Here's a little horror story about JFK and their strict "no unticketed passengers allowed" policy. A few months ago my girlfriend was leaving for an anthropological dig in Hungary, and was flying Syracuse-JFK-Frankfurt-Budapest. (She spent most of the summer in upstate New York with her parents; we both live in California for the rest of the year) Since her birthday was coming up, I thought it would be nice if I flew SFO-JFK and surprised her at JFK with a birthday/going away present. So I shelled out $350 in "voucher money," and got on a plane to JFK.
When I got to JFK, I decided to go meet her at the gate. Getting into the "secure" area at the American Airlines domestic terminal at JFK was no problem - I just flashed my old boarding pass I got at SFO and they let me in. My girlfriend's plane from Syracuse was supposed to arrive at gate 42 at 2:24p, so I just sat by the gate and breathlessly waited for her to arrive. When she didn't show up by 2:54, I went to the nearest gate agent and asked if the flight from Syracuse came in yet. She said, "yes, 20 minutes ago, at gate 40" They didn't even bother announcing the gate change and all TV monitors still said "gate 42" for that flight! Perhaps this is done on purpose to confuse people who "illegally" try to wait by the gate?
Anyway, I quickly realized the seriousness of the situation. I had 1.5 hours before my girlfriend would board a plane to Frankfurt, and I had no idea where she could be in the huge terminal building. There was only one place where I was guaranteed to meet her - the departure gate for the Frankfurt flight. So I ran over to the American Airlines International Terminal, and again tried using the "old boarding pass" trick to get into the "secure" area. This time, though, I was caught, and they would not let me into the gate area despite my appeals that it was vitally important for me to meet someone at the gate.
With less than 1 hour remaining on the "countdown clock" for Frankfurt boarding, I ran to the American Airlines Information Desk and asked them if there was any way for me to enter the gate area. I was told that they have a "sterile concourse" policy (making me sound like a parasite they want to keep off their concourses
) and that there was no way they would let me enter the secure area. The Information clerk did agree to page my girlfriend, though, and did her usual "Cassandra Hamilton please meet your party at the Information Desk" thing on the PA. I waited 10 minutes with no results. I then asked her to page her at the Domestic Terminal, thinking that she might have stopped there for lunch or something. The Information agent, obviously pretty tired of me at this point, obliged. I waited another 20 minutes, and still no sign of my girlfriend. Finally, with less than 15 minutes remaining before Frankfurt boarding, I asked her to page my girlfriend again. This time, she finally showed up! You can imagine how surprised she was to see me!
So, instead of having lunch together like I planned, we only had time for a quick kiss goodbye. She told me that she didn't hear my first page because she was eating lunch at the airport McDonald's at the time, which is outside of the terminal PA system. I guess that I'm pretty lucky that I got to meet her at all.
All in all, I found this "sterile councourse" policy a major pain in the butt. Another time, I was at JFK with a friend who wasn't traveling, and they refused to let him enter the gate area. While the "sterile councourse" policy sounds good in theory, I think exceptions should be made in certain circumstances.
[This message has been edited by Darien-l (edited 09-07-1999).]
[This message has been edited by Darien-l (edited 09-07-1999).]