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Family Air Travel Stories: Even Young Kids Develop Brand Loyalty
By MudslideMama | February 10, 2008
My family spent a summer week in New York City, notable mostly for its daily downpours, alternating with scattered showers and incredible humidity. Needless to say, my family was looking forward to returning home to dry, humidity-free Los Angeles. Due to some travel planning snafus, we were round-trip passengers of Jet Blue for the first time. Jet Blue has a lot going for it, but its egalitarian layout may leave the luxury travel lover feeling a bit adrift.
My family typically flies American Airlines, as that’s where our frequent flyer miles are, and we manage, occasionally, to use these miles to get upgraded to business class. Ah, the luxury of flying cross-country in the business-class section! Forget the comfy seats which fully recline, forget being served a real meal with real cutlery; my older kid’s favorite part about flying business class on American Airlines, is the heated mixed nuts served by flight attendants at the beginning of the flight. She loves picking through both her and my bowl for her favorites, and is as hopeful as the title character in “Oliver” that she’ll get some more.
This fact occurred to her as we waited to board the Jet Blue airplane for our trip home. Jet Blue has very friendly flight attendants, but they sure don’t serve heated mixed nuts. The lack of prepared meals and pampering is one money-saving aspect of Jet Blue that helps keep their costs down, and this is reflected in their much less expensive tickets (we saved nearly a thousand dollars by choosing Jet Blue for this last-minute trip). But in the waiting area of JFK, my charming eldest realized the loss of business class amenities would continue as they had on our Jet Blue flight to NYC. I watched her freeze, momentarily and in mid-step, as this realization hit her with full force.
The only thing for a kid to do when facing such adversity, apparently, is to chant. And so
she did: “Warm nuts! Warm nuts! Warm nuts!” …This, repeated loudly in the hopes of inciting the crowd a la “Attica” in Dog Day Afternoon. Well. Al Pacino she’s not, and the crowd of travelers remained un-incited. I, however, was deeply embarrassed; I hushed her as quickly as I could, and bustled her through the security line. We couldn’t board fast enough!
Topics: Budget Travel, Family Travel, Flying High, Luxury Travel |
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Thank you for the link, Seafarer! Glad you liked my humiliation.
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