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July 30, 2005
Returning to the Skies
Here I am at the airport having arrived dutifully two hours prior to scheduled departure. The wife dropped me off and I said farewell to the offspring though he’d fallen asleep on the way and didn’t notice. Off they drove and in I went.
For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I’ve loathed both flying and airlines since long before it was fashionable to do so, I haven’t been on a plane since before our world changed so abruptly nearly four years ago. The last time I was in the air was for a brief trip up to Ottawa in July of 2000. There are some things that have changed; some for the better and some… not so much for the worse as a bit less convenient.
First, there’s this matter of checking in. Five years ago you were still pretty much limited to desk or gate check in. Now, you can check in on-line, at an electronic kiosk, at the curb when you give your check luggage to the skycap, at the desk or at the gate. As I’ve an enormous pile of luggage, probably something close to the limit, I decided to stick to the old fashioned procedure and check in at the desk. Nothing much has changed there except perhaps that the lines are shorter.
Then there’s the issue of security. Yes, it’s tighter but most of the changes are behind the scenes I gather. About the only real differences I noticed is that I had to take off my shoes and that I did not have to turn my laptop on. (Tip if you’re traveling with a laptop, it will have to go through the X-ray — don’t worry, it won’t get hurt — so while you’re waiting in line, unzip your carrying case and be ready to plop it in one of the plastic trays and put it on the conveyer belt. Tip if you’re traveling with shoes, have your laces loose as you’ll probably have to take them off unless you’re wearing slippers.)
The other aspect of security that has changed is that you must have a boarding pass to go through security. This was a periodic measure five years ago but is permanent now. This means no greetings or goodbyes at the gate. In my case this is probably good as a drawn out goodbye with the offspring would probably do neither of us any good at all.
So now I’m at the gate and there’s at least an hour to go before we board. Our plane has been here at the gate but apparently it arrived late and they’re still cleaning and re-provisioning it so the’ve announced that boarding will begin at least twenty minutes late. That’s OK. I’m in no hurry. Fortunately there’s a coworker here who happens to be on the same flight so we can pass the time while we wait.
Filed under Relocating to London and Travel.
Posted by eric at July 30, 2005 05:25 PM