Airport Security and Flying in General

We left on Wednesday, June 20th, to visit my family in Minnesota. Flying isn't as much fun as it used to be. We got up at 6:30 AM to get ready for our 11:00 AM flight to Mineapolis/St. Paul via Philadelphia. We were to arrive at our desination at 3:30 PM. Unfortunately, we learned at check-in that our plane was going to be late getting into Albany; this would cause us to arrive in Philadelphia too late to make our connection. The second piece of bad news was, not only would we miss our scheduled flight out of Philadelphia, but there were no other flights with empty seats leaving Philadelphia going to Mpls./St. P. until Thursday. The third piece of bad news was our airline had no other flights going anywhere near Mpls./St. P. with available seats for the rest of the day. (My brother informed me that there are two huge conventions going on this weekend in Mpls. and St. P.). So, the clerk furiously used the computer trying to find any flight on any airline to get us to Mpls./St. P., (MSP) in airline terminology. She finally found a combination of flights that would get us to MSP on our least favorite airline. The flight would leave Albany at 3:30, have a 4 hour lay-over in Detroit and arrive at MSP at "11:10 PM". She sent us over to the default airline to see if they had a better flight arrangement than the one she had found on her computer. Agent #2 at default airlines also checked furiously on her computer but could not find a better plan so she asked us if we wanted to check our bags. If we checked our bags, they would stay in the Albany airport for around 5 hours before we left. That sounds like a sure fire receipe for lost luggage or theft to me. Also, checked baggage that actually made it to Detroit would sit in Detroit for four more hours making it a double risk for theft or lost baggage. With this in mind, trying to be as tactful as possible, which is difficult for me to do, I said the fatal words, "I want to take my luggage on the plane with me, I don't want to leave it here for people to go though." I thought that was pretty straight forward. I didn't say, "I don't want you to loose my luggage", nor did I say, "I don't want anyone to steal my belongings". I just said I didn't want anyone going through my bags. NEVER, EVER SAY THAT. My feeble attempt at diplomacy turned out to be terribly, terribly politically incorrect.

We left the airport with our bags and came back at 2:00 PM to check in. Did I mention this was our third cab ride of the day? ka-ching, ka-ching.

When we checked in, I didn't notice the maroon marks that were scribbled on our boarding passes. The man that looked at our boarding passes and photo IDs prior to letting us get in to the security check line also put a purple rather obvious large squiggle on our boarding passes. When we got close to the check point, we were escorted to another lane and more colorful squiggles were added to our passes. The people in line behind us were allowed to go through in the regular lane and, after about 15 passengers had passed by, I inquired as to why we were being detained. I was told they would be with us in a minute - not a NY minute. I was starting to get angry and upset - no, I was angry and upset. I was handed a bright yellow sign with the number 3 on it, my husband was also given a sign. We were commanded not to touch anything until the signs were taken away from us. I was asked to step into a booth a little larger than a phone booth and told that air would be blown on me. I was asked if I had been in one of these booths before. WHAT?!? While in the booth strong streams of air blew my clothes and my hair. The air stopped and, thank God, I had to sense to stay in the booth until someone let me out. About a minute or so after the air stopped a green light came on saying I could leave the booth. While I was in the booth, I remembered reading about these booths. The air under pressure removes microscopic particles from clothing, hair and skin. A machine then analyses the particles to detect drug residue.

When I left the booth, I was escorted to a separate table where I was told they would be examining my belongings. My purse was dumped out on the table and every item was picked over by the attendent. I was very upset by now. No explination had been given as to why we were being singled out for an intensive search. I was very angry also. Our suit cases received the same treatment and the backpack we brought which contained a ziplock bag full of a mixture of Gold Standard Protein Powder and Juice Plus+ Complete (a meal supplement) made the attendants eyes pop. It was taken to a separate room to be analized. By now, I was furious and very upset. To add to my misery, my usually extremely supportive husband could only say, "If you don't like it, don't fly." when I complained to him about our treatment. At long length, they brought our bags back to us, took our signs with the numbers on them and let us go.

I was so upset that I decided in order to compose myself I would go to a restroom, lock myself in a stall and have a good cry. The restroom stall was extremely small, my roll on suitcase and I were scrunched in and I was touching the toilet. The automatic flusher kept flushing so I couldn't even cry. It struck me intellectually that this was pretty funny but my emotions didn't allow me to laugh. I left the toilet stall without my cry and joined my husband at the gate to await our flight. The final insult came as we boarded the airplane. Our boarding passes now had maroon, purple, and green squiggles on the front and large orange and pink markings on the back. Everyone's pass when scanned made the machine go BING bingbing BING; when they scanned us they pushed a key and the machine went BING bingbing bingbingbing bingBING.

