I've been busy dealing with the blowback of leaving my kids on the school doorstep at 5AM--YOU AMERICANS ARE SO UPTIGHT!--which means I'm only just starting to work my way through my photos from our recent European Family Vacation.
And even with strollers, it really is the little differences.
Which were noticeable right out of the airport gate. We were on Lufthansa to France, with a day in Frankfurt--I know, believe me--and what does the little family wheel up to us with? A Lufthansa Airport Loaner Stroller.
It was just a cheap umbrella stroller, but it handily solved the dreaded Airport Last Mile Problem: if you have a larger stroller, or if you want to check it, you're stuck schlepping your kid and your carryons from the curb to the gate. PITA.
The airline benefits from having fewer strollers to gatecheck, too. So it's nice all around. It's not totally clear, but the service looks to be the "buggy hire at the left-luggage offices". In other words, outside the security perimeter, and not free. Hm.
I will say that, though they dropped every possible family ball and then some on our way home, on the way out, Lufthansa's ground people were extraordinary about taking care of families with young kids. And the inter-EU flights both had LH's classic toys, puzzles, and activity packs for the kids. It really reminded us how badly US airlines suck these days.
Agreed on US airlines' crappy service for kids and families. (The services for the elderly and the disabled are much better, even tough many of the airport navigation hurdles are the same.) But something tells me that if a US airline provided that very same stroller, we'd be talking about how cheap a stroller the airline was providing.