Stella's first plane experience!

We had our first vacation to Florida as a family unit this early March 2010.
We knew the weather wouldn't be GREAT since we were still going in late winter, but never could we have guessed all that would go wrong!

Stella was an absolute DREAM on the flights, her ears didn't bother her one bit and she slept pretty much the entire time both ways. The problems we had were with the airline company we chose "United Airlines".... (and also some other problems along the way.. here is our story) Please people, let me vent here.

We left for our flight from Kingston to depart in Syracuse, NY to Washington DC, to then connect to Tampa, FL..... On the way to the border we realized we forgot to drop off our house key at Rob's parents house since his dad was going to work on the renovations of our basement while we were gone. We were already 20 min down the 401 then turned back around.....

Then we left the 2nd time after dropping off the key and once we got to the border we were "randomly selected" for the day to have our car searched and to go in the building and be interrogated by police while they played 20 questions for about 45 minutes (meanwhile Stella was getting fussy so I had to go into their bathroom to breastfeed and change her diaper.)

Then we finally took off and while going through security at the airport they had to search the stroller and carset base really well so in the meantime the bins got discombobulated going through the xray machine so we forgot our infant backpack carrier thing....

Then our plane was delayed 15 min. so we were afraid we would somehow miss our connecting flight in Washington, D.C..... We got to Washington and their airport is a freaking ZOO!! It is soo spread apart, we had to take 2 shuttle buses, and go up and down escalators and take elevators with the stroller.... and of course I had to take 5 min to change Stella's diaper.... we were literally RUNNING TO OUR GATE.... and when we got to it they were JUST CLOSING THE DOORS, AND WOULDN'T LET US ON!!!! I was RAGING!

Well, if you know me well enough, I HATE CONFRONTATION, but if something really gets me HOT I will LOSE IT AND GO APE SH*T... this was one of those times. I ran to customer service and gave the lady a piece of my mind, told her it was the first time we were traveling with an infant and made it impossible to get here on time, and that United should of not of given us this itinerary because it was set up to fail. She gave us nights accommodations and the nearest Holiday INN and 2 meal vouchers to use at the hotel, our flight was scheduled for 5am the next day... it was already 12am.

So then we were given horrible directions to get to where the shuttle bus would pick us up to go to our hotel, we finally find it and have to wait on the curb in the cold for 30 minutes at midnight until our shuttle finally came... I was crying because Stella was crying because she was hungry and a bit chilly, and I hate to see her suffering. We were a mess!

The next morning we have to wake up at 4am to catch our flight.... 4 hours later.
We finally make it, but now we have problems with the rental car. Robert didn't realize he had to have the $300 for the car plus another $300 for liability available on a credit card, instead he had $300 on credit and $300 cash or debit... they wouldn't work with us on that so he had to leave Stella and I at the car rental place and take a shuttle back to the airport to use the atm to take $600 cash out to rent the damn car.... FINALLY WE GET TO MOM'S BEACH HOUSE...... (while we were there the air mattress we were staying on popped so we had to buy a new one.)

Then the trip home...... connecting flight in Chicago was delayed 2.5 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we were already 2 hours to wait at the connecting airport, so we waited a total of 4.5 hours in the Chicago airport for the next flight... once we get to Syracuse MY BAG WASN'T THERE!! someone stole my expensive luggage with all of Stella and I's stuff in it....

HOME NOW AND PISSED. NEVER GOING ON VACATION AGAIN!!! I DON'T THINK ANYONE CAN TOP THIS OF WORST EVER EXPERIENCES TRAVELING...