As a seller of travel, a consumer of travel, and a mom of three under six, I want to share with you my personal #1 international travel “must-have”. It’s how I get off the plane, out of the airport, and into my hotel room, a glass of champagne in hand, as quickly as possible. It’s also how I survive immigration and customs with jet-lagged kids on commercial air.
THE VIP MEET & GREET
I have three words. Charles de Gaulle. It only takes one time experiencing CDG for it to be forever added to your collection of vaguely scarring, and most definitely awkward, European moments. Emerging from the dimly lit plane into utter chaos and the lighting of a fluorescent-bulbed nightmare, you are assaulted by the discombobulation of humanity. Dozens of different languages talking. People are riding crazy escalators going up, down, sideways, and I swear in circles! Which chute do you slide down to get to your line? Your bleary, jet-lagged brain is barely able to string a coherent sentence together, much less navigate an MC Escher sketch.
Aha! At last! You see it! Immigration & customs…AND the queue! The dreaded non-EU resident queue, which basically is the “everyone else in the world” line. By the way, you have kids. Very tired, very grumpy, very restless, very confused, and very hungry. Kids. Did I mention also very hungry?
For those of you thinking, “Well that’s Paris. Of course, it’s weird. They’re French.”, we made the mistake of thinking we could handle things at Heathrow with our 18-month-old because it’s England. Non-continent, Europe-lite, English-speaking England. Practically a puddle jump from New York. How hard could it be? We’re seasoned. We’re pros. We got this!
We did not. Standing at the end of a line of 500 strong, our son in next-level meltdown mode, London airport security tapped us on the shoulder and led us to a kiosk they had apparently opened just for us, then closed the moment we had our passports stamped. I like to think it was an act of merciful kindness on their part, but I know deep down it was an act of self-preservation.
This is why I never travel overseas without the VIP Meet & Greet. Not until my children are in high school, and even then I’ll still probably do it. Why wouldn’t you? It’s one of those things you don’t know you need till you have it. It’s the point at which luxury morphs into a necessity.
When you add a VIP Meet & Greet to your trip, it goes something like this: You debark the plane. You’re met by a smiling assistant. The shuffling herd files off to figure out life while YOU, meanwhile, YOU are whisked away through expedited immigrations. Luggage? No worries. Your smiling assistant has pulled them from the carousel. You’re led to a waiting car and driver, and off you go! The ice in the champagne bucket won’t even have begun to melt yet.
Worth every penny.
