it will take you to get there, there may be many budget-friendly flight options to consider. Often flights are cheaper if you leave at an undesirable time of the day and could mean unwanted early morning flights that most people don’t choose. It could also be that you don’t mind making an extra stop or two to get to your destination. This option might take you several hours to get to your destination rather than a few hours with a direct flight, but this is an option if you value budget over time.

When the most crucial thing to travelers is not the hotel room but the destination, hotel considerations don’t have a very high value. Therefore, less expensive hotel considerations might be a good option if you give less importance to your stay. If you plan a travel itinerary that takes up most of your days with only time at the hotel for sleeping, you most likely won’t place a high value on the hotel. For others who place more value in their stay, they might find it more worthwhile to stay in the city center or close to attractions that might lead to a costlier hotel. For some, the hotel is a big part of the trip, and they would rather be at a hotel that fits that importance.

Other travelers might find more worth in sightseeing and what the destination has to offer. Activities like visiting World UNESCO sites and destination tours may be the most critical part of their trip. This might entail guided or private tours as something they value more. Other times travelers like to blend with the locals; renting transportation and just going with local suggestions might be an okay way of seeing the destination.

Your travel budget will be affected by many factors, such as costs and affordability. It is essential to consider what you most value in the travel experience. Knowing what you love most will help guide your budgeting decisions and give you more pleasure in your travel experience.

What do you value most when you travel? I’d love to find out what and why.