Airport Security 2003

  • 14:00 Taxi to airport ($20.00: $17.00 plus tip).
  • 14:40 Through security. The airlines have a new self-checkin system where you swipe your credit card and get your baggage claim and boarding passes printed. Then you haul your bags to the inspector, ensure they are unlocked and leave them. Next through the security check. Two different people check your boarding pass. You have to take off your shoes (it’s a good thing I gave myself a pedicure yesterday) and put your belongings in trays, leaving the computers open to scrutiny. I was very worried about someone stealing this Powerbook so I went first, but it didn’t do any good as they put it through the system before either AJM or I could get through ourselves. Then at the other end is jostling and grabbing for belongings with no check whatever, even though purses and billfolds are left to public view. Just trying to get one’s shoes back, and the security worker grabbing up the baskets almost before they are emptied. It was a humiliating mess.
  • 15:00 Plug into a wall socket to charge up the Powerbook while I write and listen to iTunes.

One Reply to “Airport Security 2003”

  1. FM says:

    I have to agree with you that the way US airports work as far as keeping an eye on your belongings is rather unsafe. I’ve been working at a Canadian airport security for 20 years now and let me tell you I always let the passenger get to the other end before his computer. As for your billfold, did you know that here in Canada you are not obligated to put it in th x-ray? Unless, of course, the frisking agent, after asking you to open every compartment in it to have a look, asks you to do so because he’s not satisfied. That’s the way it should work in a logical airport world.

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