it was an interesting flight experience…
or…
Unless they offer a REALLy good discount, I’ll never fly Frontier again.
So we get on the plane and everything is cool. Gage sits in his seat and gets buckled in and everything is great. It was a Frontier flight, and we were in the front row. The flight attendants were aware that Gage is autistic and offered to swipe a card so that Gage could watch cartoons during the flight on the tv on the back of the seat in front of him. I thought that was nice. Then Gage freaks out. Unbuckles his seat belt because, let’s face it, it doesn’t take much to figure out THOSE complex devices. I’m trying to get Gage into his seat and buckled in; he’s kicking, screaming and punching at me. The flight attendant throws ME and attitude and says “I don’t think that violence is called for here.” What???? Ok, tell him then. I’m putting him in his seat and buckling his seat belt. HE’s the one behaving “violently,” I’m the recipient of the “violence” what the fuck are you telling ME that there’s no need for violence for???? Ok, so all this happens in about a minute. While Gage was freaking out, they’ve closed the door to the plane. Then the flight attendant tells me I have 1 minute to get him under control and in his seat or we’ll be removed from the flight. I informed them that if they did, they would be making other arrangements for me and I would NOT be responsible for any additional costs. We were removed from the Frontier flight, arrangements were made with US Airways.
During the hour and a half that we had to wait, I decided to get Gage something to eat and give him a dose of Tylenol, since it usually knocks him out. We get some spaghetti, which he eats a little of. I should have gone to the McDonalds and got him some fries — he ALWAYS eats those, but I was so frustrated I wasn’t thinking completely clearly. I got the spaghetti, refilled his cup and dropped in 2 Tylenol meltaways (he won’t eat them for some reason). The full dose for his age and weight is 3, so I figured I’d add the 3rd closer to the actual flight. A little while before we have to board, I find one of those “news stand” places that are in just about every airport I’ve ever been in. Gage immediately grabs a bag of pretzels and I grab him a bag of skittles (at this point, I also added the 3rd Tylenol to his drink). He’s munching on pretzels as we board the plane. I give him a little handful of skittles and he’s a happy camper. He sits in his seat, looks out the window, munches away, sips his ”spiked” kool-aid and cuddles with Roo… before we even taxi out, he was asleep. He was asleep during the emergency instructions and the de-icing process which took at least 10 minutes. Slept through the takeoff (whew, we got off the ground) and he slept at least 20 minutes into the flight. He woke up when they announced they’d be passing out headphones for the movie for $5 each. When he woke up, he cuddled in my lap for awhile then noticed the clouds going by out the window. So he sat in his seat and watched the clouds.
Eventually, it got dark, so he couldn’t see the clouds anymore. At this point he had a total meltdown. He was done, he wanted to get off the plane. Seriously, he took me up the aisle in search of the door! The flight attendants were very nice though. The head flight attendant took us to the front galley (in front of first class) and offered Gage anything he wanted from that snack basket they offer the first class passengers (you know… all the good stuff that us coach passengers never get, LOL). We sat in the flight attendants seat where it was a little cooler than the rest of the plane and he was nice and calm. When we started making significant descent to land (I believe we were about 15 minutes from touchdown at that point), we went back to our seat, and after a few moments of freak out, I got him to notice the lights on the ground. He was fascinated and watched out the window, calmly, until we landed. He did freak a bit after we landed because he wanted to go as soon as possible. I waited till most of the people were off the plane before getting up though. Didn’t want to run anyone over.
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