The Joys Of Air Travel


  past, present, future 
  Originally uploaded by Okaypro.

Michael Parekh wrote a post that resonated with me yesterday.

Because like Michael, I had the pleasure of flying yesterday. It wasn’t the flying that was the issue, it was the security at the airport.

Michael lists these sights he witnessed yesterday:

  • A couple scrambling to pack expensive bottles of wine and champagne into their checked luggage, while wrapping them with any convenient materials at hand, including strips of cardboard.
  • A woman trying to give away her favorite bottle of perfume to any takers rather than throw them into the trash.
  • A TSA screener taking away a bottle of water from a bewildered blind old lady in a wheelchair going through airport security.
  • A guy applying Visine on his eyes before throwing the bottle away in front of a TSA screener at the gate.
  • The steward on my flight reacting with an uncomprehending look when I informed him that there were going to be a lot of thirsty people boarding the flight in a minute.  Luckily, the catering representative in the galley was quicker on his feet, and immediately offered to stock the plane with additional bottles of water.
  • After all the primary and secondary checks at the gate, including tagging of all the carry-ons coming on board, the airline personnel realizing that they’d let a woman with her three kids board the flight WITHOUT checking and scanning their boarding passes.

To that list I’ll add the light brown skinned family in front of me, father, mother, older sister, baby, who had to give up their baby formula to get through security at JFK yesterday morning at 5:45am. At that point, I had no idea why they were getting such as hassle. But it upset me to witness it.

Later in the day, I realized what had happened.

As Michael said, "another day where millions of travelers everywhere, including yours truly, gave up another inch of our freedom to travel with our stuff, in exchange for hopefully safer travel for all."

#Blogging On The Road