When travel goes awry, do not panic!
In this article I share with you my experience of travelling with a baby and the frustrating case of not being allowed through airport security with the necessary baby formula for a 12-hour flight to Cape Town, South Africa.
Having contacted British airways several weeks before our departure date I was rest assured that carrying baby formula in my cabin case was perfectly fine and carried no restrictions. In fact, we were advised against packing baby milk in our suitcases but told to keep all baby liquid in one separate carry on case. So, you could imagine my shock and horror when the rules conveniently changed on the day of our departure.
We had travelled to Toronto only four weeks prior to Cape Town, so I was feeling confident and familiar with the airline’s guidelines on flying with an infant. For Canada, as advised I had also packed a small cabin case containing two boxes of baby formula, that’s 24 small cartons which would feed our son two bottles a day. The sealed cartons were all routinely tested and screened during security and there were no issues, restrictions or questioning at all.
As we headed to the fast-track security lane, I noticed it was slightly busier than usual. There appeared to be more security staff than passengers and things were moving slowly but smoothly, well that was for everyone in line before us but certainly not the case for us!
Our bags and all the usual items were scanned. The baby food and milk were tested and scanned, and everything seemed fine. But just as we were collecting our items from the conveyor a security officer asked my husband why we were travelling with so much baby milk. I intervened and asked him if he knew how much milk is required for a baby for 10 days, which he couldn’t answer. I further pointed out that there was no legal limit to how much baby food and formula one could travel with. At this point the man removed the milk from the tray asserting his discretion that wouldn’t allow us to go through security with the necessary baby formula for our flight journey and vacation.
Having refuted his decision, the officer became annoyed and was infuriated by our questioning. At this stage both our children were in tears, and a long queue had formed with many on lookers.
Confused and annoyed that we were being treated in this manner we told the officer that we had contacted BA prior to us flying and were advised accordingly. He then claimed that he didn’t work for British airlines but on behalf of BA as security for TSA. But there was no one else to confirm this or to assist us in this period of misery. Everyone including the white family before us who also carried a bulk of baby milk and went through security successfully, had turned a blind eye and all the other airport assistants just stood by listening but didn’t say a word.
Made to wait in security for almost 1 hour-it felt longer than that! the unreasonable officer ran back and forth googling searching for an apparent policy that laid out the baby formula restrictions. We stood patiently but disappointed observing other families, who were white of course-I must state this as I do believe we were unnecessary target- stroll through security unchallenged, with baby formula and food for their infants. They received all smiles and were spoken to so politely! This sounds absurd and thinking back I can’t believe we experienced this.
Finally, the officer came back he was holding a device and scrolling through content on the net embarrassingly unable to find anything that would back-up his decision. The only source found on the BA website clearly stated that there was no restriction on baby formula and food. But the officer stubbornly refused to accept this and appeared adamant on causing our family a great deal of stress.
As we tried to reason with him, to make sense of his poor decision, the level of animosity directed towards us was stifling. He singled us out by far and was clearly looking to pick some sort of confrontation with us.
We are no strangers to travelling and I would say we have a good understanding of airport security. When I reflect on the situation, I do wonder why the officer was overwhelming unreasonable to us. And I do believe that our family was treated unfairly, most definitely different from all the non- black families we observed in the queue before and after us.
We were eventually forced to check-in a small hand language with the baby milk, which was done at the risk of knowing that the contents could get damaged or lost in transit. Had this been the case, our child would have been without any formula for the duration of our 10 days stay in Cape Town. Aptamil ready-made formula is hard to come by in other parts of the world as some of you may have found this out yourselves.
But the irony was, once we were finally allowed through security the first shop before us was Boots and there, we were able to purchase excess bottles of Aptamil baby formula, which we packed in our hand luggage ready to board the plane just as we would have in the first instance. So, in case you ever find yourself in this unfortunate situation, do not panic as things may not be as disappointing as you think.
The great news is you can also pre-order whatever you need for your trip to BOOTS and collect once you’re through security, through the reserve and click service. To avoid what we went through, I highly recommend this option. In fact, you can order most of your baby essentials, just be sure you’ve ordered to the Boots in the right terminal!
Our security experience was very uncomfortable, and we were seriously considering cancelling our trip all together. Since returning from our holiday, we have noticed that BA have changed the website page with regards to baby formula, stating that only milk for the flight journey duration is allowed. However, there remains no legal limit to how much baby food and formula you can take aboard. I’d recommend you check with your airport before you travel. And most definitely if you are a black family!
Discriminatory and racist behaviours take many different forms and could leave you feeling drained and unheard. It oppresses and marginalises individuals based primarily on skin colour, ethnicity, nationality.
