So I'm just too upset right now to talk about our weekend. We spent all weekend traveling and then finally arrived home to New Haven to find our luggage including our car seat was "misplaced." It was midnight, we were all snot nosed, feverish, tired and sick from all the unhealthy food that comes with traveling. I did my absolute best to keep my self under control, to not cry or yell. Through clenched teeth I asked if there was a car seat for us to use since we had no way of getting Munchkie home. The employee produced a car seat that looked like it was straight from Saved by the Bell, I'm sure that Kelly's little siblings must have used it.
No matter how hard we tried we couldn't get it to be secured in the back seat very tightly. We were too tired and too drained to fight, just wanting to get home and into our own bed. When I woke up with morning I looked at the car seat, called Evenflo and then emailed US Airways.
Here is my email, hopefully written in a calm moment, not a moment of anger. Maybe once I get my belongings back I will be able to talk about my thoughts over the weekend.
My husband and I were traveling with our infant daughter this weekend to and from Canada for a family event. I first have to say that our flights were some of the smoothest flights I have been on and the flight attendants were all exceptionally nice and accommodating. However, after booking our tickets my husband called US Airways to inform them that our infant daughter would be traveling with us to and from Canada and asked if there were any additional fees or people to call and was told that there were none. Once we were checking in at the Toronto airport, we were asked to pay a fee including taxes for our daughter. Although this fee was minimal, it is very frustrating that we had asked ahead of time and been told there were no fees. Next, while we had over an hour and half in Philadelphia my husband went into one of the restaurants by our gate to watch a football game while we waited. While in there, he noticed several baggage handlers standing watching the game as well. He commented that he was surprised so many employees could take breaks at the same time on a Sunday night with decreased overall staff, or that they were not doing what they should have been doing. While he was sitting in the restaurant I was sitting in the gate with my sleeping daughter in my arms, waiting for our 10:50pm flight. A US Airway employee unnecessarily yelled down the terminal which woke my daughter who was then unable to fall back asleep. While boarding our flight my husband was asked to gate check his backpack, which included two laptops among other personal items. When we arrived to New Haven, when picking up his backpack it was found several feet from the cart where the other gate checked items were. We had specifically carried on these items to prevent damages and were not pleased with the lack of respect for our fragile belongings. When we went to collect our checked baggage we found that neither of our items had come with us to New Haven, along with several other fellow fliers. l was very upset by the fact that our car seat was among the items misplaced. As this is our only car seat we had no way to bring out daughter home after a long day of traveling. I asked the US Airways employee who was assisting us if there was a car seat for our use or a rental car seat and was given a car seat to use. To start we were unable to secure it into our car tightly enough to be safe. When we arrived home I called the Evenflo number (1-800-233-5921) found on the car seat to find out if there had been recalls regarding this car seat. I found that the date of manufacture was February 16, 1999. When I reached an Evenflo employee and gave the model number (217198 P1) with date of manufacture (16FEB99) I was told that the car seat expires after 6 years and the car was not legal to be used or given for use. I was extremely upset with the fact I was given an expired and unsafe car seat to replace my carefully researched and government approved car seat. First I want an immediate discontinuation of the use of this and other expired car seat to prevent injury to any child and replacement car seats that are approved to be provided to your patrons who have had their car seats misplaced by your baggage handlers. Next I want to know how this will be prevented from happening in the future. I am extremely dissatisfied and will be recommending our family and friends to choose another airline to prevent them from having a horrible experience with US Airways such as ours.
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