As a child my mother worked for a company that arranged travel through British Airways so whenever we flew anywhere that is who we went with. My partner and I arranged a trip a couple of years ago and the cheapest tickets we found were flying with Delta. Being from Altanta Georgia myself it seemed quite apt to be flying home on a company based in my home town.

We arrived ready to travel, handed over our assports and tickets only to find out that my passport wasn'r sufficient. I hold two passports and my American one was out of date. I had thought I could just fly on my Brit one but that is apparently a no no (only when entering the states!). On my Brit passport I could fly anywhere in the world but the US wasn't going to have it. The manager on the day turned to me a explained the situation and that I wasn't to know as the rule had only been in place for 9 months. Within half an hour that man had rebooked our tickets free of charge to the next day, called and booked me an appointment at the American Embassy and put our bags into overnight storage at the airport, also free of charge. I'm not so sure that's usually the way things are done but maybe he saw how upset I and my young son were. Maybe also he knew it was a relatively new rule and took pitty on me. Whatever the reaosn I am greatfull to him as things could have been a lot harder without his help that day.

The flight went off the next day without a problem. The same manager from the day before was joking with us and made it a much better day. The plane was nearly empty. My son got three seats to himself and my other half and I stretched out in the middle row. The air staff were great with my little one. Even took him to see the pilot, which I thought these days wasn't allowed, but he loved it!

When we landed the staff were a great help. The helpful manager had told them what happened with the pasports and they took us straight through to a customs desk so we could all go through together instead of me in one line and everyone else in another. Really helpful as the international line would have taken my partner and son ages.

Just a quick note on the food: I had a chicken dinner and the boys had meat...all of which looked and tased really nice. I never expect much from plane food, but I was pleasantly suprised.

On our return flight I came down with something (We never sussed out what is was). Delta said the plane wasn't full so I'd be able to get comfy and had an airport doctor check me over pre-boarding.

Update (23/04/2010):
We were lucky enough to save up enough money to go on holiday and visit family in the States this year. After the last trip and the help Delta gave me we decided to go with them again. No passport issue this time round thankfully! We had great flights with nice staff. The only bad bit is that I ordered a baby flight belt. This is an extra you put onto the seat and attach to the normal belt to help keep smaller children in their seats when they need to be. Prior to leaving I contacted Delta and got the thumbs up about the seat belt as some airlines don't like certain ones. No one said a thing on our main flight over to the States or on two domestic ones but on thew flight home the staff weren't going to allow me to use it as they didn't know what it was. I produced the e-mail from Delta head office (I keep everything!). After that the staff were fine with it but just asked if I would show them a quick demonstration of the emergency release so that they would know what to do in an emergency.

(c) oioiyou 2010