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Are you going to fly US - India with a kid ?
How do you keep a kid entertained on board an airplane?
What about Onboard snacks for your kid?

There are many such questions which come to mind. Here are some quick tips which can make your next family travel more convenient.

1  planning the date :
Less crowds means less stress! If you have the option, book your flights for non-peak travel times: Mondays - Wednesdays, at midday, or in the evening.

2   Packing :
Pack plenty of entertainment for the flight, including snacks, drinks, and activities. Bring far more than you think you’ll need–you never know if you’ll be delayed.
* What to bring? Pack activities such as books, activity/coloring books, travel-sized board games, playing cards, and CD players. If your child has a portable video game system or LeapPad®, you will never appreciate it more. (Be sure to charge it the night before!)

3  Prepare your child:
Prepare your child for the trip. Tell him what to expect at the airport and on the plane, and give him tips for how to behave. (When checking or screening baggage, reassure your child he will get his belongings back — something many kids worry about.)
* Remind your child that it’s illegal to make any kind of jokes about bombs. According to the FAA, even a child’s jest can result in fines and delays.

4  Time to board
Take-offs and landings can be painful for little ears. Bring along ear filters, which buffer eardrums against rapidly changing air pressure. Encourage your child to swallow by offering beverages, gum, or hard candy.
* For maximum entertainment valve, bring toys out one at a time, and put one away before introducing the next.

5  Use of restrooms
Make your kids use the toilets before boarding the aircraft as they are spacious and much cleaner compared to the aircraft ones! Carry baby wipes as you will need them a lot in-flight for a  quick wipe up. Be sure to put them in a place easily accessible to you throughout the flight.

6  Seat choice
Only choose bulkhead seats if your baby needs a baby bassinet. If not get any other seats in preference. My reason for this is that at the bulkhead seats the armrest cannot be moved, while in normal seats the armrests can go up. This is far better if your baby wants to lie down on the seat with her head on your lap.

Federal Aviation Administration strongly recommends that smaller children be seated in Child Restraint Systems (”CRS”) — in other words, your child’s car seat or booster.

Here are the FAA’s weight guidelines regarding child safety seats:

* For babies less than 20 lbs., use a rear-facing car seat

* For children 20 - 40 lbs., use a forward-facing car seat or booster

* For kids weighing more than 40 lbs., use the airplane seat belt

7  Ear pressure
If your baby is on a bottle or breastfeeding, give them the bottle or the breast for take-off & landing. It’s the best things for their ears and they will also be relaxed.

If your child is big, then carry cotton or ask for earplugs as soon as you board the aircraft. Make use of them for take-off then save them for landing as the crew may not have any fresh ones left by then. This helps the kids tremendously if they don’t know how to pop their ears.

8  Health

If your child has a cold please ensure you have seen a doctor before the flight to check if the child is fit to fly. Even if the doctor says it’s OK, please use your judgment. I see kids flying a cold and they really are in a  bad state for take-off & landing. It is extremely painful for them if they are all congested & blocked up and they cannot pop their ears. It is very dangerous to their eardrums too!

9  Bottle heating

If you ask the crew to heat up the baby bottle, please check the temperature of the liquid yourself periodically and don’t depend on the crew. They are extremely busy and no-one is free even for 5 minutes to stand by the bottle. Crew can unfortunately forget about your bottle for a long time and most crew in Ecomony Class are not mothers themselves (as they are very young) so they do not necessarily know the right temperature for a child’s feed.

Crew are most willing to help you but please remember, they are extremely busy.

10  Rubbish

Get a carrier / plastic bag from the crew, to put your garbage in and keep your area clean. Carry fragranced bags to dispose of daipers and put them in the toilet bins.

Bonus tip: Clothes

Carry a change of clothes for your child ALWAYS and it is advisable to carry a change of top / t-shirt for yourself too. You NEVER know when you will need it…

Recently my mom was scheduled to travel to Mumbai from San Francisco on Lufthansa flight. I was looking for some companion on same flight. Someone to stop by her seat a couple of times during the flight and make sure that she is being taken care of. She doesn’t speak English, which creates a big challenge for her to get to correct gate on transit.

I tried all sorts of options to find companion:

1) Asked all friends to check if someone was traveling by same Airlines.
2) Registered with Travel companion websites like:  sulekha.com, safarsaathi.com, humrahi.net.
3) As a backup I requested wheelchair option although my mom is fit & fine.
4) Posted emails on mailing list at work place and local temple community.

Nothing worked for me.

My mom was stressed out whole month before flight since she was nervous to travel alone. I was worried too, however I kept saying to my mom that “It cools! You will be OK!”

On the day of flight we went to airport early and waited close to Check in queue. As soon as we see some Desi guy or family, we would smile, go next to them and ask “Are you guys heading for Mumbai?”

Third person we spoke to turned out to be a couple with a 3 year old kid who were there to fly Mumbai. We explained our situation and requested if they would help us by making sure that Mom gets some company. They were more than happy to help my Mom.

This couple was of big help, next day I spoke to Mom after she reached Mumbai and she told me about how helpful that couple was.

