bad news about travel

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From:
Date: November 10, 2008 3:11:11 AM EST
To: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
Subject: PLEASE ANONYMIZE - bad news about travel

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I want to let you all know
about a 'new TSA policy' that could really mess up your travel as it
killed two days on mine this week and I never made it to the client
meeting.  The money wasted and the time lost still has my stomach
churning and I present this narrative hoping we can all avoid this in
the future.  BTW, This is the edited for TV version:

Waiting for a delayed flight stuck in SFO, the TSA inside the terminal
have a 'new policy' where they screen carry-on baggage sizes at the
gate. My garment bag, which has been accepted for 10 years as well as
earlier that day in SEA, had a handle one centimeter too tall.  If I
pushed it down, it fit easily, but the TSA Enforcer said, "You can't
push it down, if you have to, it doesn't fit," so after ten minutes of
arguing, they made me check it (for $25, no less) at the gate as I was
walking on.

My flight to Dulles which was to connect to PVD came in a hour late
and missed the PVD connector.  They could only get me on a mid-morning
flight to PVD the next day, arriving late but not too late.

But It gets worse - they kept me on airport until 2:00 AM trying to
find my carry-on only to realize after three hours, they'd completely
lost my carry-on...with my clothes (and by this time, the dress shirt
I was wearing was, shall we say, in dire need of cleaning) and worse,
some important medication was also in my 'confiscated' carry-on bag.
So, even getting to PVD the next day at 1 PM, I'd need to travel to
the SOC by cab, shop for a shirt and work through the pharmacy
problem, only to arrive for dinner at best.  Doing the calculations,
there seemed to be no value in that and I would lose another day from
work, so turning around and cutting my losses seemed the only sensible
thing to do.  Though that's the right decision, I'm still sick and
angry about it to this moment.

When I was stuck in Dulles' luggage area, dead laptop battery, alone
with nothing to do, I called United and the TSA to finally found out
this is not coming from the TSA. It's United's way of clipping people
for the $25, and they are having TSA enforce it so they can claim
deniability (expletives deleted)..  SFO so far is the only place
testing this but if it works (and I was one of twenty people they made
check baggage so I think it will), it could spread to other airports.
Even bags that fit but were bulging a little were made to be checked,
and there was literally no discussion allowed.

BTW, they found my carry-on in PVD of all places late last night -
somehow (more expletives deleted), it had been loaded for the PVD
flight without being scanned in meaning it wouldn't show up on the
Dulles computers or PVD's without first submitting a lost baggage
claim form, which would be processed the next day.  Awesome, a major
security violation as well as basically losing my bag for a day  When
they finally get it to SEA, they won't deliver it either as they
normally would because, "This a multi-city trip and we can only
deliver it to a residence if I lived in the SFO area, the point of
origin for the 'checked' bag."

My only consolation - I warmed my hands when I got home burning my
United Awards card.




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