Flying just isn't all that fun anymore....it's frustrating at best. I do not like the airport check-in process in the very least. It is stressful and since 911, there are so many new rules. You practically have to undress to go through security. Your shoes have to come off, then the sweater, the belt....everything having to go into bins and go through separately. It always seems like I travel during warm weather and that I am not wearing socks. When I have to take my shoes off, I am then standing where countless people have stood, perhaps barefoot as well. It's gross really, you just don't know where their feet have been. (I'll really try to remember to throw some socks in my carry-on next time.)
On our recent trip to Japan I watched a family ahead of us check in with a little girl about age four. Her shoes had to come off, too. I wondered how intimidating the process was for her. A man in front of her set off the alarm and was asked to step aside for a closer examination. Did she worry that it might happen to her? I worried that it might happen to me!! There is a feeling now that you might break the rules without knowing what they are.
Anything liquid has to be 3 oz. or smaller and it all has to be put into a quart size ziplock bag and yes, put in a bin and put separately through the xray machine. I have an underlying tension now that I will be guilty of some small infraction and I will either be pulled aside and interrogated or zapped by the machine as I walk through. So now when I fly, I'm tense, I'm frustrated and honestly I'm a little angry. I get mad at the terrorists, the airlines and myself for being so ridiculous about the situation.
Last summer we were coming home from a trip to Seattle with some great friends. We had attended the Lavendar Festival and I had purchased a gift for my daughter, some wonderful lavendar foot scrub. (Every young woman needs that!) I put all the gifts together in my carry-on. It made sense to me, but I broke the rule. The foot scrub was larger than 3 oz. and not in a plastic ziplock bag. So...they confiscated it! Can you believe it? Now I no longer had a gift for my daughter. I hope the security lady enjoyed the scrub. I picture them at the end of each day dividing up the goods they collected all day from innocent travelers.
On another return trip the security gal dumped the contents of my purse out on a table and sorted it correctly. Now, I know everyone uses them, but there were all my feminine products along with my lipstick, lotion eye drops, etc. It was embarrassing! At least she didn't keep any of them!
Now we have to deal with the whole baggage weight thing. You get charged for extra poundage. Yes, I have also sat at an airport redistributing the articles in my suitcases trying to make them the proper weight. This was the same stuff I left home with. I'm not sure how it suddenly weighed more than when I checked in at my own city's airport, where not a word was said about it being too heavy. Did I forget to mention the time I had to get an extra box to take some weight out of the suitcase and then check that in too?
Since then they have begun to charge for any luggage at all. Aren't the tickets high enough? Do the airlines really think people are going to travel without clothes? Of course they don't, so what else are travelers going to do? They are going to pay for the suitcase.
Almost makes me want to stay home.....flying just isn't all that enjoyable these days, unless of course, you are a bird.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment