I am done!
Twice in September Tracy and I flew to California. Once for Lee's wedding in Long Beach and the other for my sister's wedding in Paso Robles. Permit me to preface this blog with the fact that I am a professional flier. I have between 300,000 - 400,000 miles in my lifetime to many of the corners of the world. I know how to manipulate flights to not only make them convenient, but also economical. I also was a Platinum AA member for many years. In other words, I know how to fly.
As the title suggests, I am done! I will no longer fly unless it is absolutely mandatory. The thrill is gone. There are too many amateurs flying and the agencies running security are amateurs. Their policies are idiotic and their employees are even more so.
October 28, we were all set to board the US Air jet to Las Vegas. We were at the airport early and ready to go knowing that the trip could not be worse then the flight to LA for Lee's wedding. The plane was at the gate unusually early. All signs and good weather pointed to a smooth flight. At 7:30, our boarding time, we are alerted that their is a delay do boarding due to the fact that the plane is not clean. The plane was sitting at the gate for 2 hours before this time and nobody bothered to clean the plane. I could go on, but I am not. Finally, we board at 8:30 pm. However, this time the flight tower will not allow the plane to pull back from the window. 30 minutes goes by and still there is no word. By this time, I am getting nervous because we have a connection at 11:50 pm in LAS. 15 minutes after nine, we get word that the plane is pulling back. "Great! We will make our connection!" However, the bad news is that we are #40 for take off. How can an airport be 40 planes behind when the weather has been great all day? My only guess is that they smelled rain because by 9:30, it began to rain. Time continued to pass as we watched an entire movie on the Tarmac before we took off. Finally, we took off at 11:30 East Coast time.
Obviously, we were not going to make our flight to San Luis Obispo. We arrived 4 hours behind schedule to Las Vegas at 1:30 West Coast time. Upon arrival we learned that they rerouted us on the next flight through LAX to San Luis at 7:00 AM. Instead of arriving to our destination at 1:00 AM this morning, we now would not arrive until 11:00 AM. Well, that was the schedule.
So we are stuck in Las Vegas for 6 hours. We are tired and hungry. The hotel gave us a voucher for a $50 voucher for a hotel. That proved to be useless as there were no hotels in this program available. They fave us $30 in food vouchers, but those also proved useless because there were no restaurants open at 1 AM and they are only good for LAS. Since our luggage was checked in, we had no toiletries. Looking rough, we went to MGM for food and walked around for 4 hours. We were tired as we should have been in a nice warm bed sleeping at this time.
The 7 am flight left on time. Running on fumes after being awake for more than 24 hours, we were bitter that we had to go to LAX. For those that do not know, LAX is the worst airport. Actually, I take that back. LAX is #2 behind the shitty Philadelphia airport with all of their intelligent people. Should you ever have to connect to flights on a different airline, you have to leave the terminal, hop on a bus, and reenter security. And here lies the problem is flying. Security is not security anymore. More on that later. The great news is that this added connection allowed us to be screened. What a joke I say! Do they really think that I will taking explosives on a plane that holds 30 people to a 1 terminal airport? Why do they pat you down for any devices after you walk through a metal detector? I would think that the machine would beep, if I had something. Also, do those machines that test for any explosive residue catch anybody? I really think they never have. It is a big time joke.
Anyway, we get through that laughing because it was still a big time joke. However, the laughs became frowns as we were now delayed for 2 hours. I could not believe it. We finally arrive in San Luis Obispo at 1:00 pm. Exactly 12 hours after we should have. Finally, you should say. But wait, there is more. Our luggage was lost. Can you believe it? Our luggage was lost. It could not get any worse. All I heard, "Sorry." Sorry for the delay. Sorry for not making the connection. Sorry for being late. Sorry for no meal on board. And now sorry for our luggage. If I heard, "Sorry," one more time, I was going to pull my hair out.
The total trip door to door was 22 hours. In all of my experience, I have never encountered a trip so bad. Flying used to be easy and painless. This has changed. I blame this on the new security procedures. I would not call them security because if you really think about it, they are really a joke. Before, you could not bring any gels, toothpaste, lotions or liquids on board. I presume they fell after a "scare" in the UK people will take bottles out of their suitcase and go straight to chemistry lab. Now, you can bring travel size on board, but you have to put them in a plastic bag. If you do not have them in a plastic bag, they will be confiscated. However, if you do put them in a bag, the plastic will shield any explosion. Hence they are deemed safe for boarding. Oh, I forgot, you must first declare them. I have a declaration for TSA, "Piss off you bastards!"
Do people really think that flying an airplane is more secure by not allowing people to take toothpaste and scope on a plane? Or by patting you down after walking through a metal detector without setting the alarm off? Or by wiping your belongings with a wipe to test for residue? Wake up people. It is not safer. It is as safe as it always have been. The procedures and polices are a joke and is only a mechanism to further play with people's fears by the control the government tries to employ over them. Any educated person would know that toiletries do not pose a threat in the air. However, maybe that is our problem. The people of today are dumb.
I am not sure that security policies will get better. And for that reason, I am not going anywhere anytime soon. I hate the fact that I have to check my bags in because we have beauty supplies that we need. Flying is no longer fun and honestly, it is one complete annoying thing in my life that I can avoid. I will leave it for the amateurs who are trying to ball. I have been their and done that. I am moving on with my life.