SUMMER SALE

For a limited time get FREE SHIPPING on orders over $75.00. Just type in the code July10 in the discount code field during checkout. Make this summer's vacation the easiest vacation ever by using JetSetBabies to have all your travel supplies shipped ahead directly to your travel destination.

TSA - Travel with Kids Website

If you haven't visited the Transporation Security Administration's website recently, you should take a look at it prior to traveling with your little ones. They recently updated their site. They've added new and current information as well as updated the presentation of it. They now have video information that is very well done and easy to understand.

There is still a lot of confusion about how much milk and formula are allowed on the airplane and I think the new website addresses this well. The new rule is this: Medicines, formula, baby food, milk, breast milk and juice are allowed in reasonable quantities exceeding the 3.4 oz limit and do not need to be in a zip lock bag. This is quoted exactly from their website.

Travel to Australia with a baby

We often have moms traveling to Australia with an infant that are very nervous about the long trip with such a little one. Who wouldn't be nervous. I was nervous on a two-hour plane trip with my baby, wondering what I would do if they screamed the entire trip. I've never flown internationally with my children, so unfortunately, I'm not much help in this area.

However, I've located a website from a seasoned traveled Mom who knows all about flying to Australia with a baby and she has a great resources on her website. The website is Lucy Loves Australia and her story is called "Lots more info on flying to Australia with babies and toddlers". It contains great information and even some tips on dealing with the jet lag. If you are planning any long trip with your babies, it's well worth the read!

Also, we get many calls on whether you can ship food and formula to Australia. The answer is YES. It's a bit tricky because there are some special documents that are required by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service and there is a weight limit on the amount you can ship ahead into the country, but we have done it successfully many times.

So relax moms, and go ahead and keep planning that trip of a lifetime!!! It can be done.

JetSetBabies announces newest Partnership

JetSetBabies and Virgin Holidays are partnering to bring the concept of "light travel" to the millions of families that travel to the U.S. with Virgin Holidays each year.


Virgin Holidays is the largest transatlantic tour operator in the world and the market leader for travel to the U.S. and Carribbean. Virgin Holidays and their sister companies work together closely to bring the most perfect holiday experience combined with excellent, reliable, and fully customer-focussed service at every stage of the journey.

A Passion for Service - a moto of both Virgin Holidays and JetSetBabies !! Companies passionate about creating the best holiday experience, making it that little bit easier and more enjoyable from start to finish. Virgin Travel customers traveling with a tiny tot can now experience the luxury of having their baby supplies waiting at their destination and enjoy the fabulous customer service both companies can provide from start to finish.

Virgin Holidays has 21 years experience, offering advice and reassurance to help guarantee the best holidays ever. Sister companies include Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Virgin Cruise Lines, HIP Hotels, and Real World Adventures.

Introducing new travel packages to make ordering easier

JetSetBabies recently added new baby vacation packages that include an array of baby travel supplies perfect for your week at the beach, week in the woods, week at a hotel with a pool, or a week on the ski slopes. Each package contains baby bottom care products such as diapers, wipes, changing pads and disposal bags, some feeding utensils, bath products, and then items specific to each trip. The week on the beach adds swimmers, sunscreen, bottle cooler, beach blanket, and other items to make ordering your baby supplies a breeze !

Now you just click on one item in the shopping cart and make your diaper brand and size choices, wipes brands, and all the other selections from one screen for quick ordering. Baby food, formula, snacks and other items can be added to the order - and you are on your way to a fabulous vacation with baby.

Simple, fast, affordable shopping for your trip. Just one more way that JetSetBabies makes travel with babies and toddlers easier! And our new photos are so fun!

Week at the Pool:

Week at the beach:

Kudos to the Disney Swan Dolphin Resort

My view of judging a company's customer service is not how they do things right - but how do they respond when something does go wrong. We ship packages on a daily basis to the many Disney resorts in Lake Buena Vista Florida at Walt Disney World. In the six years of doing business with Disney I can't remember ever having a problem or a lost package. So I was very surprised when last Sunday night our JetSetBabies phone rang and it was a customer who had just arrived at the Disney Swan Dolphin Resort and had been told they could not find her JetSetBabies package.



I first looked through our notes on the package and we had called the hotel a few days prior and spoken with an employee at the Concierge Desk and he confirmed that he had the package and it would be held there until the guest arrived Sunday. I called the concierge desk immediately and talked to the person working that night. The employee we spoke with had already left for the day, the package was not there, and it had not been logged in their book. He stated that he had put in a call to security to look for the package.



