I have to start by saying this is not a sponsored post. I personally have no links to Easyjet and am not getting paid by them to say this. I also have to say that up until recently I, like many families have had some pretty terrible experiences with budget airlines. One in particular who shall not be named, would not let us all sit together despite buying priority seats and then were pretty rude to everyone, asking one mum to stop her teething baby from crying because it was ‘annoying them’.
Anyhow, I’ve just come back from a week in France and we flew Easyjet out to Nice. My 20 month old son having not been ill before boarding the plane, decided that as the plane was in ascent out of London (and with 1 hour and 50 minutes of flying to go) that this would be a really good time to throw up. And when I say throw up, I mean THROW UP! Aside from feeling worried about him, I feared the amount hitting the seats and the floor would set off a domino effect of sickness on the plane.
Plus as any parent who has ever been thrown up on knows there is a moment when your child has been sick everywhere when you think, ‘Okay where do I start with this?’ Thankfully sitting there covered in vomit, the Easyjet stewards came to my rescue. Without being called or asked they bought towels, rubbish bags, wipes and bottles of water for my son (and didn’t ask for any payment). They offered to help clean up, and then kept an eye on my 5 year old as my husband and I went to the bathroom with my son.
Throughout the whole flight they came back numerous times to ask if we needed anything, if my son was okay and whether they wanted us to find him a t-shirt. In fact they were so kind (as were the passengers around us) that I very nearly cried from gratitude.
I think part of my thankfulness came from the fact that budget airlines get such a bad press all of the time that you don’t think they’ll be there to help when things go pear shaped. Of course, they are trained to do that very thing but I do feel the stewards on my flight went that little bit further than they had to.
So does anyone else have some good stories about budget airlines? Stories that will help cash strapped parents not to feel anxious when they’re setting off on their holidays. Let me know.