Where are you travelling, m' darling?
Saturday, 17. February 2007, 15:36:03
I was in London, headed to Los Angeles to hop on a flight to San Jose, California. It was a 19 hour trip, with 15 more to go. I stayed in California less than two days. I walked a bit (as a rule, I walk to the meeting venue), I scribed 1.5 day of meeting (a little less than 1200 lines in the IRC logs, a little more than 13000 words), I happily met with a friend and his wife that I hadn't seen in a while.
The next batch of flights didn't go so uneventfully. The flight from San Jose to Las Vegas was delayed by almost an hour. A shame since I had a shortish connection to make it to the Boston flight. So we landed mere minutes after the Las Vegas - Boston flight had left. The good thing was that I was were my suitcase was. I spent an hour in the America West customer assistance line, wondering where my legendary luck was and reflecting on how worse it could have been without the said luck. A very helpful lady booked me on a Delta flight to Boston. I had 5 hours to wait.
I walked from the airport to Las Vegas, at dusk, camera in hand. It was interesting. There aren't a lot of people on their own in Las Vegas. (How mundane is that, for a comment?) I purchased a few gifts that I ended up misplacing on the next day, unfortunately. I took a few photos that turned out blurry; somehow the selector of my camera was on Manual Focus... I had a gourmet dinner at Wendy's. And I walked back to the airport. It took 45 minutes. Only to find out that the 10:10 pm flight was delayed... "Est. 12:45 am". Oh well...
I walked through security at 12:15 am. I was selected for further screening. They patted me down (and didn't find the lighter in my left back pocket). They opened my bags, my computer, ran their sample pads on my jacket, on my shoes, detected explosives, ran some more sample pads on my shoes, x-rayed them again and eventually let me go. I was late by that time. I took the monorail to the gates, ran to gate D41 and boarded at the last minute. It would have been pretty ironic to miss that one. I arrived in Boston 9 hours after schedule. And my suitcase had made it.
I'm back in Boston for 3 months. Yay!
The next batch of flights didn't go so uneventfully. The flight from San Jose to Las Vegas was delayed by almost an hour. A shame since I had a shortish connection to make it to the Boston flight. So we landed mere minutes after the Las Vegas - Boston flight had left. The good thing was that I was were my suitcase was. I spent an hour in the America West customer assistance line, wondering where my legendary luck was and reflecting on how worse it could have been without the said luck. A very helpful lady booked me on a Delta flight to Boston. I had 5 hours to wait.
I walked from the airport to Las Vegas, at dusk, camera in hand. It was interesting. There aren't a lot of people on their own in Las Vegas. (How mundane is that, for a comment?) I purchased a few gifts that I ended up misplacing on the next day, unfortunately. I took a few photos that turned out blurry; somehow the selector of my camera was on Manual Focus... I had a gourmet dinner at Wendy's. And I walked back to the airport. It took 45 minutes. Only to find out that the 10:10 pm flight was delayed... "Est. 12:45 am". Oh well...
I walked through security at 12:15 am. I was selected for further screening. They patted me down (and didn't find the lighter in my left back pocket). They opened my bags, my computer, ran their sample pads on my jacket, on my shoes, detected explosives, ran some more sample pads on my shoes, x-rayed them again and eventually let me go. I was late by that time. I took the monorail to the gates, ran to gate D41 and boarded at the last minute. It would have been pretty ironic to miss that one. I arrived in Boston 9 hours after schedule. And my suitcase had made it.
I'm back in Boston for 3 months. Yay!
By chaals, # 18. February 2007, 05:34:45
Ah, also, I found a small match box in the backback I was carrying all along. Mauvaise fille... ;)
My suitcase weighed 27 kilos. The current limit is 32. I read they're going to lower this to 23, maybe next month. And that we're going to be able to check only 1 piece of luggage and carry just 1 item. This is crazy. The only thing that could explain this is an effort to use less fuel and reduce CO2 emissions in the process. But they would have advertised it, it that were the reason, wouldn't they?
By koalie, # 18. February 2007, 07:03:34
It would be nice to think it was about looking after the physical well-being of the people who lift and carry baggage, but I seriously doubt it. Manual labourers tend not to get much protection, and there is a culture of being tough, not of refusing to lift dangerously heavy loads. So I find it hard to believe that there is any real concern there beyond an actuarial approach to risk management (i.e. make sure the company isn't successfully sued too often by employees).
As far as I can tell, it is all about money. Saving fuel, it is true, saves money as well as emissions, and saving weight saves fuel. But it seems much more about simply finding better ways to get people to part with money after they have paid for their ticket.
You are still allowed to carry matches. (Alors tu n'es pas plus mauvaise fille que tu l'etais dejà ;) ). And alcohol (a surprisingly dangerous substance in the wrong hands) in galss bottles (again, known to have been used to deadly effect many many times). I suspect that somewhere someone in the US is collecting lighters from airports, and that they are turning them into money. At the very least, people who sell throwaway lighters are doing well, as we get rid of ever more of them well before they are no longer useful.
However, I am sure it can get more ridiculous :( And it will be done as a change to "protect our security better", or show that we care about babies and support freedom, or whatever irrelevant but obviously worthy cause can be adduced to make us support continued erosion of our basic liberties by those who are essentially charged with protecting them.
Anyway, I hope it isn't too cold in Boston, and that you have a good time there...
By chaals, # 18. February 2007, 07:26:10
Yes, I'm having a good time.
By koalie, # 19. February 2007, 03:53:24