pitflyer
Oct 5, 01, 7:21 pm
I normally fly once or twice a month (down from four-six times a month two years ago).. That really hasn't changed. Other than cancelling a trip to Chicago 9/21 (still too soon for me ... ) I'm keeping flying.
I live very close to the airport, so I'm used to leaving less than an hour before the flight, getting to the airport 40-45 minutes before the flight, breezing through security and going to the club, checking in there, and then walking over to my gate pretty much just in time for boarding.
Of course everything is different now. Now I left two hours in advance. One thing that hasn't changed is my wife still yells at me for being even 20 seconds late, and that I was. In any case, we got to the airport and found a parking space relatively easily in long-term about 1 hr 45 mins in advance. Parking looked reasonably full -- not packed by any means, but OK.
A bus picked me up quickly enough and we were dropped off at baggage claim (odd, normally they drop us up a level near the ticket counters). No explanation, no big deal. Get out, and notice cop (Pennsylvania State Trooper) walking around in front. Looked pretty bored.
Walked in and took the escalator up. A little worried about the lines in front of security since I see a bunch of people milling about, but as I thought, most were waiting for people coming in. It takes all of 10 seconds for the person in front of me to get their ids checked, and then he checks my ID (I brought my passport just in case). He is very pleasant and does inspect the itinerary that I have (I had an official one from USAirways) pretty closely. A few seconds later he waves me and thanks me for flying. Nice gesture.
Security is completely empty -- they have three or four lines still open. I note it says you have to take your laptop out of the bag, so it takes me a little bit to wrestle my laptop out of its bag, which is in turn in my carryon. My wife, who is travelling with me, also has to take her HandHeld PC out of her bag.
We take it out and place them all on the baggage belt. They are looking at the bags real closely, but since there's no one there things move pretty quickly. They scrutinize my bag and laptop, and it comes through. I was a little worried about my unprotected laptop banging up on the end, but it's ok as you can tell because I'm posting. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
They check my wife's backpack -- they open it up and look around inside. All of ten seconds. They give her back the bag. The security agents are surly like usual, but a little less so -- probably becaues of the imposing National Guard prescence with machine guns and full combat fatigue -- about a dozen of them, all clustered behind security. They looked a combination of mean (I guess to deter terrorists?) and bored.
In any case, get on the next train to the airside terminal -- which is really lightly boarded, feels like a Tuesday, not a Friday and get over to landside. Go up to the Center Concourse USAirways club which is the onloy one left open in Pittsburgh.
Wait a couple of minutes and a helpful agent checks me in. She asks me for upgrade coupons, and I have to remind her as Chairman's Preferred I don't touch those filthy things <grin> The ticket for some reason prints out as a paper ticket, when it's an e-ticket. She looks into it and finds that when someone reissued my ticket (they've changed my flights around a bit -- an hour or two, nothing major) they really screwed it up. Took her about ten minutes to clean up. I ask her if I should worry when I come back, she said no -- even though Atlanta was a small station and might have problems. She said if they have problems to tell them to 'issue to paper'. I'm still a little concerned that I'll be asked at Atlanta to provide a paper ticket I don't have, and asked her to put a note in the record, but she said that wasn't necessary.
Finally my boarding passes come out, and I also ask her for an itinerary and receipt for an upcoming trip. She prints those out too (after some trouble finding the flight -- the flight I was on initially of course was changed, but again not a major change) and wishes me well. She was extremely polite and pleasant, and told me the club was real busy earlier that night. The club is still very busy -- but I guess most of these people have been here for a while since the lines at front are pretty small.
I had to borrow a phone cable, since like usual, I forgot to bring mine, and they lent me one and took my Chairman's Preferred card as collateral. Then I logged in and all is well so far.
My flight looked pretty empty when I checked ITN (9 availability in every class, including still 6 available G seats). Coming back I expect a whole different experience -- Atlanta seems to have a lot longer lines and I'm flying on a plane that looks pretty packed. On top of that with no USAirways club in Atlanta it'll be harder to kill time.. guess I could use the laptop lane except of COURSE I also forgot my ethernet card <doh>
So, seemingly just a month ago this trip would mean nothing -- probably be one of my many short trips of which I will have no memory. But now given the circumstances, it still feels weird. I hope the feeling will subside.
I live very close to the airport, so I'm used to leaving less than an hour before the flight, getting to the airport 40-45 minutes before the flight, breezing through security and going to the club, checking in there, and then walking over to my gate pretty much just in time for boarding.
Of course everything is different now. Now I left two hours in advance. One thing that hasn't changed is my wife still yells at me for being even 20 seconds late, and that I was. In any case, we got to the airport and found a parking space relatively easily in long-term about 1 hr 45 mins in advance. Parking looked reasonably full -- not packed by any means, but OK.
A bus picked me up quickly enough and we were dropped off at baggage claim (odd, normally they drop us up a level near the ticket counters). No explanation, no big deal. Get out, and notice cop (Pennsylvania State Trooper) walking around in front. Looked pretty bored.
Walked in and took the escalator up. A little worried about the lines in front of security since I see a bunch of people milling about, but as I thought, most were waiting for people coming in. It takes all of 10 seconds for the person in front of me to get their ids checked, and then he checks my ID (I brought my passport just in case). He is very pleasant and does inspect the itinerary that I have (I had an official one from USAirways) pretty closely. A few seconds later he waves me and thanks me for flying. Nice gesture.
Security is completely empty -- they have three or four lines still open. I note it says you have to take your laptop out of the bag, so it takes me a little bit to wrestle my laptop out of its bag, which is in turn in my carryon. My wife, who is travelling with me, also has to take her HandHeld PC out of her bag.
We take it out and place them all on the baggage belt. They are looking at the bags real closely, but since there's no one there things move pretty quickly. They scrutinize my bag and laptop, and it comes through. I was a little worried about my unprotected laptop banging up on the end, but it's ok as you can tell because I'm posting. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
They check my wife's backpack -- they open it up and look around inside. All of ten seconds. They give her back the bag. The security agents are surly like usual, but a little less so -- probably becaues of the imposing National Guard prescence with machine guns and full combat fatigue -- about a dozen of them, all clustered behind security. They looked a combination of mean (I guess to deter terrorists?) and bored.
In any case, get on the next train to the airside terminal -- which is really lightly boarded, feels like a Tuesday, not a Friday and get over to landside. Go up to the Center Concourse USAirways club which is the onloy one left open in Pittsburgh.
Wait a couple of minutes and a helpful agent checks me in. She asks me for upgrade coupons, and I have to remind her as Chairman's Preferred I don't touch those filthy things <grin> The ticket for some reason prints out as a paper ticket, when it's an e-ticket. She looks into it and finds that when someone reissued my ticket (they've changed my flights around a bit -- an hour or two, nothing major) they really screwed it up. Took her about ten minutes to clean up. I ask her if I should worry when I come back, she said no -- even though Atlanta was a small station and might have problems. She said if they have problems to tell them to 'issue to paper'. I'm still a little concerned that I'll be asked at Atlanta to provide a paper ticket I don't have, and asked her to put a note in the record, but she said that wasn't necessary.
Finally my boarding passes come out, and I also ask her for an itinerary and receipt for an upcoming trip. She prints those out too (after some trouble finding the flight -- the flight I was on initially of course was changed, but again not a major change) and wishes me well. She was extremely polite and pleasant, and told me the club was real busy earlier that night. The club is still very busy -- but I guess most of these people have been here for a while since the lines at front are pretty small.
I had to borrow a phone cable, since like usual, I forgot to bring mine, and they lent me one and took my Chairman's Preferred card as collateral. Then I logged in and all is well so far.
My flight looked pretty empty when I checked ITN (9 availability in every class, including still 6 available G seats). Coming back I expect a whole different experience -- Atlanta seems to have a lot longer lines and I'm flying on a plane that looks pretty packed. On top of that with no USAirways club in Atlanta it'll be harder to kill time.. guess I could use the laptop lane except of COURSE I also forgot my ethernet card <doh>
So, seemingly just a month ago this trip would mean nothing -- probably be one of my many short trips of which I will have no memory. But now given the circumstances, it still feels weird. I hope the feeling will subside.