CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

SECURITY!

Christmas in Philly... a lot more Christmasy than around here!
I am no fan of the north, being a hard core southerner, but I must admit, with this one, they get it right. First of all, it was cold. None of this 80 degree nonsense. It was also rainy, none of this draught nonsense. Everyone was running around in long wool coats and matching hat and scarf sets. If I was in a cold climate, you can bet your socks I'd have more matching sets than you could count. One in every color! But what really got me was the Christmas window displays- they had them in all kinds and shapes and colors. All of the stores have these huge windows and they were made up so pretty for Christmas. It was a few days of heaven- until some Philadelphian would do one of two things- open their mouths thus exposing their accents OR make a comment about my World Champion Dallas Cowboys.

However the reason for my post today is to warn you to pay attention at the airports this season. I caused a mild security breach at the Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday morning.

I went to the kiosk as always to check in. It said "welcome K. Abercrombie" as always I got my pass, took out my license and went through security. No delays- awesome.
I get to the gate and it says Reno 8:30 instead of Philadelphia 8:50. I thought MAN they changed the gate, so I wandered over to the departures screen and sure enough, I was at the wrong gate. I went to the right gate (after the strap on my bag broke) and I just as fast as I can, with a bag tucked under my arm, arrive at the correct gate. I glance down to verify flight numbers and what's this?- wrong flight number... I look a little harder. My ticket says Julie Haver to Reno. WHAT?!

So I approached the ticket counter and explained to the lady I had gone to the kiosk, the kiosk had greeted me with my correct name, it printed my ticket, I went to security, then to what I thought was the wrong gate, then to the right gate and my ticket was wrong. You would have thought I was holding a pilot up at gun point. The rapid fire questions started. Why did you not look at your ticket? If you were at C35 then WHO told you this flight was leaving from C19? Did you just take the wrong ticket from the kiosk? Where are going? Why are you going? Did you check bags? Did you go through security? Who initialed this ticket - are you SURE they looked at your license?

I really and truly thought she was going to call airport security and maybe, she should have. I certainly did nothing wrong, but it was clear to me, her and all the people around us listening a HUGE breach had occured. The woman at the security area had looked at my ticket, my drivers license and let me through and they didn't match AT ALL. It was kind of scary.... and all the people around me at the gate were concerned too. I am not one of those impatient people. Forget that I hate to fly and any delay is a good delay- I am just one of those people who says safety first. If they had to strip search us every time we got on a plane to guarantee my safety- I would just learn to deal with it. Like I've learned to pack my toiletries in a see through bag which is ridiculous- like I've learned to wear socks because my shoes ARE going through the X-ray machine. So if they had needed to detain me and question me further, I totally get that. I don't get why they didn't... I think that in itself was another breach. I am deeply concerned for the air safety of the nation's airports...

I was very sure when flying home yesterday to check my boarding pass! So do the same.. or you'll end up in Airport Prison, where I was sure I was going Monday...

Happy Holidays,

Karyn

0 comments: