The Friendly Skies... Right?

My wife and I have become 'those people'.  Don't know how it happened, well, yes actually I do but man it seems to have happened overnight.

We flew American Airlines two days ago from DFW to Indiana with our infant son.  Wow.  It never occurred to me that we'd be 'those people', you know, the ones back in seats 17B and 17C with the screaming kid.  That was us and it was stressful as anything I've experienced.  Our son cried... and cried and cried some more.  Unreal that his little lungs hold that much air.  Finally things calmed down and we made it to Indiana, albeit our nerves were shot.  Get to the point George... get to the point.

Our stewardess team on the flight was not happy with us.  And I'm sure many of the passengers weren't either.  But it's the stewardess' job to make sure everyone is comfortable and to take care of any needs, right?  So why the sour looks?  Why the impatience with my wife when she needed to go to the restroom to change a diaper before the seatbelt light had been turned off?  I just didn't understand it at all.  I felt real pressure and we were doing everything possible to calm our son and it would have helped to have some sympathy from the flight crew.

On the other hand, we received wonderful service from a stewardess on a shuttle flight from Indiana to NYC, where we are now.  She was great!  Sharing stories with us about her own grandkids and how she was there for us if we needed anything.  She even moved us to a different row because that particular row had infant flotation devices under the seat.  Wow.  Who does that anymore?  Such personal service. Were put at ease and I'm sure our son was as well  He must have been... he slept straight through the entire flight!  -GD