While it can take years for most of us to rack up enough airline miles to take a trip a quarter of the way across the country, one little baby just got set up with enough frequent flyer points to last until she's at least old enough to start driving. Haven, a baby who was born on a Cebu Pacific Air flight halfway between Dubai and the Philippines, was given the birthday gift of a whopping 1 million air miles by the airline, the Guardian reported.
Haven's mother went into labor Sunday after the flight had been airborne for four hours. Little Haven was born five weeks before she was expected to greet the world, but the aircraft's crew was able to find two nurses on board who assisted Haven's mom with the birth. Mark Martin, the flight's cabin crew lead, told the Guardian two flight attendants working the flight are also trained nurses and were able to help.
A passenger aboard the flight, Missy Berberabe Umandal, posted her account of Haven's birth to Facebook, writing,
Flight attendants started calling for medical assistance, and luckily, there were two nurses among the passengers. She [the mother] was already crowning, so she was brought to the more spacious area in front of the plane. We only heard one semi-loud screech, and a few seconds later, there were tinier, cute screeches, and it was when we knew the baby was born. Luckily, she only had to push ONCE. Moments later, the woman got up to go back to her seat, baby in arms (mighty strong, I might say). There were 2 other babies with us in the front row, and one of the passengers had a suitcase full of infant clothes and necessities, which could not have come at a better time. The flight attendants took a shelf from the cabinets and filled it with mineral water, which became a makeshift wash basin to clean the baby in.
Cebu Pacific Air posted on Facebook Wednesday that Haven was the first baby ever to be born on one of its flights and decided to celebrate the milestone and Haven's safe delivery by giving her 1 million points through the airline's GETGO frequent flyer points program. The Facebook post added that Haven would be able to share the points with her family (family vacation anyone?).
The flight was redirected to Hyderabad, India so that Haven and her mom could get further medical attention.
