You see a friend’s travel photos pop up on social media and start to feel jealous. It happens. Don’t be fooled though, nothing is quite as easy as it looks in those curated snapshots. A lot of folks like to make travel seem relaxing, but real travel is gritty. Still, that shouldn’t keep you from doing something like flying to Europe with your baby.
In August 2019, we took our then six-month-old baby on her first trip across the Atlantic. I’ve discussed the overall trip in another post. Here I’ll focus on the not-so stress-free adventure surrounding our flights to and from Europe. Read on for a real life perspective on what its like flying to Europe with a baby.
Booking the Trip
I booked our flight to Belgium six months in advance using points from the United MileagePlus program. This was our first time flying to Europe with a baby, so the goal was to get to and from Europe with a single layover and minimal travel time in each direction. Because I wanted to limit the number of miles used, the best option I could find involved a 3.5 hour layover in Chicago. Not ideal with a six-month-old baby, but sometimes you have to play the cards you’re dealt.
Then, a few months before the trip, I got a notice about a schedule change. Our layover in Chicago was going to jump from 3.5 to 5 hours. At first glance, that might seem like bad news. It’s not. I researched alternative routes, and then called the airline to change to a flight that routed through New York with a mere 90-minute layover. The New York routing would have cost significantly more miles, which is why I didn’t book it in the first place. Because the airline changed the flight we were originally booked on, I was now able to swap routes for free. Good job, Tye.
Flying to Europe with a Baby
Fast forward to August 10th, departure day. We were scheduled to fly out of Nashville at 1:40 PM. It was a pretty ideal schedule, since it gave us the entire morning to be around the house and prepare for the trip. Plus, the big transatlantic flight would lift off shortly before baby E’s usual bedtime that evening. Everything was going great, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t.
Last Minute Itinerary Change
At 10:36 AM, half an hour before we were set to order an Uber, I received a text from United. Due to a delay earlier in the day, our flight from Nashville to New York was being pushed back by 50 minutes. Suddenly that 90-minute layover that I’d arranged for us in New York didn’t look so hot. Our last trip to Europe had involved a delay that resulted in us missing our connecting flight. In that case it cost us a lot of stress, an unexpected layover in Amsterdam, and an extra eight hours to get to our destination. There was no baby at that point. I did NOT want to repeat that with a baby.
I checked online and saw that a different routing via Washington DC would get us to Brussels at about the same time. The flight between Nashville and DC was running on time. I called United and spent a stressful half hour on hold. Eventually I was able to make the change (free of charge once again.) The DC flight was scheduled to depart half an hour before the New York flight, so it was time to rush to the airport. I was a bit frazzled at this point and left my water bottle in the Uber. At least we remembered all the important stuff…like the baby.
Back on Track with a Seat Upgrade
Everything went smoothly with the first flight. When we got to DC, we approached the gate and told the agent that we’d reserved a bassinet for our flight out of New York but that we’d needed to make a last-minute change due to a flight delay. Could we get a last-minute bassinet for this flight? To be perfectly honest, I had requested a bassinet for the other flight, but it hadn’t been clear whether that request was going to be honored. Five minutes of keyboard action later, and the gate agent issued us new tickets, for the bulkhead in premium economy. Score. We were going to fly to Europe with this baby in relative comfort.
There was a Priority Pass member restaurant just down from our gate, so we popped in to get some free salads and waters. We have access to a Priority Pass through my Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, but most of the more premium cards offer some form of Priority Pass membership. With a healthy dinner in hand, we headed back to the gate.
Flying Across the Atlantic…or not
We boarded the plane early and headed to our nice premium seats. We were seated in the middle of a row which was four across, so there were strangers on either side. I feel it’s important to make friends with the people around you when traveling with a baby…since at some point there will be screaming. My seat neighbor seemed like a cool guy. He was on his way to the Ukraine to audit some USAID-funded programs and not the least bit perturbed to be seated next to a baby. Everything was looking good as we pushed away from the gate. We were about to be flying to Europe with this baby, and then all of a sudden we weren’t.
A Mechanical Delay
We sat on the tarmac for twenty minutes before the captain came on the speaker. There was a minor mechanical issue which needed to be checked out. It would just be a few minutes. Fifteen minutes later we were moved back to the gate, and ten minutes after that passengers were given the option to disembark. In my experience, that has never been a good sign. If the airline expects to make a quick repair then they keep folks on the plane.
