1) get to SFO for a flight to Miami... planes takes off and 30 minutes later turns around and comes back to SFO with an engine problem (fire trucks on the taxiway - reassuring).
2) goddamn United does nothing productive to help. I find an American flight that gets me into Miami tonight... why does anyone fly this POS airline (United, that is)? Fucking airlines, right down there with cables companies, cell phone companies, and contractors when it comes to customer service.
3) go through security, again, and this time I get the oh-so-fun SSSS designation which is only a quarter notch below a full cavity search.
4) get something to eat, feel better.
5) get online with TMobile and discover that SAP's VPN software is not working through their hotspot. What this means is that I can't get on email.
6) so regarding #5, my email box is completely full of spam because I wasn't online last week and our spam software is, apparently, only spam-light. There is so much crap in my inbox that it's shutdown... in fact I think it's bouncing inbound email at this point.
yeah, great morning.
Nothing specific to United, flying domestic airlines is an experience quite comparable to a Greyhound bus trip, IMHO (not that I tried the latter..) Most Asian airlines still pamper passengers, so perhaps the right way to Miami is by way of Asia - Europe :-)
Posted by: Zoli | Jul 11, 2005 at 03:03 PM
Btw, I wonder if due to the last-minute change you ended up with a one-way ticket ... or one that looked one-way, even if you had a separate reservation to come back ... I think that's a trigger for "SSSS"
Posted by: Zoli | Jul 11, 2005 at 03:11 PM
I am positive that the flight changes and the checkin/uncheckin triggered the SSSS... I pretty much expected it so I didn't get flustered. Besides, I had 4 hours to kill so waiting in security just wasn't stressful!
Posted by: jeff | Jul 11, 2005 at 07:36 PM
Hey Jeff,
You'll get a kick out of this. I tend to be quite cautious when travelling to avoid setting off any warning flags when going through security. The other day though I forgot to think before packing. I have this watch travel case which holds two watches in the same format as those leather cigar holders you probably know which hold like 5 cigars. Anyway, had it in my carry-on and hadn't given it any thought how it may appear through an x-ray machine. Long-story short the folks at the Frankfurt airport thought they spotted a bomb in my luggage with a dual-timing device as the watches didn't look like watches. You know the size of my watches, and having leather straps on them (which didn't appear via the machine) made it look like the cases of the watches were simply timing devices. I was able to fairly quickly resolve the situation but not before having two heavily armed cops pointing semi-automatic weapons at me while I opened my bag. Quite a nice way of making me feel welcome at the airport in my opinion! :-)
Posted by: Paul J. | Jul 12, 2005 at 03:03 AM