February 2010 Filers - California Service Center

[twowls 217]

Could you stop spitting venom around especially when someone's trying to help you? As you were informed, Air France takes cats on board. Check their website. They fly from London to Phoenix with 2 layovers in times between 16 hours 20 mins to 20 hours 42 mins. Lotsa choices for you. I'm sure your child (not the kid as you refer to it as if it was a thing you just had to drag behind) will be able to survive the trip just fine (even with 2 stops), especially if you bring her fav toys, nice snacks, the cat that she loves, she could watch some movie and you could give her some love too. Lots of kids travel on planes. Maybe your child would feel less anxious in general if you didn't keep stressing the small stuff (which can be solved easily btw) and provide her love, support and a fun life. I'm sure there are hotels in Phoenix that are pet friendly. And if you have to do the 2 hour drive, why don't you make it fun and stop on the way to show your child fun stuff and make her life more fun in general.

Good god! The people on this thread have been chatting and working through things together for some time, and I think the familiar tone of Sundrop's post is lost on you. She's been an amazing good sport and an incredible help to us, and her posting her exasperated thoughts about transit options is about as far away from "spitting venom" as it could be. This was really inappropriate.

[SunDrop 59]

Could you stop spitting venom around especially when someone's trying to help you? As you were informed, Air France takes cats on board. Check their website. They fly from London to Phoenix with 2 layovers in times between 16 hours 20 mins to 20 hours 42 mins. Lotsa choices for you. I'm sure your child (not the kid as you refer to it as if it was a thing you just had to drag behind) will be able to survive the trip just fine (even with 2 stops), especially if you bring her fav toys, nice snacks, the cat that she loves, she could watch some movie and you could give her some love too. Lots of kids travel on planes. Maybe your child would feel less anxious in general if you didn't keep stressing the small stuff (which can be solved easily btw) and provide her love, support and a fun life. I'm sure there are hotels in Phoenix that are pet friendly. And if you have to do the 2 hour drive, why don't you make it fun and stop on the way to show your child fun stuff and make her life more fun in general.

You know what, ** you.

When you've had a child born 8 weeks premature, weighing 1.1kgs who developed meningitis when she was still not due for another 2 weeks, revived her at home twice while waiting for an ambulance, witnessed her ventilated, with arterial lines in 3 limbs, sedated and on morphine, and then suffered through the PTSD that comes with that, lost your marriage to the ensuing emotional wreckage and battled for 10 years to get her the help she has needed since birth, to finally this week have received a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder and ADHD traits with underlying extreme anxiety, you are qualified to tell me to stop sweating the small stuff and just give her some love and distract her with movies and favourite toys. And while you're at it, find me ANY 10 year old who is going to enjoy "stopping on the way" after 20 something hours of travel at 9pm in the frigging night, but more like 5am in their body clock and they've been up for 26 hours. And how dare you suggest that I don't love my daughter.

And "the kid" happens to be a very common term of reference for children in many parts of England, and in my family happens to be particularly affectionate as it was used by my Grandmother to refer to us all. My daughter happens to think it's hilarious, and laughs telling me "I'm not a goat!!" But hey, that's ASD for you.

Thanks, OJ, for the constructive help and advice. Always can depend on you for this kind of quality support. Never would have dawned on me to check Air France's website.

edited to override the censor

Edited April 25, 2010 by SunDrop

[SunDrop 59]

Everybody goes together! Take valium with you. There will be pet-friendly hotels.

Heya

Yup, that's what we've concluded. We'll all share the same transatlantic flight over to Houston and since the Holiday Inn near the airport is pet-friendly for $50 a day, we'll take an earlier flight to Phoenix. This will allow us to check into the hotel, which has an airport shuttle service, and K and Ry can nap and I'll head back to the airport to meet n greet moggy. I'm sure K will want to come with, but at least she'll have had the opportunity to get a little sleep.

Late to bed and late to eat we try and avoid as much as humanly possible, so we always struggle with travel to the US (or back) because it takes a lot out of her. And valium.... sounds heavenly! For me, lol. I would if I could, but I have to be totally with it for her sake.