In Detroit the corridor went from Gate 1 to gate 78 -- about a mile and a half. We had 3 gate changes and barely made it to our flight after a 4 hour layover. The plane was supposed to arrive at 11:10 PM but we arrived in MPS at 12:30 AM. My brother was happy to see us I think.

We spent a week visiting my parents who live in the Care Center -- euphism for the nursing home part of a large multi level of care facility. On Wednesday, June 27th we attempted to fly home. We were pretty confident, our plane had a stop in Philadelphia but we would be on the same plane going from Philly to Albany. What could go wrong?

When we arrived at Philly the flight we were on was late arriving. Because the crew was changing, we were told we had to deplane and reboard but that we could leave our carry-on luggage on the plane (We had checked most of our luggage.). We deplaned and after a pit stop, we went to a coffee shop. My husband couldn't decide what he wanted to eat so we fiddled around for 15 minutes or more while he decided. When we had finished our coffee, I saw a clock in the coffee shop that said 5:05 PM. Our plane was supposed to leave at 4:45 PM. My husband assured me that the clock was wrong. His watch said 4:05 PM. He said he did not reset his watch to CST. We took our time. When we arrived back at the gate, all the people waiting for the flight were gone but a plane was still attached to the skyway. I approached the clerk behind the desk to ask if the flight to Albany had left. She rudely told me she was busy and couldn't answer any questions. We got in line to re-book behind one other passenger. After about 15 minutes, airline personnel lined up behind us. When I explained our plight to the stewardess in line behind me, she said that our plane was the one that was right outside. As soon as we learned that that was our plane, the plane started to back out of the dock.

We were then directed to Customer Service. When we arrived there, the line was very long. After a two hour wait in line, we re-booked on the last flight going to Albany. The departure time changed from 8:20, to 8:30, to 8:40, to 8:45, to 9:00 PM. The flight was never announced but passengers started boarding at about 5 of 9. A ramp crew couldn't be found so we were delayed at the gate for an hour. Then a strom blew in with lightening so we couldn't leave the gate. That storm blew out but as soon as we got out on the runway another storm blew in with more lightening. Finally things cleared and we were in a long line waiting for take off. Shortly after 1:00 AM the captain announced that the crews shift would time out in 20 minutes and we would be returning to the terminal. A mother traveling alone with a 2 month old and a 18 month old started to cry. This was the 3rd flight she was on that was canceled, she was out of enfamil for her 2 month old who ate q 2 hours. She was going to visit her parents in Clifton Park. The lady across the aisle from me re-booked on a flight leaving at 7:30 AM while we were still on the runway. I asked her if she could do the same for the young mother behind her. The lady, an angel, got the young mother's tickets and was able to book her on the same 7:30 AM flight. I notified a stewardess that she was out of enfamil. They announced her plight and there were two other passengers with excess enfamil which they gave to the young mother. The airline gave her blankets and pillows so she and her babies could be more comfortable in the terminal while waiting for her flight. God is good!!!

When we deplaned, we all got in line at customer service again. At 2:30 AM the customer service desk closed saying they would reopen at 4:30 AM. About 40 of us were left standing in the hallway. When they closed at 2:30, all the flights going to Albany were full except the 8:45 PM flight. The same flight we had just been on. We asked 3 perfect strangers if they wanted to rent a car and drive home. Not surprisingly, they said yes. (The mother and her 2 children were in good shape when we left and the kind lady with the cell phone was in the process of getting boarding passes for their flight at a gate that was open.) We got the phone numbers for Enterprize and Hertz from the airport information phone. The Enterprize # wasn't working. Pat, a very capable woman, called Hertz and made a reservation. We had to go to zone 2 and catch a shuttle bus to Hertz. When we got to the Hertz building, there, again, was a long line. One person was working at the counter and one person was at the preferred customer counter. After 2 and a half hours in line, Pat remembered that she used to be a gold Hertz member. She got in the short line, they found her in the computer, and by 6:00 AM we had an eight passenger van, equipped with Hertz on-star, and we were off. Our ride, which cost each of us $50.00, was most pleasant. We were all laughing about the comedy of errors that we had all lived through. Cell phones were constantly ringing and the conversations were hysterical. Five hours later we were in Albany. We had to get our bags etc. We were home by 1:30 PM. NO SLEEP. I think I'm still recovering. We are thanking God that we got home safely and with all our luggage.

If anyone has a travel story, please submit it to the blog.

Shalom and Happy Traveling~~