Modern day technology is great and if airlines can reduce their flight cost slightly by introducing eTickets, then I'll support it fully. So, when we went to the Dominican Republic in December 2006, we were given eTickets. For my parents, eTicket is effectively a ticket that your get by email (I hope you know what email is?) and print. Our kids were at that time 17 months (son) and 2,5 years (daughter).
The journey started in Dublin, where we booked in our luggage and got our boarding cards; bounty beaches here we come. I will in another blog, tell you about the Dominican Republic as a travel destination, and how it was for the kids.
After two wonderful weeks in the Caribbean, we had to return home to Europe. Flights from these parts of the World are normally overnight flights, so we left the hotel late afternoon to make sure we had enough time to check-in and of course some duty-free shopping.
Approx. 150 people had the same idea as us, so when we arrived at the airport, we immediately started to queue. Speed was not essential to the check-in staff and time was being wasted away, standing and waiting. I was amazed how well the kids behaved, considering the time of day this was.
You have to understand that these planes can carry 2-300 passengers, and they all check-in at the same time!! After queuing for almost 45 minutes, we were thankfully asked to come to the first class check-in desk; probably because they knew the kids would at some stage start to act up. My prayers had been answered - excellent.
This is where our nightmare started. The guy behind the counter didn’t know anything about eTickets and said that our son did not have a ticket and could fly. How did they expect he arrived to the Dominican Republic and was he meant to get back home? So, staying calm, I kindly showed him our son's eTicket (with his name) and his passport, to demonstrate that this was indeed a ticket and my son's ticket. But, to my horror, the clerk insisted that it was not possible for an infant (kids below the age of 24 months) to travel on an eTicket.
What, were we meant to leave him behind alone?
The story is about to take another turn, as my wife had enough and demands to speak to the supervisor. Please note, my wife is from South America and the supervisor she's from the Dominican Republic, both with hot tempers.
The South-American girls locked horns, steam starting to emerge from their foreheads and arguing for about 10-15 minutes - getting absolutely nowhere, except demonstrating that they did not agree and did not intend to either.
I'm not a relaxed traveller, which is an understatement. I'm the kind of person that checks for tickets, passwords and money every 3 minutes, and leave for the airport 5 hours before check-in opens. The closer we got to departure time, the more stressed I got, nervous that we wouldn’t make the flight, despite 150 people still hadn’t checked in!. My turn to talk to the supervisor. I tuned in on my Danish charm, much to the dismay of my wife, and calmly explained the problem to the supervisor. We had bought the eTickets in Dublin, by a travel agency, and used them to fly to the Dominican Republic via Paris. I even offered to pay for a new (real) ticket for my son, but assured her that I would demand a refund when I return to Ireland, contacting her boss. She finally eased up and checked us in, against her air hostess religion.
The funny thing about this story is that my son was too young to sit in a seat by himself, so we were only meant to book him on the flight as a named passenger. He was going to sit in our lap or sleep in a cot on the flight.
Right, luggage booked in and boarding cards in hand, off to security check-in. It was my responsibility to carry the boarding cards - big mistake. By mistake, I left a boarding card behind in security and when we were boarding at the gate, we only had three boarding cards. Panic set in and I was starting to faint. We were not meant to leave this place. The air hostess contacted the check-in desk, to check if they could get a replacement boarding card, and my wife was certain that it was the same "lovely" supervisor that answered the call. Finally, they came walking with a new boarding card - it was in fact my wife's boarding I had managed to lose. I was a nervous wreck at this stage. Thanks to my wife, we managed to get on the flight home, boarding as the last passengers.
At this point, my son was getting very angry, but that's another story.
Lessons learned
1. Make sure that your child, if less than 24 months, can travel on a eTicket or need a paper ticket
2. NEVER carry the boarding cards in one hand, while picking up a crate during security check-in with the other
3. Relax, you will of course make the flight, especially if there are more than 100 passengers behind you during check-in
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