I recently went from BOS to YQB had a meeting and then on to DET the next morning for another meeting. I then would fly back to ATL and be home. I had no checked baggage but do have a wound that I need to change out the dressing three times a day. The medications are all over the counter, but my doctor had written out the details of what I needed on a prescription form. TSA said no can take antibiotic cream and sterile water on board. They will have to be checked or discarded. What could happen to luggage on a direct flight from Boston to Quebec City - right? Got to YQB and no luggage (thanks stupid TSA policies and those who enforce stupidity). Delta does not have another flight, so it will be tomorrow at noon before my luggage can get here. I have to leave for DET before that and my pills for diabetes and hypertension are also in that luggage - I should have taken them out, but forgot in all the aggravation and stupidity). I get to Detroit (on NWA) and check with Delta to see if maybe, perhaps, pretty please my luggage is following me. It will be shipped back to BOS and then to DET the agent tells me. I have no clothes, no medicines, and no patience for stupidity. I go to my meeting and then to a drug store. I show the druggist my prescription and tell him to fill it. He says that I don't need a prescription for these OTC products. When I tell him what TSA has done, he fills the prescription and puts labels on everything (even the sterile water). I go to the airport and have everything in a plastic bag. TSA balks and I ask for a supervisor; I politely tell him what TSA in BOS did and what I have done at the drug store. He looks at the sterile water with my name on it, looks at my boarding pass and then tells me to have a safe flight.
I get to ATL and check with the baggage desk. My bag is still in YQB. Delta will send it to my home. I got it today and found out why it was not on my plane. TSA had a note in the bag stating that they had to do extra screening on my baggage and apologized for any inconvenience. I was ready to blame Delta for losing my bag, but TSA was responsible the whole time.
TSA is nothing more than a bunch of bumbling morons enforcing draconian rules for the appeasement of leisure travelers who wouldn't know safety and security if it bit them in the behind.
If Osama wanted to show how foolish, ineffective, and stupid US policies are, he would do no better than to point to Chertoff's antics in banning toothpaste and Neosporyn.
I always fly to my customer sites, but I am going to start driving and taking the train where possible. If the airlines start losing customers (i.e., money), they might stand up to these poof balls.
- Alan