I had burned through all of my “keep cool” reserves that morning with the previous flight issue and was running on pure stress with none of the adrenaline at this point. I like to keep moving when nervous, so I wandered up and down the aisle with E. She made friends with the other passengers, most of whom were smelly Dutch scouts on their way home from an international scout jamboree. I confirmed with one of the flight attendants that they were all starting a fresh shift, so at least we wouldn’t have to worry about a crew time-out any time soon. And then by some miracle, the passengers who had left the plane were instructed to get back on, and we were on our way for good.
Actually Flying Across the Atlantic
Shortly after we reached cruising altitude, a flight attendant came by and installed a hanging bassinet on the bulkhead wall. It’s not glamorous, but it is a godsend when you’re going to be on a plane with a baby for hours on end.
We put E down, and she more or less immediately started crying. Sarah was a nervous wreck at this point, so I sent her to hang out in the back of the plane with the flight attendants and the wine. Meanwhile, my new seatmate and I sat there silently staring at the bassinet. After five minutes E got quiet, but just as my seatmate and I were exchanging self-satisfied nods, she started up again. In the end it took another ten minutes or so before she conked out. And there we were, on a plane with extra legroom and a sleeping baby for hours and hours. The actual process of flying to Europe with a baby was almost easy.
Returning from Europe with a Baby
So we survived the process of flying to Europe with a baby. Skip ahead ten days and it was time to return to the US. After the stress of the trip there, we hoped for a nice routine trip home. That was not to be. In fact, it was more of a clusterf*ck than the outbound trip.
Getting an Uber to the Airport
Things started going wrong shortly after we hopped in the Uber on our way to the airport. Traffic was predicted to be light and both Google Maps and Uber told us it would take about 20 minutes to get there from our hotel. We grabbed a couple to-go espressos from the hotel lobby and made our way out to the curb to wait on our driver.
When I got in the Uber I attempted to make lighthearted small talk. Unfortunately our driver, a Syrian refugee, was not in the mood for lighthearted small talk. He felt discriminated against in Belgium, and he hated the weather. He wanted to talk to me about US politics. I did not want to talk about US politics, especially with a disgruntled Syrian refugee. At least the phones were saying it would be short drive. They were wrong.
Gridlock in Brussels
Apparently neither Google nor Uber is as reliable at picking up on traffic disruptions in Belgium as they are in the US. An on-ramp to the freeway was closed, and we found ourselves in gridlock. Despite the reality in front of us, the Uber app was still predicting a 20-minute commute. Every couple of minutes it simply adjusted our arrival time to be later and later. The driver mumbled that he hoped the next freeway ramp would be open or else we’d “be here all day.” I was starting to panic.
Then the car behind us hit our Uber. What the hell, Belgium! Thankfully, instead of waiting on the cops, our driver just hopped out of his car and screamed at the other driver for a bit. It added to the already high stress level in the car but not the commute time. We finally made it through the gridlock and onto the freeway.
A Smelly Rush to the Plane
It took us 45 minutes longer than planned to get to the airport. In the meantime, baby E had taken a massive poop that blew through the diaper and stained her pants brown. No time to change her, though, we were at risk of missing our flight.
At the check-in counter we were able to talk the clerk into waiving a baggage fee on E’s travel crib. We had to check more luggage on the way back because we were transporting a lot of beer. The clerk also upgraded us to Economy Plus (not bulkhead) with the promise of a floor bassinet. Then it was on to some lines for security and immigration. There were no bathrooms in sight. I was lugging most of the carry-ons while Sarah held a stinky baby with brown splotches bleeding through her pants.
Once we were finally clear of immigration, I ran to the gate to see if we could be further moved into a bulkhead seat, but no luck. Meanwhile, Sarah sought out a bathroom where she changed E but could not fit the stroller into a stall to use the restroom herself. She emerged, very frustrated. Boarding had begun.
A Smooth Flight to Chicago
We collapsed into our seats, already hot, sweaty and on edge. Sarah really wanted a bulkhead seat so we could use another hanging bassinet. We were again told that it would not be an option. She got into a bit of an argument with a flight attendant over the issue. I tried making jokes to diffuse the situation. We stayed in our assigned seats and accepted a bassinet which can sit on the floor.
The flight back to the US wasn’t quite as comfortable as flying to Europe with the baby. The floor bassinet took up the majority of our leg space, and the flight was during the day so it did not line up with E’s sleep schedule. At any rate, she took some naps and we were otherwise able to entertain her. There was very little crying and she made plenty of friends. We landed on time. We had a couple hours to kill before our connecting flight to Nashville, but we had access to multiple lounges in Chicago. It had been a long day, but we would be home and unpacking before dark. Everything was going to be ok…and then it wasn’t.
