A mum has written an open letter to WestJet airline after one of their flight attendants took care of baby during a flight where “all hell broke loose”.
Whitney Poyntz wanted to thank flight attendant Ashley for the “over and above” customer service and “baby whispering skills”, after the hostess managed to calm down the distressed infant.
New parents, Poyntz and her husband Geoff, were travelling home from holiday in Palm Springs, California, to Canada, with their four-month-old daughter when the incident occurred.
As they boarded the plane for the three-hour flight, the newborn was asleep so they were expecting an easy flight, but Poyntz said: “Man we were wrong.”
Unfortunately the captain making an announcement over the intercom woke up the baby and about half an hour later, she was in full meltdown.
“Not sure if it was gas or maybe pressure but we did not have a happy baby,” said Poyntz. “Unfortunately those seats aren’t made for rocking or trying to put a baby back to sleep.
“Eyes glaring, sweat dripping down our foreheads trying to get her back to sleep, in comes the hero of the day.”
Instead of ignoring the struggling parents - or even worse, asking them to consider the other passengers – flight attendant Ashley offered to take her away and walk up and down the aisle to soothe her.
Poyntz said: “First thought in my head was ‘umm a stranger wants to walk my screaming child up and down the aisle? But she did and got her calmed down.
“Now it may not seem like a lot but the experience was amazing. Never would I ever think someone would ever do that, volunteer to take your screaming child, but she did,” she added.
After sharing her story on the airline’s Facebook page, it was liked over 100,000 times with other customers sharing their positive experiences of strangers helping with parenting.
Krista Comeau said: “Last summer my daughter flew for the first time, she had just turned four. We thought the red eye would be the best flight because we thought she would be so tired she would sleep the five hour flight from Edmonton to Halifax. Boy was I wrong.
“She screamed and cried the whole flight. It was scary. She wants her bed and is overtired. And she wanted a hot chocolate, which we didn’t have.
“The flight attendants were awesome, she was not the only child crying either. There was probably ten or eleven that were crying most of the flight. I don’t know how they handled it cause I was getting cranky as a mum of a crying child.”