Tuesday, September 25, 2012

A 2 year old with 21K Airline Miles

It's been a while since we've posted. Busy month.

Natali has 21,000 "real" American Airlines Advantage miles. She's just 4000 miles away from Gold status. We have no more trips planned...but it would be funny for a year old to have Frequent Flier status eh?

Natali has a lot more "non rev" miles. Not sure how many.

Our most recent trip was to Frankfurt, Germany. Long flight. Almost 10 hours there....and 11 hours back. A long time on an airplane for an adult...an eternity for a 2 year old.

We are travel experts though.

Natali's previous longest flight was to Hawaii at 8 hours.

She did ok on the way to Frankfurt. A little fussy but not bad.

For the 8 days we were there we gave in on the pacifier usage. She was in a strange place...it comforted her. The time change was rough on us but it seemed to bother her the least . Frankfurt is 7 hours ahead of Dallas.

Natali did great all week. Minimal fussiness even though we were out and about all day long. We used the stroller some places and the backpack other places where strollers didn't work. We toured castles, a cocentration camp, car museums and more.

During the night she slept in our bed most nights. At one hotel she had her own bed. We are happy to say she did VERY well.

I thought she would be a little uneasy...nope. She loved it. We will be buying her a real "big girl" bed soon.

For the flight back...it was rough.

Natali slept the first hour or so. That was it.

About 8 hours in she turned to me and said ,"I want to go outside please." She was done being in the plane.

Her Ipad helped a bit...she walked around a bit. The last 15 minutes when the Ipad went away was rough.

She slept when we got home. The next two days were rough on her...and us....jet lag.

Before our trip I penciled in a trip to Japan next year. It's off the table now. The flight is almost 14 hours long to Tokyo. To long.

The trip to Frankfurt was likely her last flight in her car seat. Next time we will use the C.A.R.E.S harness. It's the only FAA approved child harness. The car seat will be checked.

More soon.

For now some photos from our trip.

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