I also concluded that although £600 is a lot of money, it allows us to just concentrate on getting through the flights with K and would actually be more humane for the cat too. At least this way, she gets to stretch out, have a drink and go potty while she's in Houston. And then I'll take the valium once we get to Tucson and step-gramma is there to entertain and distract for a couple hours! lol

[twowls 217]

So sorry to hear that story Sundrop. I hope you don't spend anymore time on this. It is--deeply, unequivocally--not worth it.

Thanks for all you've done.

[Wishing 1]

Good god! The people on this thread have been chatting and working through things together for some time, and I think the familiar tone of Sundrop's post is lost on you. She's been an amazing good sport and an incredible help to us, and her posting her exasperated thoughts about transit options is about as far away from "spitting venom" as it could be. This was really inappropriate.

"APPLAUSE!!!"

[Wishing 1]

I second that, thanks Sundrop you've been such a help to all of us and such a crucial part of the Feb Filers 2010:) VJ is a site to be able to share our ideas, our frustrations, our emotions during this very unique and trying process. Sending you hugs

[Varyag 0]

Heya

Yup, that's what we've concluded. We'll all share the same transatlantic flight over to Houston and since the Holiday Inn near the airport is pet-friendly for $50 a day, we'll take an earlier flight to Phoenix. This will allow us to check into the hotel, which has an airport shuttle service, and K and Ry can nap and I'll head back to the airport to meet n greet moggy. I'm sure K will want to come with, but at least she'll have had the opportunity to get a little sleep.

Late to bed and late to eat we try and avoid as much as humanly possible, so we always struggle with travel to the US (or back) because it takes a lot out of her. And valium.... sounds heavenly! For me, lol. I would if I could, but I have to be totally with it for her sake.

I also concluded that although £600 is a lot of money, it allows us to just concentrate on getting through the flights with K and would actually be more humane for the cat too. At least this way, she gets to stretch out, have a drink and go potty while she's in Houston. And then I'll take the valium once we get to Tucson and step-gramma is there to entertain and distract for a couple hours! lol

Sundrop,

Thanks for all the hardwork you have done with updates on February, even though I'm a March filer, I wait for your updated list to come out and enjoy seeing new names pop up on the NOA2 list. Keep it up if time allows!!!

Btw. you sound like a responsible mom and more power to you and your family I don't where anyone could get a different idea otherwise!

Speaking of flights have you checked your flights through www.orbitz.com? I don't know where in the UK you would be flying in from, but I checked from London to Tucson, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic also fly this route... Maybe something worth checking out if you haven't already. Your other options seem crazy expensive. My other suggestion would have been to fly into Phoenix and drive to Tucson and the first night at a hotel....

Edited April 25, 2010 by Varyag

[Wishing 1]

To top it all off, you are taking great care in planning ahead for the well fare and well being of your family. You sound like such an amazing, caring mother. All I can say is seriously? Where does this person get off saying these things...

[Ovaltine Jenkins 5]

Sorry to hear about your situation but you aren't the only one with a prematurely born child. That still doesn't give you the right to call her a goat (as your child views it). Anyway, I actually gave you the info so your info about how things have changed is not accurate. Besides that, if you are really putting your child first, why are you dragging her across half of the world? Your boyfriend could learn how to cook good Mexican food and move to the UK

[bakofoil 27]

Good god! The people on this thread have been chatting and working through things together for some time, and I think the familiar tone of Sundrop's post is lost on you. She's been an amazing good sport and an incredible help to us, and her posting her exasperated thoughts about transit options is about as far away from "spitting venom" as it could be. This was really inappropriate.

So, when someone unfamiliar to this thread drops by and offers their advice and experience on flying a cat out from the UK to the US, advice which may offer an unexplored angle and save the OP some money, it's appropriate to respond with sarcasm and derision? It's one thing being exasperated with your options but entirely another thing to be exasperated with someone who is trying to help by giving their time and advice freely on a public message board. It's also very much up to the OP to set the right kind of tone if one doesn't want to feel misunderstood. Having experienced unfortunate and upsetting experiences in life doesn't excuse anyone from deriding others with a superior tone or just being plain rude.

