I have often had customers call frantically from the Airport in need of a stroller rental for their vacation. These aren’t customers who simply arrived and realized they needed one. These are cuatomers who came off their airplane only to find the stroller that they checked is damaged.
On a recent Hawaii vacation, I joined this group of parents. We arrived at the Maui airport only to find that the compact stroller we had gate checked had been so badly damaged that it would barely roll forward.
The airline was very good about taking pictures of the damage and starting a claim for us but it didn’t help with the fact that we were on Day 1 of a 7 day vacation with no stroller. Carrying around 28lbs of baby for a week was not my idea of a vaction.
I have always told customers that if they were going to gate check a stroller, they should fold it themselves to avoid an airline staff member trying to force an unfamiliar stroller closed. We did that, but couldn’t have forseen them forcefully opening the stroller on the bridge so it was ‘ready’ for us when we walked off the plane.
The claims process has just begun and I will attempt to get full reimbursement for the stroller when we get back to Calgary. Let me just say, an $18 stroller at Walmart is not my idea of a family friendly vacation.
