It’s true I love Air Inuit. Let me start at the beginning.
Wednesday September 11th, Reed (10 months) and I
(29 years) left PEI for Montreal.
We would overnight there and catch an Air Inuit flight to Salluit on the
12th. I’ve flown with
Reed before, by myself even, so I was pretty sure I could handle it. At the times of his last flights
however, he couldn’t crawl or move around much, so I was a little worried about
containing him to our seat since he and I were sharing one. We ended up sitting beside a lovely man
who has 3 children of his own. He
was super understanding and even let Reed climb all over him for a half and
hour or so to give me a break. I
love Islanders! Anyway this was an
Air Canada flight. As far as Air
Canada flights go it was fine. The
flight attendant however was on a power trip. I witnessed a couple of instances where I thought if it were
me, I wouldn’t have bothered with that one, or at the very least I would have
asked politely first and snarky second.
He opted for snarky right off the bat.
So he asked me if I needed a briefing for Reed, I said
no. I’ve flown with him
before. Plus I can still recite
said briefing from my own flight attendant days (although I didn’t bother to
tell him that). Now the problem
with holding Reed in the proper position for take off and landing is that he is
big (as in tall) and he is strong.
If he doesn’t want to sit like that, his height gives him leverage and
he can basically push away and sit however he likes. Plus I have a limited space to work with, whereas he is not
concerned with hitting/pulling on the people around us for support.
We took off, to my utter delight Reed didn’t start crying (I
was worried his ears would bother him).
Right after take off, the flight attendant got out of his seat to come
and tell me that I was not holding the baby properly. My reply “I know”.
His reply “you are suppose to hold him like this” shows with his arms
using air as a baby. My reply “I
know, thanks”. His reply -
starring at me. Now I was about to
say, “You know you’re not suppose to be up yet.” But I still had a 1 ½ hour flight with this man and I know
from experience it is unwise to piss off the flight attendant. He did eventually stop staring, and
returned to his seat and buckled himself in because he was in fact up too
early!! My seat partner just
laughed. After the seat belt sign
went off and the flight attendants were finished serving drinks he got up to go
to the bathroom. On the way back
he stopped to speak to his friend where he stayed standing and chatting to give
me and Reed room. That is, he
stayed there until the flight attendant made an announcement that even though
the seat belt sign is OFF anyone standing should be in their seats. My eyes are rolling involuntarily
as I recall the event and write it here.
So we land in Montreal, and I manage to find the hotel,
(thankfully attached to the airport).
I’m sure people looked at me and thought ‘that poor woman’ I had Reed attached to me with his
sling and I was pushing a cart with 2 suitcases and his stroller. I got a lot of stare. But to be honest I was a little
impressed with myself.
Finally, why I love Air Inuit
We made it to check in no problem. The lady at the counter was out of connection tags for the
stroller, which isn’t a big deal, but does make it more likely to end up at the
wrong airport. But she said “I’ll
see you at the gate and bring one with me” and she did, crisis averted. She also blocked off the seat beside me so we could
have 2. I could have hugged this
woman. We were late boarding,
which I’ve come to understand is typical (I was prepared for this and so was
not expecting to be on time and therefore was not stressed) Plus you can’t miss a connection flying
north because there is usually only one plane coming into and going out of each
town. As long as you make it to
Montreal on time, you’re good.
Air Inuit has to be one of the last airlines that feed
you! From Montreal to Le Grande we
got breakfast. The egg wasn’t half
bad. I didn’t eat the potatoes
(they were pretty soggy) and I didn’t eat the mystery meat because it was, well…unidentifiable. It might have been fried bologna so I
left that. But they had a yogurt,
a piece of banana bread, a piece of cheese and a juice plus a drink service. It was plenty of breakfast. And not only did I have my seat and the
blocked off seat, but the man on the aisle said “I’ll just sit over here on the
aisle because it’s empty and you guys can have all 3 seats.” These reasons alone are still not why I
love this airline. So we make it
to P.O.V, the town is actually called Puvirnituq I have no idea why it’s called
P.O.V for short. And we wait for
our connection, and then we wait some more, it felt really long (hours and
hours) but it ended up being 1 ½ hours late so basically we waited in the
airport including connections time 3 hours. We got on board, and since we were late the Pilot came out
(no P.A. system for this guy!) introduces himself and explains since we are so
late they are going to serve us supper.
Club sandwich (with REAL mayonnaise), not made on the airplane either,
made inside with real chicken, not deli meat! a bag of party mix and a can of
pop …who does that! It was
actually quite tasty. And we were
off.
There are 2 stops between P.O.V. and Salluit at the second
stop we were told we have to deplane so the pilots can check the weather and
see if we are continuing on or not.
Panic set in. Remember I am
travelling alone, we are in Ivujuvik (I don’t know a soul here) this is the most northern town in
Quebec. I have the phone numbers
for the school but since it’s now close to 6, no one will be at the school so
that phone number does me no good.
Not to mention with this many people stuck, chances are not good that
there will be room at this tiny hotel.
So here are our options.
1: We can stay in Ivujuvik
for the night and all the next day and basically catch this same flight a day
later on to Salluit (weather permitting) or 2: we can get back on the plane and try for Salluit, if we
can’t land (and there is a 90% chance that we won’t be able to due to fog) we
are going back to P.O.V. and again
we will do this leg all over again tomorrow including stopping back in Ivujuvik
to pick up those people stranded there.
Well 10% chance of landing is better than staying in a town where I
don’t know a soul and have no idea how to get a hold of anyone.
From what I hear not all Pilots would have bothered to try
to land in Salluit, apparently lots would have said, “we can’t land in Salluit,
stay here or come with us back to P.O.V.”
I am so glad I was not with ‘lots’ of pilots on this day, because we landed!! There were only about 10 of us (maybe
less) on the flight but I have never heard such thunderous applause when the
landing gear hit the ground.
And so begins the adventures in teaching (and babysitting [rearing,
since he is, after all, my kid]) in Salluit!
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