What an eventful start to the trip! Our booking was for 3 seats + Ollie on our lap from Adelaide to Winnipeg via Melbourne and LA on Qantas/Westjet.
We checked in to Adelaide and had our first hicup. Ollie’s Canadian and Australian passports weren’t linked (because that’s a thing) so they had to call customs and sort that out before we got our tickets issued. They said they could check our bags through to Winnipeg but couldn’t give us the boarding passes for the last Westjet flight. No problem right, we’ll sort it in LA.
Our Melbourne connection was tight, 1 hour. We made it through customs and security and walked right onto the plane. Thank god there were no exploding nappies to slow us down!
The transpacific flight was manageable. We had a bulkhead row of 3 seats with a bassinet. The plus side was lots of leg room with space for the kids to play on the floor. The downside was that the arm rests don’t move so we couldn’t lift them and let Moose stretch out to sleep. The bassinet was an utter failure as a bed for Ollie. He’s become a fussy sleeper so we only tried to put him in once. He touched the ends given his length and didn’t have a bar of it. That said, it was a perfect place to store extra pillows, blankets and food. Unfortunately Ollie had a massive chuck on the plane. Thankfully I was up walking at the time so it landed over me and the floor in front of some poor childless people! The staff on Qantas were excellent and snagged me a set of business class PJs to change into. He had one further spew but settled after that. The A380 has the biggest change table we have come across on a plane. That came in handy for no less than 6 nappy changes…
We finally made to LA and with a 2 1/2 hour layover thought it would be a comfortable transit. Wrong! We collected our bags, changed into some fresh clothes and restocked on nappies and made our way to T3 to cross security. Well, Westjet has their check in desk at T3 but their gates are at T2. Thank goodness we were at T3 because it’s there that the real troubles started. We went to the desk to double to check the gate and that’s when we found out that Ollie wasn’t on the tickets! The short story is we booked our flights on points before he was born, then added him on later (as instructed by Qantas). Turns out they only added him to the Qantas flights but not the Westjet section! It took nearly 40 minutes to get that sorted by which time we had missed the check in time significantly. A big shout out to the Westjet staff who held the flight as we frantically ran through the airport to get onto the plane as the last passengers. Unfortunately in the mess of emptying liquids, taking off shoes and removing laptops at security Moose ripped a nail and was bleeding and crying. Needless to say, this was not the time for TLC. Poor kid was whisked up and carried to the gate screaming. But we made it!
Once on the plane it was smooth sailing to Winnipeg with a few hours in Calgary.
We landed in Winnipeg to do the Haiart ritual of hugs on the “Hug Rug” at the bottom of the arrival escalator. We waited 30 minutes for our luggage before someone from Westjet approached us to say he received an email to say 2 of our 3 bags were still in LA! The one bag that did make it was full of our winter clothes! Arrangements were made to have the bags delivered the next day and temporary provisions were sourced from the local Walmart on Qantas’ dime.
We rented a small car to get around town for the month and were surprised with an upgrade to a Ford Escape!
All things considered, a successful trip so far. We’ve got a month in Winnipeg before we fly out to Niagara Falls to start the first road trip.