I promised myself next time when I am traveling to India, I will look around for Parents, smile and just check with them if they needed any help.

Last blog we wrote about the Star Alliance Frequent Flyer of the month. This month we introduce you to the Frequent Flyer Program of Emirates.

In the past quarter or so Emirates has started service from major airports in US to the most of the big cities in India, if it did not have one already existing. So as traveller to India, you are more likely to choose Emirates over other airlines, given that this airline gives good deals on air tickets to India.

Emirates Frequent Flyer program is called SkyWards. Its got 3 tiers, starts with Blue, then as you accumulate miles you upgrade to Silver, and subsequently to the Gold Tier. The Skywards miles can be redeemed not only for Emirates Flights, but also partner airlines of Emirates like

- Continental Airlines,
- Japan Airlines,
- Kingfisher Airlines,
- Korean Air,
- South African Airways,
- United Airlines
- Virgin Blue.

A roundtrip flight from India to USA consists of 15,000 to 16,000 miles depending on starting and ending points, for a family of 2 adults and 1 or more children this can add up to around 40-50,000 miles. These miles can be used in India to fly local with Jet Airways or Kingfisher Airlines, or you can redeem these when you come back to US, while flying with Continental / United. So next time plan to buy tickets to India,  don’t forget to ask your travel agent about getting yourself enrolled in the Emirates SkyWards program.

In the days since you downloaded the DesiCow.com we have updated the US-India Travel kit, adding printable labels for your bags. Just print the label, write your name, address and phone numbers and stick them on to your bags. Happy Flying!!!

If a typical Desi family of 2 adults and 1 or more kids fly to India, every year, they accumulate a lot of miles. If you only spend a short time to learn about earning and consolidating frequent flyer (or buyer) miles, who knows you can earn atleast one ticket free every 2-3 year or so…

We will talk briefly about some Frequent Flyer programs… this time we start with Star Alliance. Star Alliance is the world’s first and largest airline alliance. It was founded in 1997, with 5 members; it has since grown to 21 participating airlines.

The advantage of flying through Star Alliance is that you can redeem miles that you accumulated from any Star Alliance member airline for any Star Alliance member flights. So you can redeem your Airline miles from say Singapore Airlines, in a flight operated by United Airlines, because both these airlines are part of Star Alliance.

Some of the participating airlines in Star Alliance are:

1. Singapore Airlines
2. United Airlines
3. US Airways
4. Air Canada
5. Lufthansa
6. Air India was scheduled to be a full member by mid-2009
7. Continental Airlines is scheduled to be a full member by September 2009

According to the Star Alliance Website, this is what you need to do to get your frequent flyer miles.

1. Quote your frequent flyer number every time you book with any Star Alliance member airline or travel provider. Your number appears on your membership card.
2. Show your membership card when you check in for any flight to ensure you earn your miles or points.
3. Save your passenger receipts and boarding passes. If your miles or points do not appear on your account, send your tickets and boarding passes to your frequent flyer programme service centre and have them credited to your account. Allow six to eight weeks from the date of request.

We will write more about Frequent Flyer Programs of airlines in subsequent newsletters… Till then… fly smart.

Best regards from The DesiCow.com Team.

I recently got married and went to a place called Coorg, for my honeymoon. We purchased our air tickets to India, packed our bags and were off to Coorg. It is a beautiful option for the India Traveler who wishes to go to a hill station on the Western Ghats (the mountain range on the western part India). It is located between dense green valleys, high mountains and lush teak wood forests. It lies on the southwestern end of the state of Karnataka, in southern part of India.

Getting Here:

• Closest Airport: For international tourists, the closest international airport is at Bangalore has(260 km), Mangalore has a domestic airport (135 km). The ride from Bangalore is 5 and a half hours by air conditioned taxi.
  
• Closest Railway Station: Mysore (146 km)
• Road: The Mysore - Mangalore highway (NH48) passes through Kodagu. The district headquarters Madikeri (Mercara), is 260 km from Bangalore and 120 km from Mysore. The distance from Mangalore is 136 km and from Cannanore and Tellicherry, it is about 115 km. There are regular buses plying from these places to Madikeri.

Best Time To Visit: April to November

Activities: There are a lot of activities that Coorg offers for the traveller.

• Trekking: Coorg has many verdant trekking routes in the midst of forests and hills, and it’s best to go in the months from October to February

• Golf: For avid golfers there is a 9-hole course at Virajpet.

• Angling: Valanoor is the backwater of the river Cauvery. It attracts fishing lovers from all over India. The best season is from October to May.

• White Water Rafting: There are a few good camps around Coorg that offer rafting down the Cauvery river. For some fast paced action, visit the Upper Barapole River to the south of Coorg in Brahmagiri. The best time for rafting is from mid-June to mid-September.

• Food: Coorgi food is famous and unique, especially for non-vegetarians as it is based on game meats, pork and other delicious ingredients. Popular dishes are pandhi (pork), koli (chicken) and yarchi (lamb) spiced with pepper, kokum, bamboo shoot, red chilly, bembla curry, kadumbuttu, noolputu, voti and excellent coffee.

