Etihad Airways Nanny Service

Ever since I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much many years ago, I have been mortified at the thought of babysitters. In the film, the hotel-arranged babysitter ends up kidnapping the child while the parents are out. If Heidi and I have children one day, any babysitter will be very heavily vetted — the movie continues to haunt me. Perhaps, though, we will find ourselves flying Etihad Airways one day, which offers an onboard nanny on longhaul flights. I absolutely love the concept and think that would be one place where I would be happy to hand the kids over without worry.

A recent interview of a Etihad nanny caught my attention and it is worth a read. It is a total fluff piece, with each answer carefully prepared by Etihad, but even so it is a great look into the program. A noteworthy quote–

I assist all our true VIPs of the flight, the ones that are just over a week old that don’t yet know how precious they are to the world, the ones that are discovering their feet and have mommy chasing them up and down the aisles to the ones that are way too cool to be coloring in and are totally in love with watching movies like “Frozen” and of course, there’s the real special ones that want to be a flight attendant someday so when they meet me they feel today is the day. I see myself as the new and reimagined Mary Poppins.

What Does an Etihad Nanny Do?

An Etihad Nanny plays the following role:

• Greet all children with a special package that has coloring pencils, a book, cards, games, and stickers
• Help children navigate IFE
• Show parents how to block certain movies or games
• Accommodate children’s unique meal times by serving them when they are hungry
• Attempt to quiet or clam the child upon request
• Mind the children while a parent traveling solo takes a restroom break or “quick stretch”

All nannies are trained in the UK and you can spot them onboard by the Ettore Bilotta designed orange aprons. I think this is an incredible customer-friendly concept and I hope it will catch on with other carriers as well. Do you have any experience with an Etihad Nanny?

^{Photos courtesy of Etihad}