Troubled from the tarmac

Shannon and I recently flew to FL with our two boys, Elijah 2 yrs. old, and Evan, 4 months old. Our departing flight was at 6:40AM. We flew with an airline that reminds us that “You are now free to move about the country!”. I have flown more with this airline than any other, the past 10 years, I fly at least 2-3 times a year with these folks. In college, I loved that I could fly for under $200 bucks, and a lot of times under $100 round trip to places like Tampa. I loved that the exit rows used to have facing seats, and barring a full flight, my 6 foot 4 inch frame could stretch out. I loved that I didn’t have to be assigned to a seat, but that I could choose. I also loved the cities that this particular airline flew to. I have lived either in the city, or within an hour or so from a city that connected me with this airline. One could argue that my wife and I would have never gotten betrothed with out the help of this airline.

My beef. You don’t pre-board families with small children ANYMORE! To my knowledge, most major airlines still allow you to pre-board if you have kids. There is now this imaginary opportunity to board between the ‘A’ group and the ‘B’ group that we are now entitled to. How does that help?

You might think, why don’t you just go online and print out your boarding pass so you can be a part of the ‘A’ group. You can’t when you have a child ticket, it won’t let you.

I am sure that a majority of passengers on this airline would benefit from families pre-boarding, because it gives us an opportunity to get settled with our kids, their diaper bags, car seats, and what not. If you stake out all the 3 seaters for you and your precious laptops, then I am going to sit my screaming kid right behind you, for you to enjoy!

If you ever fly with these folks, and you share in my beef, then please express my pre-boarding woes.