• Shopping: Some of the popular items to buy are coffee, honey, spices, cardamom, pepper, pineapple papads and oranges ( season). Coorgi silk saree are also very famous and they have a different style of wearing them.

• Fairs & Festivals: Schedule your visit to coincide with one of the colorful festivals of the region. The festivals of the Kodava community are largely around agriculture military activities.
  
• The ‘Festival of Arms - Keilpoldu’ is held in the months of June to September. During this festival the weapons are polished and worshipped before resuse.
• Cauvery Shankaramana is based around the river Cauver is held in October.
• The harvest festival ‘Puthar’ is celebrated in November or December. The festival is accompanied by folks songs and dances, performed by the different villagers at their temples.

While flying within India. I have personally experienced low standard as far Customer support is concern. However this video shows that even the flight safety level in India is not up to best world standard. Its funny and scary how these maintenance people use some kind of duct tape to fix a wing of an commercial plane, which is about to go for a flight.

This is something that happened a couple of years ago when I was fresh from India. I’m sure many of you may have had similar experiences. (Of course my tickets, paid for by my employer, were purchased from Desi Travel Agents, though it is a less known fact that travel agents get you the best of deals on air tickets).

Having recently opened an account with Bank of America, I had to go over to the bank, which was across the street to inquire about something. My office was on the outskirts of the city, so ample space available for parking, courtyard, small lakes, beautiful trees, wild birds, lawn…..

So here I was at a the edge of a road junction, admiring the lawn, the trees and the birds, the beautiful pond, and the sunny weather. Suddenly I realized that a big SUV has stopped about 20 feet away from me while I was looking the other way. The lady driving the now stationary car moved her hand suggesting that I cross the road. And for a split second I was amazed….. too amazed to understand what was happening. I swiftly took control of the situation, realizing that she assumed that I was standing there to cross, with a motion of my hand I conveyed that I’m not going to cross, and took small steps in the direction I wanted to actually go (along the road) with a smile which I hope, conveyed a THANK-YOU. The car then left…. but I couldn’t take the smile off my face.  WOW !!! I was left to myself with a big sensation of WOW. People actually wait for pedestrians to cross first, and then drive away. Though now I take it for granted that they will stop.

In the flight to USA, they showed instructions on the in-flight video display about immigration and customs formailties. For most of the visas that are applicable to ppl from India, we need to fill form I-94. Tired & half asleep I watched the details in the flight video, not understanding much. Luckily for me, there was an experienced desi gentleman next to me who helped me to fill out the form. Though, I had to make 3 attempts before getting everything right on the form.

Soon we landed at Washington D.C (it was Dulles Airport IAD, I think), stood in line for the Immigration. I was still quite groggy, and sleepy from the flight. They told me to wait behind a yellow line, till the officer calls. Other ppl got calls from their respective officers, but unfortunately for me,  I stood there waiting for the officer to call. But he wouldn’t call !!!! Now what, my tired half asleep mind panicked. I stood there for what seemed like tens of minutes. After a long time, a security guard told me loudly (I’m sure he was angry), why are you waiting, go to the counter. “Arre but”, I thought, “its written on the board to not go till you are called.”

So then, I gathered some courage and started to go to the counter, certain that i’m going to be scolded by the immigration officer for coming to the counter without him calling me. Luckily for me, there was no shouting. I think that officer didn’t want to work that day, so he just didn’t call me.

Then came the usual verification of original docs, passport, & taking the I-94. Once all that was completed, the officer stamped the I-94 form with my immigration status. Gave me the rubber stamped Customs form, to be given at the customs declaration counter. Much relieved, I was like…..  America here I come …..

There are lot of advantage Travel agents will get out of Desicow.com

From my past experience I am positive that desicow.com will eventually become a popular brand and destination for amongst desi community for buying tickets.

I spoke to couple of Travel agents and found that they get business from
* local customers/buyers directed from classifieds etc
* referred by friend and family

Desicow.com will give you 100 of additional ticket leads from all over USA. There are many Travel agents who advertise on websites like sulekha, desi magazines etc . Desicow.com helps you to get in touch directly with ticket buyer.

Desicow.com will get more and more users through word of mouth, and organic growth on internet.

Travel agents who associates early with Desicow.com will get more privileges in near future.

DesiCow.com is a simple website which solves one real life problem.

I am from Mumbai living in USA and every year I make a visit to home. Every year while its time to buy Air ticket, I will start talking to my friends and find out about some travel agents they know of. I will make a list of 4 to 5 travel agents[from friend's referral, Indian magazines and online yellow pages].

Once I get quote from these agents, I go ahead and buy ticket from Agent who gives best price and sounds good in dealing.

DesiCow.com eventually make this process more streamlined.

* Users submit their trip details
* Travel agents submit quote they can offer
* User buys ticket from agents directly.

The advantage here is Travel agents all over nation[USA] will get access to you trip request. There are very good chances that you will find best price quote on desicow.com