Travel

I got to spend a couple days in Lafayette, LA where I taught a class on Wednesday. When I arrived Tuesday morning, I could not help but notice that the airport was small – only three gates. So, I made a mental note to time my return to the airport for my flight back to DFW for somewhat less than the recommended two hours prior to the flight. That would help since my return flight was scheduled for 6:10am. During the class one of the participants assured me that I would not need to be at the airport the full two hours early. He never had and had never had a problem. The class went well. Lots of interaction. Lots of good feedback. I was packing up and heading to the hotel – a full two minutes away – by a little after 4 pm Wednesday. I had found a church online to go to that night, but I could not find the church when I went to look for it. So, I spent the evening in the hotel getting packed up for the trip home early Thursday morning.

I set my alarm for 4:15 am but was awake before the alarm went off. I had everything packed and ready to go so I was at the airport by 4:30. Check in gave me a bad feeling about what lay ahead. There were seven or eight people in front of me and when I took by bags to the area required so they could be dropped off for scanning, there were at least seventy bags jumbled together waiting to be sent through the x-ray machines. That did not look right for such a small airport. Security was upstairs and when I was moving up the escalator I was greeted with a disturbing site. There were at least one hundred people in line to go through security to the three flights that had all been scheduled for around 6 am.

I queued in and began to put everything I could into my carry on or my computer bag so I could get through security as quickly as possible. While I was emptying my pockets, I discovered that I had not dropped off the keys for the rental car, so I got out of line, went back downstairs to get the keys taken care of and hurried back to the security line. Fortunately, only about five people had entered the line in my absence. The line continued to slowly inch forward, but it was highly questionable if the people in front of me – scheduled for the flight at Gate 3 to Atlanta – would make that flight. When the announcement was made that the gate to their flight would close in five minutes there was a noticeable panic. We were still about twenty-five people away from even beginning the process of being checked in through security.

To her credit, the young lady that had taken over reading the boarding passes to begin getting us into the final queue started to get the boarding passes from people in line and scan them so we could go straight to the belt to get our things scanned when there was room for any of us to fit. I was about ten people out when she began walking the line to scan boarding passes and check IDs. When the lady of the couple trying to make their flight to Atlanta was walking into the body scanner, it was announced that the door had closed to their flight and would not be reopened. She pitched a fit. It was 6:05 and my flight was fully boarded. And, wouldn’t you know it, I got pulled aside for a full body search. In the waistband. Up the crotch. Wiping down the hands. The full experience. While I was waiting to be released, I watched my items come through the x-ray device, so I was not too far behind even with the extra-personal TSA experience.

The attendant to the gate for my flight came over and announced, “All Dallas passengers. I need you to get through security right now, so I can board you before I have to close the door.” I would have happily complied but was still waiting for the harried TSA staff (clearly this was an unusual situation for them also) to allow me to proceed. It was still a couple minutes later that I was able to slip on my shoes, stuff my computer into my bag, collect my phone and wallet and hurry onto the plane. I did not take time to put my belt back on until I was out of the plane in Dallas. As I understand it, there were about eight people that did not make the flight. What did the TSA people have to say when they heard all the complaining? “We opened at 4 am. You could have been here a lot earlier.” It is hard to argue with that.

Lesson learned: Go ahead and plan on getting to the airport two full hours before your flight time. You may spend a little more time sitting in the waiting area, but better to do that than be in the security line while your flight is taxiing away.