I then called my employee who had spoken with the hotel earlier in the week. He stated that he still had the number for the Receiving Dept at Swan Dolphin and he had originally spoken with the department manager - he would call again and see if he could reach anyone.



Well, this is where I think Disney really shined. My employee dialed the number. The Receiving Department was closed but the phones forwarded to Department Manager's cell phone who answered our call at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday night. He said he remembered everything clearly - he knew exactly where the package was, and if the security guard was unable to find it, please call him back and he would drive into work and get it for the guest!! Now that isn't just good service - that is what I consider great service.



By the time I called the concierge back with this information, they had already found the package, and had delivered it to the guests room. I called our customer as she was unpacking the box. She was thrilled and I was thrilled. So hats off to Disney Swan Dolphin for an opportunity for both of us to show our great customer service skills!

Traveling across time zones with a baby

This blog comes to you from Bree, a JetSetBabies customer who recently traveled all the way to New Zealand with her baby. I wondered how the baby would handle the time zone changes and Bree was gracious enough to send us this story. I hope you enjoy it. If you have a great travel story to share with our readers, please contact me at patty@jetsetbabies.com. If we use your story, we'll send you a gift certificate to use on our website JetSetBabies.


From Bree:

We had a fantastic trip to New Zealand - it was everything we had hoped for and more. We really did love it there, and if it weren't so dang far away, we'd consider living there! we liked it that much. :)

As for the jet lag - interestingly, Logan did not seem to have an issue one bit on the way over. Our flight was pretty rough at first - he fell asleep on take off and slept for about 2.5-3 hrs, but then he woke up and just would not go back to sleep, for about another 3 hrs - I don't think it was due to any sort of jet lag at this point since we were still on our time here, and it was "in the middle of the night" for him. instead, I think he was just way too distracted with everything going on in the plane..... anyway, we finally got him back to sleep and then he slept for the majority of the remainder of the flight which was great.

When we arrived into Auckland, approx. 5am, we were all awake and met friends there -went out for breakfast and then walked around town to see some sights. We then hopped into our car and took a 2.5 hr drive to the cabins we were staying at for that night. Logan was fine the entire day - he took a couple naps, like he always does, but otherwise was fine. He didn't seem to notice the time change at all! He finally got super fussy and cranky while we were at a restaurant for dinner - but, it was about 8pm local time, which is when he normally starts getting tired anyway. He passed out on me, we took him back to our cabin and put him down for the night.

Throughout the trip, MOST nights he would wake up once in the middle of the night, take a bottle then go back to sleep. There were a few nights, usually when he had been more active the day before, where he'd sleep through the night. But, honestly, I'm not sure that had anything to do with the time change since that's how he's always been at home too.

On our flight back home, it was great. Our plane was delayed an hour or two - so we really wore him out playing and exercising and crawling, etc. in the airport. He passed out during take off and slept for 8 hrs!! he woke up for another 1-1.5 hrs and played at our feet and had a meal, then fell asleep again until we landed. We couldn't have had a more positive experience with the flight home.

The few days after we got home was another story entirely. It was a LOT harder to adjust back to "normal" life. Our schedule was really off those first few days back, since Logan seemed to be struggling with adjusting back to Pacific Time. But, more than that, I think he was also having a hard time adjusting to life without Mom and Dad 24x7 (since we both work so he goes to a daycare during the day). So, that probably was the MOST challenging part of the entire trip, was when we got home. He was very clingy, wanting me and only me, when he was super tired, exhausted and needed me to comfort him to put him to bed. He would also cry every time we dropped him off or picked him up from daycare (which he's NEVER done before), had a lot of trouble sleeping at night, often times crying WHILE he was sleeping (not sure how it's possible but he was doing it) but then the minute I'd pick him up to rock him he'd settle back down and snuggle into my shoulder fast asleep.

Each day was a tad bit better, but it took almost a full week before we started getting a full night's rest again and before he was doing better back at daycare. So, it's a good lesson learned for us. It won't stop us from traveling again, but it's good to know what challenges we may face when we get home *after* the next big trip. :)

Bree

Airlines child lap policy

Like many other moms, I was under the misconception that if flying with a child on your lap were considered unsafe then the airlines just would not allow it. Was I wrong. It took a close call with my daughter before I realized how wrong I was all along.