[Otto 83]

I'd like to add - All members are encouraged to participate in open discussions, but must keep the TOS in mind when doing so. For example:

By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree that when using the Service [VJ], you will not:

Make comments in a Post either direct or implied toward another member that are purposely designed to upset, antagonize, make fun of, belittle, or otherwise instigate an argument that takes away from the personal enjoyment of the Service by other users.

Please continue to enjoy and contribute to this thread - minus any personal/off-color comments. Stress affects us all differently and there is no need to add to anyone's stress-level (in fact, we should be trying to reduce that level whenever we can).

Thank you, in advance.

[Jeraly 4]

Well there's a challenge if I ever heard one. If someone can find me an airline that'll fly us from London to Tucson or Phoenix, 1 stopover, less than 20 hours total travel time (take-off to final landing plus stopover time) and allow a cat on board, I'll quite happily and genuinely throw a couple hundred squid into your bank account. Delta don't allow animals on board transatlantic from the UK, Ireland, South Africa, UAE and somewhere else. Neither do BA, nor Continental, nor American. And only Continental will carry her as cargo and only to Phoenix because Tucson doesn't have climate controlled transportation from the aircraft to the .. wherever they go.

And those flight requirements are not just for the sake of the cat, but also my extremely anxious 10 year old. If it were only me, it would be an entirely different story. And yes, the £609 was using a company. And yes, a lot has changed in 6 months, nevermind 2 years.

You forgot to mention Air France who I flew with with no stopovers. Maybe they don't fly to PHX - I can't say I have checked, but I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't use a major airport like that. TBH I don't really care - no challenge was issued - I was merely trying to be helpful. If you don't want help, then that is absolutely fine. It just sounded from the tone of your post that you were at your wit's end and I was trying to offer some advice and insight from personal experience. I won't bother next time

[Jeraly 4]

Didn't have time to edit my post so here:

ETA:

If you wanted to fly with Delta you can find more information here

If you want to travel with Air France you can find more information here

I just used Google - I really don't see how it can cost so much. However, I do understand the stress about taking a pet with you - I was paranoid about it, but everything was fine. It is always much easier to look back with a bit of experience behind you and see things more clearly. Hopefully these links will help. Good luck!

[haze and ced 0]

Hi everyone, the past 2 weeks has been been very busy that I wasn't able to follow the thread. First off, congratulations to those that were approved and to those that are still waiting, lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that you'll soon receive your NOA2s as well. I would also like to say thank you to sundrop for her efforts to put up and update the list as it has helped a lot of us, not only the feb filers, but the march filers as well . My fiance told me yesterday that a letter (or packet?)from the embassy was sent to their house a couple of days ago, and I'm pretty sure it's the packet 3 (yey!). Right now we're on the process of getting the list completed and I will be sending my affidavit of support for him on Monday. We're planning to set his interview date around mid-june if everything goes well. So for the list, ours will be: Haze & Ced (Philippines) P3 rec'd: 22 Apr (56/21 days)

God bless!

[bainbridge558 0]

Hi everyone, the past 2 weeks has been been very busy that I wasn't able to follow the thread. First off, congratulations to those that were approved and to those that are still waiting, lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that you'll soon receive your NOA2s as well. I would also like to say thank you to sundrop for her efforts to put up and update the list as it has helped a lot of us, not only the feb filers, but the march filers as well . My fiance told me yesterday that a letter (or packet?)from the embassy was sent to their house a couple of days ago, and I'm pretty sure it's the packet 3 (yey!). Right now we're on the process of getting the list completed and I will be sending my affidavit of support for him on Monday. We're planning to set his interview date around mid-june if everything goes well. So for the list, ours will be: Haze & Ced (Philippines) P3 rec'd: 22 Apr (56/21 days)

God bless!