A Flight Cancellation in Chicago
We were waiting to disembark in Chicago when I looked at my phone and saw that United had sent me a text message at 1:05 PM. It seemed that “an earlier delay” was pushing our 3:41 PM flight home back to 4:15 PM. Oh well, a bit more time to sip whiskey in the American Airlines Admiral’s Club (which I was able to access through a credit card perk.)
At 1:53 PM, as I settled into my seat at the lounge, I received another text. The flight was now delayed until 4:49 PM. At this point I should have called United to see about changing to another flight, but I was tired and trying to be optimistic.
At 2:29 PM another text came in. The flight would be pushed back until 5:29 PM. Sarah was really starting to get stressed. I looked up other options, but this was still set to have us home quicker than any other flight. A bad storm had hit the Chicago area that morning, and flights were being delayed and canceled all over the place.
The Standby Shuffle
It happened, at 3:15 PM, about the time we were originally supposed to be boarding – a text came through to say that the flight was being canceled. United didn’t clarify, but I assume that the flight had been bumped so far back that the flight crew was going to time out. We managed the process of flying to Europe with the baby but could we manage the process of getting home from Chicago? I had to get us on another plane so we could get this over-tired baby and her frazzled parents to bed.
Naturally, by this time half of the airport was being rebooked. The next flight was scheduled to leave at 6:15 PM, but there was already a long standby list by the time I put our name in the hat. We were #14 & #15. The next flight that we could be confirmed on wasn’t leaving until 9:15 PM. I reserved seats for us on that flight in case the standby didn’t go in our favor.
At about 5:15 PM we left the comfort and free booze offered by the Admirals Club and trekked across the airport in the hopes of getting on the 6:15 PM flight. Fifteen minutes later, just as we got to the assigned gate, another text message came through. This flight was now delayed until 6:49 PM. We could have stayed at the lounge!
The Wait Continues
We had truly descended into hell. Rolling flight delays and the uncertainty that come with them are frustrating but manageable when you’re in a nice posh lounge. Now that we were in a chaotic terminal full of angry passengers, we found out that the plane, which we didn’t even have confirmed seats on, wouldn’t begin boarding for an hour. That is, unless it got delayed again. To keep calm and distract my now crazed daughter, I started pacing up and down the length of the terminal. For a moment I thought about using a couple one-day United Club passes that I got through a different credit card to get out of the chaos. Never mind, all the United Clubs in the terminal were at capacity. Of course they were.
At about 6:30 PM, around the time that we had expected to be pulling up to our house, they began to board the flight at gate B1. Sarah, E and I crowded around the gate with the other 30+ standby refugees. Once all the ticketed passengers were aboard they began to load in standbys. About this time I received a text to say that my confirmed 9:15 PM flight was being delayed until 9:35PM. So that was some crap.
They got to #12 on the standby list and stopped. The rest of us would be rolled over to the next flight, which was scheduled for 7:15 PM out of a gate about seven minutes away. I hadn’t put myself on the list for that flight, so I hadn’t received any updates, but if it was actually leaving as scheduled then the boarding would start any minute.
Finally Escaping Chicago
By this point, I was starting to come to grips with the fact that we’d very likely be spending the night in Chicago. The last time we were stranded in transit I was able to book a nice hotel and then get a refund from the travel insurance I receive with my Chase Sapphire Reserve Card. This time I’d foolishly paid for the taxes and fees with a United-branded card, so no fancy insurance.
It wasn’t time to book a hotel yet, though. We decided to fight it out as long as we could, so our little manic family made its way to the next gate, like a donkey chasing a carrot hung from a pole attached to its own back. We got to the gate and stood around eyeing the other passengers. The competition. If we did not make it on this plane, then we’d have another 2.5 hours to wait until the final flight of the night, and that flight had already been delayed once.
It turned out that, because so many ticketed passengers had missed their connection, the 7:15 PM flight was almost empty. Everyone on the standby list who showed up got on the flight. So did one random. The guy across from me wasn’t even heading to Nashville – apparently he just got confused and slipped on by accident. The flight crew failed to notice and neither did he until we taxied away from the gate. I didn’t think that happened in modern air travel, but there you have it.
In Conclusion
Travel isn’t glamorous. Don’t let the Instagram “influencers” fool you. It can really suck at times, particularly when your doing something like flying to Europe with a cranky baby in tow. Still, as the saying goes, those things that don’t kill you only make you stronger. We had a great adventure in Belgium and Luxembourg and I didn’t even need to miss an extra day of work like I did on our trip home from Puerto Rico earlier in the year. In the end, we got home well after dark, but we were home! It was time to plan the next adventure.