I didn't purchase my ticket in Sweden, I just live there.

It is downright stupid. Questions and complaints should obviously be answered by the department in the best position to do so, regardless of location.

No of course not, but that's beside the point. The check-in counters may not be open, but the ticket office is, and is equipped with a boarding card printer. Instead of issuing a boarding card, they insist you come back at 6.15. When you do, you will not only find a long queue of waiting passengers (all dumb enough to arrive far too early. Not the airline’s fault, I know.), but also be told that although the staff start work at 6.15, you will have to wait another 20 minutes until check-in actually opens. After the perfunctory passport check, you have to stand in line for the luggage wrapping machine, even if you only have a carry-on. The reason is that the person in charge of luggage wrapping is also the one and only person who can attach a Business Class label to your bag! By the time you finally get your boarding card it is 7 p.m.! I can think of better ways of spending my time.

I have been traveling this route extensively for decades, and there is nothing thorough whatsoever about these passport checks, which have only become more numerous over the years. Before you are allowed to check in, you have to show your passport and ticket to a pimply youth, who glances at them to make sure the names match, and then proceeds to look for your name on a passenger list. The former takes about five seconds, the latter ages (especially if you are traveling in economy). The list is either in random order, or the security agents have literacy problems. I have yet to figure out which.

Incorrect. The authorities will fine the carrier on which undocumented etc. passengers arrive at their destination, and this carrier will also be responsible for deporting them again. If I arrive at AMS on KL592 with a fake Zimbabwean passport, KL takes the rap, regardless of where I checked in. The KMar couldn't care less.

My solution: I checkin online and my printed boarding pass is waiting for me at the passport check, at the Business class side. Even for non-Elites. Good service as far as I'm concerned![/QUOTE]I am aware of this, but they could do better by having the boarding pass ready at the ticket office. The security issue is nonsense, and besides, the same pimply youth will be waiting for you at the gate to "check" your passport anyway. Besides, I often have itineraries combining a number of carriers, which unfortunately means a paper ticket, and thus no online check-in. Even when I do have an e-ticket, I generally fly to JNB from remote locations in the African bush, where Internet connections are surprisingly rare. This also explains why I often arrive at JNB earlier than I would like. Few airstrips hacked out of the bush offer multiple daily flights to Johannesburg!

KL at JNB are good at making life difficult for passengers. Here’s a wonderful example:

I arrived on BP from TLD (another obscure airport: only flight, only passenger). Needless to say, the KL transfer desk was closed. I made my way through security without a boarding card and to the KL lounge. The lounge was open as scheduled. Well, the doors were not locked, but staff were nowhere to be seen, and it had not been cleaned since the previous evening. After some time a lounge agent showed up and almost had a cerebral hemorrhage upon finding me reading an old newspaper in the corner.

I explained why I had no boarding card, and asked if she could help. Nope, I had to go to the transfer desk, which now of course was on the wrong side of the one-way security checkpoint. It would open at 6 p.m.

I then went to the PC in the lounge and checked myself in, went back to the agent and asked if she could arrange to have the boarding card which would now be waiting for me at the check-in desk to be delivered to the lounge. Nope, I had to go to the transfer desk.

Just before six I went to the security checkpoint, explained to the puzzled staff that I really did want to go the wrong way from departures to arrivals, and proceeded to the transfer desk, which of course was unmanned. After waiting for some minutes I found a courtesy phone, called the ticket office and was assured that somebody would be there in ten minutes.

Twenty minutes later, an agent showed up, who proceeded to switch on her computer and other equipment. When she was finally done, I asked if she would be kind enough to print my boarding card. Nope, we had to wait for security. After waiting for another ten minutes, I suggested that it might be possible to print my boarding card while we waited, just to speed things up a bit. This idea met with approval. After a while security finally showed up, looked at my passport without opening it (there was no ticket against which to check my name) and left again! Not sure what exactly he thought he was checking.

Finally in possession of my boarding card, I made my way through security for the third time (the staff recognized me by now) and back to the lounge. It only took me just under one hour!

Johan