Like all women, I enjoy a good bargain and being able to avoid having to purchase a plane ticket for a child under two and save several hundred dollars only added to the excitement of traveling with a small child. My son and I took over half a dozen plane trips together all without incident and had a great time traveling around the U.S. when he was a baby. Six years later when my daughter Anna was born and we took our first flight together, we were in for a little surprise.

We were traveling from Duluth/Chicago/Phoenix. We had made it into Chicago and had about a two hour layover there for our connecting flight to Phoenix, when major thunderstorms began passing through the central U.S. Our flight was continually delayed as the afternoon went on and we did our best to stay entertained at the airport while staying close to our gate in case our flight should start to board. The delays lasted into the evening hours and at about 8:00 p.m. both my children (Aaron, then 7 and Anna, 7 months) fell asleep on my lap. They had only been sleeping for about 15-30 minutes when the started to board the flight. I hated to wake up both children and have them very crabby so I just say in my chair waiting until the last call to board.

As they got down to the last group of passengers they made an announcement that they had overbooked and were offering ticket exchange for giving up your seat. Since the kids were sleeping so soundly and had missed their naps, I was in the perfect position to give up our seats and take the "bump". With a lap child traveling and two free ticket vouchers I was as good as traveling free ! And little did I know that I had may a decision that would likely have ended up disasterous had we boarded that plane.

About an hour later another flight to Phoenix was on its way the children were starting to stir from their uncomfortable sleeping positions, so we boarded the next plane and we were off. There were still some small storms and turbulence on the flight and so the plane attempted to route around them as best as it could and still maintain some sort of time schedule (for me we were arriving about 10 hours late anyway). I had Anna on my lap the entire time and things were proceeding normally, when the captain announced some turbulence ahead. As we all buckled in, I wrapped my arms around Anna's tummy and held on to my wrists. It didn't take long before we hit a small bump and I was taken by complete surprise when that little bump took all my strength to keep her close to me. Her bottom lifted off my lap a good six inches and I was absolutely shocked at the force it took for me to keep her from hitting the roof! Luckily for us we had only that one small pocket of turbulence that we hit.

When we arrived in Phoenix, I learned that the original flight we had been booked on had hit a terrible storm and the jostling of the passengers caused 10 people to hospitalized. There is no doubt in my mind that Anna would have been one of them had we gotten on that flight. I was so thankful for the change in events that put us on a different plane, and have never again flown with a child in my lap.

For more information about how the airlines started allowing lap children and other people's stories, read Anya Clowers book "Jet with Kids".

Airline seat assignments

Traveling as a family can be challenging, but even more so if you all arrive at the airport, survive the check in procedure and the bag search, only to find out you are not all seated together. Don't assume because you are flying as a family that you will be all seated near each other.

If you are buying your tickets from a travel agent make sure they do your seat assignments for you. If you purchase your tickets on-line or directly from the airport and they do not do the assignments at the time of buying the tickets, make sure you log into the airline website and do your seat assignments well in advance.

At the website SeatGuru you can find out the details about the aircraft you are flying on, including the seat width, legroom, and so forth. This site also contains contact information for the airlines.

According to the book Jet With Kids, by Anya Clowers, "There are only a certain number of seats that reservation and travel agents are able to book. The rest are blocked out for airport assignment on the day of departure or for online check-in 24 hours prior to the flight. However, unless you are booking at the last minute, it is usually possible for you to get something reserved, and seat selection can make a huge difference in your flight."

One myth is that if you are traveling with a small child the bulkhead seats are the best place to sit. This is not true. According the Clowers, "The added legroom gives a child the feeling of open space and the illusion that they can roam around. If you take the middle seat of another row and your child is in the window seat next to you, this area creates a "box" for your child to play in. They can play with the window shade, on the tray table, look out the window, and generally feel more secure since it is somewhat of a private area."

Plus all of your luggage will be in the overhead compartment as there is no storage under the seat. The tray tables are located in the armrest and can easily pinch fingers. So you may wish to reconsider this seating area.

I used the bulkhead seat once when traveling with my son and it really did not work out as he ended up out of his seat and playing on the floor, eventually falling asleep on the floor, which was not a very safe alternative when I look back on the situation. Being in tighter quarters and kept buckled into a seat is really the safest place for any child.