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| Relaxing in the Seoul Airport |
We got to the airport nice and early so that we could request the bulkhead seats...thankfully they gave them to us (turns out the plane wasn't very full, so we got the whole row of 4 seats all to ourselves)! =) What I didn't realize was what an issue the carseat would cause! I had done lots of reading online, and my only concern was that our Britax Roundabout would be too wide for the plane (even though lots of people had said it wasn't a problem)...but since we were flying Korean Air, I wasn't anticipating problems with them allowing us to bring the seat on the plane. I guess that's what happens when you live in a place that doesn't even use carseats in cars much less planes! The check-in staff and manager said that they had never seen such a thing and told us that we could not bring it on the plane. After going through all the hassle of having Richard's parents get us the carseat (normally we just use it in Taiwan), and lugging it all the way to the airport, we weren't going to give up so easily. We protested, stating how much safer a carseat is...and even explained that our friend had flown their airline with a carseat! Anyhow, they had us wait about an hour at check-in until the incoming crew could evaluate the situation. At one point, there was a manager and about 10 stewardesses all surrounding our little carseat, debating on whether or not this strange, foreign object could be used on the airplane. Richard and I were chuckling, really wanting to take a picture of the situation, but we decided that probably wasn't a good idea. After that hour, they reluctantly let us take it through security...which turned out to be another hassle since it wouldn't fit in any of their scanners! Anyhow, things ended up working out great...we were so glad we had the carseat for Noah to sleep in (since it was the middle of the night)! They told me that I needed to hold Noah during landing since that was "safer," and I agreed since I didn't want to get into another argument. Even though they gave us a hard time about the carseat, customer service has been awesome....Noah got this awesome doodle book that you color with water to make the pictures appear (he LOVES it) and the children's meal is yummy and cutely presented in a container with cartoon characters (I confess, I ate his burger since he was sleeping). Btw, I've decided you've been gone too long when airplane food tastes REALLY good. :)
One other random note is that the past two times we've flown, the one bag that gets searched is Noah's backpack of toys. It's been hilarious to line up all his cars and toys in security check! =) Ok, enough sleep-deprived babble from me....the journey continues....