By now we’ve all heard about United’s recent displays of poor customer service—a customer being physically dragged off a plane after the airline overbooked his flight; a bride and groom kicked off a flight en route to their wedding destination; hardly a day goes by without another report of someone having a terrible experience on a United flight. With all the horror stories in the news, it’s understandable that people are wary of flying these days, especially if they have kids in tow. But one Canadian mom wants the world to know that not all flights are nightmarish experiences—and not all airlines mistreat their customers.
Whitney Poyntz took to Imgur to share a message she sent to WestJet after her recent flight from Palm Springs to Calgary. Poyntz, who was traveling with her husband and 4-month-old baby, explained that shortly after taking off her baby began to fuss.
“About 30 minutes later, all hell broke loose,” she wrote. “Not sure if it was gas or maybe pressure, but we did not have a happy baby.”
A crying baby always adds stress to a situation, and even more so when you’re trapped in a flying metal tube without a lot of options for comforting the unhappy child. What happened next stunned Poyntz. A flight attendant named Ashley, whom Poyntz calls the “hero of the day,” showed up and asked if she could walk the baby up and down the aisle to try and comfort her. The mother was at first a little reluctant to hand her baby off to a stranger, but she didn’t have a lot of options at that point so she relented. And it worked! The baby calmed down in Ashley’s arms.
“Now it may not seem like a lot, but it was amazing,” Poyntz said. “Never would I ever think someone else would do that, volunteer to take your screaming child, but she did.”
“Westjet (Ashley) I would like to thank you for the over and above customer service (baby whispering) that you gave, truly the greatest airline,” she concluded.
Here’s the whole message:
Image via Imgur
Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed a stroller incident that occurred on an American Airlines flight to United.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member