Bummed Out Over Paying For Blanket

January 31, 2010

in Odds & Ends Stories

I was travelling from San Francisco to Vancouver, BC to visit family and I was 6 months pregnant. I was flying alone, and although I was having a good pregnancy I would easily get cold, hungry, etc. I would carry granola bars, etc. in case I got hungry, but I got cold on the flight and my jacket wasn’t enough.

Low and behold when I asked for a blanket I was told I would need to pay $2.00! I didn’t have $2 ~ only $20, and they weren’t sure if they would have enough change. They said they might have to get me change when they landed. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Even the stewardess was embarrassed. I guess they would rather the pregnant lady shivers for 2 hours – what if I had no cash with me? Embarrassing for the airline – please just tack on $2 to my $500+ flight and spare us all.

{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

shocked January 31, 2010 at 7:33 pm

Welcome to the real world….plan ahead for your own needs……it's not just you that they are charging and they were not singling you out for being pregnant. Flight Attendands are not banks, they can't give you what they don't have and they can't just give you a blanket because you are pregnant. Not the flight from hell, just a everyday flight that you didn't prepare for in advance.

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Not Shocked February 1, 2010 at 6:52 am

I think it's silly for all of these fees when the service has declined drastically. While I think you should pack your own blanket like "shocked" does, I'm recommending it for a different reason. Since you're pregnant, I recommend packing your own blanket b/c those blankets aren't clean. I've read in travel magazines how often airlines clean those blankets. I think if they're going to charge us $2 to use the blankets, then they better be clean blankets!

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Drew February 1, 2010 at 7:21 am

The reason for your fees is that the general flying public goes to orbitz.com or expedia.com and looks at the lowest fare, then clicks that. They don't care about the level of service a better airline might have for just $10 more; they just care about the lowest price.

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Who Cares February 1, 2010 at 7:27 am

Just becuz u are preggers, that does not make you special. Quit using your unborn kid as an excuse for people to bend over and kiss your arse future soccer mom.

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Another Mom February 1, 2010 at 7:42 am

I'm sorry you were cold, but if it was that important, why didn't you just take the blanket and let them make change for you at landing, as suggested? If you're condition was so delicate, perhaps you should have refrained from flying in the first place. You may have been cold, but I assure you you're baby wasn't. Please stop using pregnancy as an excuse for special treatment. You are not the first woman to carry a child, for heaven's sake. If I see you on a bus and the seats are full, yeah, I'll get up and let you have mine. But if you condition requires more special treatment then that, then stay home on bedrest or pack your own supplies.

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chris February 1, 2010 at 8:23 am

It's "lo and behold", not "low and behold."

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Ted Larone February 1, 2010 at 10:48 am

Yea—because you are too stupid to bring your own blanket, every passenger and the Flight Attendants (FA-not STEWARDESS!) should scramble for you because you are pregnant!

You should be BANNED FROM FLYING while visibly pregnant! You a re a hazard to the safety of all others aboard. Whining idiots disgust me—you are one!

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xxx April 5, 2013 at 8:17 pm

really because doctors say otherwise (fine untill 3rd trimester)

i'll go on a limb that you are not a doctor, just some moron in his 30s still living in mommy and daddy's basement who thinks he's smarter than the rest of the world even though he contributes nothing to society except moronic internet posts.

or you are a FA (by how you reacted to the word stewardess) in which case you are a failure at life taking the best job offered to those with no post secondary education and no real skills.

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Greg February 1, 2010 at 2:50 pm

OMG….give the girl a break!

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Wow! February 1, 2010 at 3:37 pm

Wow! I have been reading a bunch of posts on this website, and the majority of you frequent commenters are total @ssholes. Who the heck cares what you think? And picking apart everyones' stories…"blah blah blah, Delta never flew a 747 domestically since 1876 blah blah blah" WHO CARES? I assumed this was supposed to be a "fun" website where folks could vent….and maybe THEIR flight from hell is "routine" for all of you "world travelers" but get over yourselves….who died and made you all the gods of the sky? What a waste of time….

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Kad February 1, 2010 at 10:49 pm

You make a good point about the fees. Just tack it on and have done with it.

It might raise average fares $10-20 but when some of the idiots posting here need a blankie, one will be provided. The only danger is the entitlement feeling. I can hear it now – "How come you don't have 100 blankets?!?"

The real enemy of sane, civilized air travel is the airlines themselves discounting a service with 96% fixed costs. Give me back the conservative, expensive flying of the 1970's any time, when trailer trash would take the buggy to see cousin IT.

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Demotage February 2, 2010 at 8:45 am

She asked for a blanket????! The nerve of her! No question she should have been quartered with a plastic knife, and her dismembered carcass displayed on pikes at the airport as a warning to other pregnant women who might dare to get on an airplane.

Come on people!

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Demotage February 2, 2010 at 4:03 pm

@wow

Actually, and FYI, when Bernie Kopec died in 2004, he passed on his God of the Sky position to me.

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USMom February 3, 2010 at 7:57 pm

@Demotage LOL

@everyone else, yeah, pack your own blankie, because what the airline is handing out isn't really a blanket any more, it's more of a large napkin. They don't clean them, they are disposable, which is why you pay for them. But, this is a "Flight From Hell" site, and to her, this was a flight from Hell.

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Hollanda July 25, 2012 at 10:56 am

Stop dissing the OP. Pregnancy causes all kinds of weirdness in the body. She maybe just forgot the blanket or didn’t realise how cold it would be. She wasn’t demanding special treatment or being nasty to anyone. She was simply asking for a blanket! Personally I would have paid on landing and then forgotten about it. But no need for such rancid comments.

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Dr. Sex Potato February 16, 2013 at 2:49 am

Whoo, you had sex, we're all so proud. You thought to bring snacks, but no blanket or sweater? And yeah, shitty airlines charge for everything.

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V. A. Yaeggy October 24, 2016 at 10:25 pm

Stories like this are the reason I am taking my own pillow and blanket for my vacation this year. Also, I have serious concerns over the cleanliness of any the airline has to offer.

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