It's easier to sneak into America than it is to fly on a domestic airline.
Having just returned from a week-long trip out of town on United Airlines, the thought occurred to me that an illegal immigrant has an easier time crossing the southern border than it is for me to clear airport security.
That’s a bit of hyperbole, but passing through airport check points, obeying all the instructions to do this and do that, and trying to make a reservation online are more than daunting. Not just for this 82-year-old.
Watching the thousands of illegal aliens flow uninhibited across the border with their backpacks stands in stark contrast to citizens having to prove that they are not a threat. Even for those of us who are TSA checked. Getting wanded because something set off a beep. Standing in that booth getting zapped with who knows what that that displays my package.
Not that I’m arguing that those security measures should be reduced or even eliminated. Even though 9/11 was more than two decades ago. I can still see planes crashing into the Twin Towers.
The airlines themselves are making traveling—once relaxing and easy—into more than a chore. It has become a confusing, frustrating ordeal.
Got to use the right credit card to get the “benefits” to board in Group 2 (which is no big deal). Follow the confusing online instructions, thinking you’ve answered all the questions but told (dummy) you didn’t. Having returned to previous page to because we (idiots) hit the wrong button. Checking bags a nightmare in itself. Thinking we’re checking in (in the class just above steerage) and picking our seats: Two aisle seats across for each other. Then we, for some unexplained reason, we end up in two middle seats.
Barb got a middle seat that was bookended by two really fat people. Obviously they had picked the aisle and window seats because they were too fat to sit side-by-side. Their clear intent was to use the middle seat—occupied or unoccupied—as a buffer.
So it’s not just government regulations and airline greed (e.g. those tiny seats) that make flying such a miserable experience. That’s those passengers who bring their bags aboard. Trying to squeeze them into the overhead bins. Making boarding and on-boarding a maddening challenge. Standing in the aisle line that’s not moving. Waiting for grandmas trying to shove their overly stuffed bag into a bin already holding other bags.
Here’s a why-can’t-they question: Why not stop charging for checked-bags up to a reasonable weight? Make anyone wanting to carry their bags on board pay an expensive fee—an incentive to check their bags. That might make it faster and easier for everyone looking for their seats. No chance of getting beaned by someone struggling to pull his bag out of the bin.
The problem will be the people who for some reason have to keep their stuff near at hand. It must be a form of psychosis. And those who don’t want to wait for bags to show up at the carrousel. Either way, they have to wait, either on the plane or at the carrousel.
Airlines also would never go for it because they wouldn’t make as much money. If they give a slight damn for their customers, it would be only one of the ways they can make flying a better experience.
Meanwhile, the inexcusable and destructive millions, including some terrorists and criminals don’t have to take off their shoes, wait in line for a body check. Just come on in!