This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Booked a last minute trip to LAS, only booked 4 day prior. There was some M to G availability during the quick planning stage, however after a night of dithering, these dropped to 1 so no good for my our party of three (+wife and baby daughter).
So decided on one fare paying Economy (for tier points) and a reward flight for wife. This was a new type of trip for us spending time in LAS as normal but also driving to San Diego and Palm Springs for part of the trip.
Checked in around 6.30am, nice and early. Smooth check in, though we were in the rear bulk head seats which was not ideal.
Went to the clubhouse. After our baby daughters last flight which she was a real handful on the way home, this time we tried the different approach of tiring her out as much as possible before boarding, and also purchasing some new toys for her. After breakfast, we moved to a quiet area near the kids play area and sat there playing, crawling around.
Time in the Clubhouse flew by, had the amazing burger with the horse radish sauce. Staff here were just great with the baby, keeping her entertained and spoiling here, and this makes a real difference.
Boarded at about 10.50am. Flight was pretty full. Two passengers came on board to sit to the two seats to our right, who seemed very dismayed at where there seat was - didn't seem to be our baby which caused this who was remaining very quiet. I think it was because their party was split. They spent next ten minutes eying up alternate seats and trying to persuade crew to move. Eventually they moved to two spare exit seats in front to our right. These two seats next to us were taken by two young children from a split family.
Flight took off on time. After drink lunch was served which was beef chille con carni - not bad. As usual lunch is always a challenge with an infant on your lap. We actually had the idea of putting her on the floor in front of us with a blanket underneath her, which worked well for quite a while and she was quite content. However one crew member said she couldn't be on the floor so back to our lap she came. We were fortunate to have a bulk head seat as another baby was in a normal seat to our left, again in a split family which seemed to prove a challenge. I did score food and drink down as they forgot to load the baby meal so we had to make do with what we brought on, and also a yoghurt and banana the crew kindly scrambled together.
Flight fairly smooth and non eventful Crew not as great with baby as normal, having to chase for seat belt, and taking ages and 2 crew to find out what happened to the baby meal. As usual with infant, my wife and I were not able to relax too much or watch the entertainment system. Baby did sleep for around 2 hours which was great and our trick in tiring her our pre flight seemed to work well - she was very quiet and easy manageable thru the flight. Went the best we could have hoped for.
Landed slightly early which was great. We have flown to Vegas over 20 times and this was by far the bumpiest landing. Seemed to come in rather fast and landing caused a real bang, in fact some of the overhead ceiling (where the air con and lights are) came down at which time a crew member had to come with some yellow/black tape to tape back up to await repair.
Fairly swift thru airport security and baggage, our buggy as normal arriving fairly swiftly thru the door on the jetty.
Onto Vegas for two nights before driving off to San Diego.
