Kudos to Baby Naomi for her first flight and her lovely parents for being so gracious on my Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta.
Baby Naomi Was A Perfect Passenger In Delta One
Toward the end of the boarding for my A350-900 flight from LAX-ATL, a young family boarded: a husband, wife, and cute baby girl who appeared to be about 3-4 months year old. They took their seats in the center bulkhead section of the Delta One business class cabin in row one.
As the father of two young children who both began intercontinental air travel shortly after birth, I was not at all concerned. Plus, fairly well-rested and it was a daytime flight, so even if the baby was horrible I’d just drown out her cries with my noise-cancelling headphones.
After settling in, the mother stood up with a bag and went around to each passengers in the cabin, handing them a sealed package with candy and a note:
Hello, my name is Naomi. This is my first flight!
I am traveling to meet my family in Jamaica for the first time. My mom made this small gift for you just in case I have a hard time adjusting to the cabin pressure. I hope you like it!
Safe travels.
– Naomi
Very sweet…and having your first flight on a Delta A350 in business class is also kind of special.
Turns out the preemptory apology was totally unnecessary: she never made a peep during the flight.
I could see fear in the eyes of the mother and father…the same fear I experienced when I took my kids on their flight flights, which also was in business class (Augustine on United from LAX-LHR, Claire Marie on Lufthansa from LAX-FRA). As a parent, you want to do right and not disturb others, but you also know that flying in a premium cabin with a baby is such a better experience than flying in the back.
I really wanted to get a picture of the three of them after the flight, but unfortunately our flight was delayed upon arrival and I had a very tight connection in Atlanta…
CONCLUSION
What a very special first flight and Namoi was just an angel in the air…we never heard a peep from her. Kudos to her conscientious parents and I hope she had a very lovely time in Jamaica!
Do you think these little care packages for seatmates is necessary when traveling with babies?
What a great story and thanks for sharing it, Matthew. As airline blogs get more hysterical (we know the ones) – relying on questionable sources of information (we know the ones) – it’s so refreshing to read something positive that speaks to civility and kindness … rather than focusing on a bunch of Karens punching eachothers’ lights out. Kudos, Matthew. This made my day!
What did the baby order from the menu?
Milk…
It may easily be overlooked, but good genes inherited from one’s family and a good upbringing received within it always constitute a person’s greatest assets on the challenging journey of life.
“Do you think these little care packages for seatmates is necessary when traveling with babies?”
Maybe pass out earplugs?
Code for ….. “..here’s a bag of candy so you don’t complain or get annoyed about my crying baby….”
Why would anyone think a bag of candy is going to stop people (hopefully silently to themselves) from being annoyed or able to tune out a crying baby? I have been on flights with a child or baby incessantly crying, screaming, etc., and although I would not say anything because of empathy for the parent and other passengers, I would hardly think that bag of candy/ gummies or whatever is going to assuage me or tune out the noise we are hearing.
Perhaps these apparently fine people didn’t imagine this was a bribe, but were being courteous, mannered folks who knew such a young child might be loud and an apology in advance seemed the right thing to do. George Clooney flew with his then-young twins and handed out expensive NC headphones. Your comments could apply to him, though mine would still apply. Kudos for the use of assuage.
It’s the thoughtful consideration that counts from an adorable baby
Should have handed out cards that read: “In consideration for the noise that my young child may make, please know that a $100 donation has been made to The Human Fund to offset your inconvenience. The Human Fund: Money for People.”
I’ve been on 15 hour flights where small infants & toddlers haven’t made a peep, and short hops where a screaming baby has driven everyone absolutely nuts. You just never know. If they were all as adorable as the photo Matt posted of baby Augustine, nobody would ever have a problem.
was on vs lhr-lax and was speaking to my child who was screaming during takeoff in french.
mistakenly a woman behind me said fairly loud how inconsiderate i was etc.
i wanted to tell her how inconsiderate it is of her as a muslim to blast prayers from her mosque
So you made up a story just to express some of your Islamophobia, nice.
The PRASM is so high on that route, Naomi didn’t have anything to cry about. Lucky her! May her airline always be profitable, and may she never have to fly on fuel from a non company owned refinery!
Since this took place on Delta, I presume Naomi’s mother was named Rosemary, the FA heavily resembled Ruth Gordon, and that they had a branding iron aboard that was a backward “666”.
Baby TJ (our son) made his first flight at 10 days old on an AA 737-800 from DFW to JFK in First Class. We did something similar for the First Class cabin and, like Baby Naomi, Baby TJ made not a peep.