The Mean Airline and the Awesome Scooter

When Flea was almost three, we were sent a Mini Micro Scooter to review.

Of all the outdoor toys we’ve ever tried, this is the one was used most consistently – the three-wheel design means even young children get the hang of scooting very quickly, while the ‘lean to steer’ feature means no jackknifing accidents.

However, by the age of six, we suspected Flea was starting to grow a little tall for her scooter – incidents of falling over the handlebars were becoming a bit more frequent. We looked at the 2-wheel scooters for older kids but I didn’t want to lose the stability and ease of the Micro Scooter.

So we invested in a Maxi Micro Scooter – still with three wheels, but with a height-adjustable front bar that meant we could make the whole thing a bit more suitable for Flea’s size. And it gave us lots of growing room – the Maxi Micro scooter is suitable for ages 6-12.

Flea adored her new scooter, so much that we decided to take it with us on holiday to France last month. The handlebar slides out of the scooter base really easily, allowing us to store the scooter in a suitcase and re-assemble it at the other end. Flea used the scooter throughout our holiday and it really was great to know we could walk quite long distances without her getting tired.

We only hit a problem when it came time to come home. The handlebar was jammed and couldn’t be removed from the scooter base. We tried screwdrivers and spanners, to no avail. We took apart the scooter base, but couldn’t get to the mechanism that was jammed. (When I say we, I mean the rep at the resort, obviously – I am not to be trusted with tools).

Unsure what to do, we took the scooter to the airport and asked about sending the scooter as excess luggage. No dice. We were flying with Ryanair and could only add luggage on the website, which I couldn’t do as I hadn’t purchased the flight tickets – it was a review trip, booked by the holiday company.

Sadly, we had to leave Flea’s Maxi Micro scooter at Biarritz airport, where I tell Flea the luggage handlers are now taking turns using it to get from one terminal to another. As you can imagine, though, having spent £90 on the scooter, I was less than thrilled with Ryanair’s policy. Bloody budget airlines. Why do they make things so difficult?

I mentioned our loss to Micro Scooters and they very kindly sent us a replacement scooter – the brilliant limited edition Union Jack Maxi Micro scooter, which is suitable for kids aged 6-12, and comes complete with a drinks holder at the front, which Flea thinks is incredibly cool. You can buy them online for around £100.

If you have young children I can’t recommend these scooters highly enough – they’re lightweight, easy to use and really good quality – after three years Flea’s old micro scooter is still good as new, and is actually now being ridden by the three year old who lives next door. The Union Jack scooter is also available as a limited edition in the Mini Micro size, which is perfect for kids aged 3-5, and costs around £65.

As reviewers and purchasers, we’ve found the customer service at Micro Scooters to be fantastic – when we lost a nut from the wheels of Flea’s first scooter, we called the customer service number on the website, and were sent a replacement within days, complete with a small gift for Flea – which I thought was a lovely gesture.

All in all, we’d recommend these scooters without hesitation – great value, lots of fun for kids and you’ll get LOADS of use out of them. Plus, we’ve found the new designs do have the added bonus of not getting mixed up with the other scooters at the playground!

Disclosure: Micro Scooters did provide us with a free scooter for the purposes of this review. But we had already bought one, because we think they’re pretty great.

12 thoughts on “The Mean Airline and the Awesome Scooter”

  1. I hate when things like that happen, that’s why I always struggle when packing and I never know what to bring with me. But in all bad situations, there is something good and it is awesome that Micro scooters sent you a replacement.

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