[kittylady1972]

DAY 1: The day is finally HERE! I hardly sleep the night before and we're up early and ready to leave the house by 6:30am for our 8:45am flight out of Baltimore. It's a short ride to the airport and after some confusion about if we were picking up Frank's parents at their house or they were meeting at ours, I remind my husband that the FINAL decision was for us to go get them. No worries...they live only a quick 5-10 minute drive away. So we get the kids packed in the car, pick up the 'rents, and we are headed to the airport. Yippee!

After some real issues with Southwest during our last time using them in January of 2006, we have chosen AirTran for this trip. Checkin is smooth, we are through security without any issues...well almost. My MIL, as I may have mentioned, had hip replacement surgery in February of this year. She still uses a cane and has a card designating the hip replacement, but of course she sounds of the alarm and is whisked back to the "special" room of security to be wanded while my FIL waits for her. Frank, myself and the kids get through security no problem and we all make it to the gate in plenty of time. We end up grabbing some breakfast at the airport since we did not eat before leaving the house.

We glance at our boarding passes as we wait at the gate which happen to have a level on each of them that designates how early you get to board. This is similar to Southwest's A, B, C designation, only we all have assigned seats so there's no advantage really for us and well checked in at the same time on the same itinerary, so it's odd that some are different. A man at the gate assures us that since we are travelling with kids, they'll be okay with us all boarding together and they won't make the kids, if they have lower numbers, go without us! My FIL actually approaches the gate agent to inquire about MIL boarding a bit earlier due to her lack of movement and the cane, and they assure him that won't be a problem.

About 30 minutes before board, they call our name at the gate: "Caddeo, party of seven, to the front please" and I'm thinking "what now?" As it turns out, they are upgrading us to business class, ALL OF US, for FREE! AirTran is now our new FAVORITE airline! The problem, as we soon find out, is that the 7 seats are scattered randomly among the 12 available seats. I'm in row 1, my kids are scattered in row 2 and 3, etc. but thankfully the 5 passengers already in business class are very accomodating and allow us to all sit together. Yeah!

This business class thing...what a deal! From the moment our butts hit the seats they are all about helpful...can we get you something to drink? The flight isn't even all loaded yet. Wow, this is awesome! It turns out to be an extra blessing as 8:45am (our flight time) comes around and we are not moving...at all. Turns out there is an issue where the cabin emergency lighting is not working properly and they can't take off without it and they are fixing it as we sit there. The poor people in coach just sit and wait, while we are being given drinks and snacks and such. The captain even walks up and talks to me in business class, very nice. After about 25 minutes, they announce the replacement bulb doesn't work and we will probably need to switch airplanes. Oh wonderful! As we all start to stand up and gather our stuff, we hear "It's FIXED!" and then a few more minutes as they get clearance to stay put again. We're off about 30 to 45 minutes later than planned, but we are OFF! The kids, who have not flown since 2006, are just SO EXCITED during takeoff. All you hear among the business class area are "Wow!" and screams of joy from each of them, it's too cute!