![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Guards, guards!
Feb. 8th, 2002 06:45 pmI'm burrowed on a Northwest flight headed to Minneapolis today, after a frazzling morning. I opted to stand by and take an earlier flight from Huntsville this morning, since my business was done... getting a seat was easy. But I brought my ice skates -- a problem. The entire airport only had one X-ray and security station open. I waited in a winding line, increasingly worried about making my flight. Arriving finally at the security station with, oh, 15 minutes to spare.
But then my bag was taken out, handed back and I was told I couldn?t carry it on, I'd have to check it. Even though skates aren't on the official FAA banned list, and I had had no problems with them coming out. I literally ran all the way back to check-in, checked the bag to Memphis (since I didn't know which flight I'd be on, next) and ran back. To the end of the same huge, winding line. No passes, no exceptions.
Flight departure time arrives. Northwest pages me and another passenger over the airport-wide PA system. I go up and appeal -- the technician at the X-ray machine tells me to get back in line, or else he'll have the National Guard take me away. He shouts for "Guards!" Really. And I wasn't being pushy, just pleading. The middle-aged woman staffing the X-ray walk-through makes eye contact, shrugs and silently mouths an apology.
Back in line. Now 5 minutes past departure, and the airline is still paging me on the PA. Finally I get up to the checkpoint again, glare and mutter at the obnoxious technician, run my laptop and case through, and then sprint down the concourse (losing a glove somewhere, sigh) where they are just about to close the door to my flight. But I made it, even though everyone else was held up by 12 minutes.
Then in Memphis, again it was easy to get on an earlier flight to Minneapolis, even getting upgraded. But I had to get a flight, then claim and recheck the carry-on with the skates, while going through security again, all in 45 minutes. So I went to the gate, got a seat assignment on a new flight, then went out to baggage claim. The bag went to a skycap at curbside to avoid the long lines inside. Murphy reared his head again -- I was selected for random checked-bag X-raying. The skycap was great -- she took me inside, got the counter to issue the check tag, then walked me over to the baggage X-ray station. Finally I went back through personal security, and rushed back out to the gate. With 15 minutes to spare, this time.
In Minneapolis, I will have to reclaim the same bag and recheck it, again to San Francisco... going standby is lots of effort with a checked bag! I'm frazzled and I'm only halfway home...
But then my bag was taken out, handed back and I was told I couldn?t carry it on, I'd have to check it. Even though skates aren't on the official FAA banned list, and I had had no problems with them coming out. I literally ran all the way back to check-in, checked the bag to Memphis (since I didn't know which flight I'd be on, next) and ran back. To the end of the same huge, winding line. No passes, no exceptions.
Flight departure time arrives. Northwest pages me and another passenger over the airport-wide PA system. I go up and appeal -- the technician at the X-ray machine tells me to get back in line, or else he'll have the National Guard take me away. He shouts for "Guards!" Really. And I wasn't being pushy, just pleading. The middle-aged woman staffing the X-ray walk-through makes eye contact, shrugs and silently mouths an apology.
Back in line. Now 5 minutes past departure, and the airline is still paging me on the PA. Finally I get up to the checkpoint again, glare and mutter at the obnoxious technician, run my laptop and case through, and then sprint down the concourse (losing a glove somewhere, sigh) where they are just about to close the door to my flight. But I made it, even though everyone else was held up by 12 minutes.
Then in Memphis, again it was easy to get on an earlier flight to Minneapolis, even getting upgraded. But I had to get a flight, then claim and recheck the carry-on with the skates, while going through security again, all in 45 minutes. So I went to the gate, got a seat assignment on a new flight, then went out to baggage claim. The bag went to a skycap at curbside to avoid the long lines inside. Murphy reared his head again -- I was selected for random checked-bag X-raying. The skycap was great -- she took me inside, got the counter to issue the check tag, then walked me over to the baggage X-ray station. Finally I went back through personal security, and rushed back out to the gate. With 15 minutes to spare, this time.
In Minneapolis, I will have to reclaim the same bag and recheck it, again to San Francisco... going standby is lots of effort with a checked bag! I'm frazzled and I'm only halfway home...
