Tag Archive
Fortress America: Heightened Security for Flights to the USA
In the first three months of this year I have travelled from the UK to the farthest reaches of Indonesia via Singapore and Manado, to Cebu via Hongkong, to Marsa Alam in southern Egypt, to Malta and to Spain, so I guess you could say I was well travelled even if you didn't include the countless trips I have made in a twenty year career as a travel writer. Nobody in their right mind wants to be blown up during a flight especially happily-married old-age pensioners with paid-up mortgages like me but we are all aware that there are very gullible people that are preyed upon by evil men, so we all happily subscribe to airport security measures as and when they are developed. We now have to take off our shoes at airports thanks to the half-witted Richard Reid who attempted to set fire to his plimsolls on a flight to America. He had obviously failed to eat sufficient burgers and beans to make his farts potent enough to cause an explosion and carried on into history as the man he had always been, a dismal failure. Last year, a young Nigerian, one Umar Mutallab, feeling disillusioned and emasculated presumably because he had failed to get anyone to respond to his e-mailed entreaties to send him the contents of their bank accounts in return for a share of the money a dead relative had embezzled, decided to try to emasculate himself by setting fire to his shorts. This was during another flight to the USA. We now have to endure the close examination of the inside of our trouser waistbands by security people who themselves would have problems if were they to introduce racial profiling. None of us would mind any of this if it were effective but alas the quality and training... More »
The Weighty Matter of Flying with Dive Gear
A friend was a board director of British Airways. I asked him if he could give me a letter to show at the airport check-in, telling his staff to look after me and to waive excess-baggage charges. He said it was more than his job was worth to do that, and that I'd do better to make friends with someone who worked at the airline's check-in desk. That encapsulates the problem of travelling with dive and underwater photography equipment. It's a totally hit-and-miss system unless you are prepared to pay up. You take your chances and hope the check-in staff will be lenient. I recently traveled to the Maldives and copped a painful $400 excess charge at Heathrow - - that's after the first 20 pounds above the limit had been waived. On the return leg, the check-in woman responded to my announcement that it was diving equipment by charging me nothing - - but it could as easily have been $800 extra, and there would have been nothing I could do about it. Traveling via the U.S. used to be simple. They let you check in a maximum of two pieces, neither of which could be more than 70 pounds. A massive total of 140 pounds usually takes care of my requirements. Now the airlines have reduced that to two bags, neither of which can weigh more than 50 pounds. One bag weighing 55 pounds and the other 46 pounds will see you repacking your bags on the airport floor. I've had to do just that, on my way to Houston with Continental Airlines! I approach the check-in staff with my Gold Card within reach. I wear my most charming smile. I ask if they are having a tough day. I never lose my cool. I smile resignedly if and when they tell... More »
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