I had an awful eperience at BWI (traveling on Southwest) recently.

I warn any passenger of Southwest making a connection at BWI to beware. Those passengers connecting to another Southwest flight within the same concourse as their arriving flight are OK. If your connecting Southwest flight departs from a different concourse than your arriving flight (most notably Concourse B), you are in trouble!!

I arrived at one concourse, discovered that my connecting flight left from Concourse B, I was required to leave the "secure area" of my arriving flight, to discover that I had to leave a "secure area" for a "non-secure" area for my connecting flight. The line to clear security (for Concourse B) at about 5:00 PM was 2 1/2 hours long!!! My connecting flight left 30 minutes after my arrival.

The scene outside Concourse B was outrageous!! Passengers were irritable, Southwest staff was irritable, and elderly passengers were required to not only stand for an ungodly amount of time, but to bend up and down to move their luggage, as the line moved (with NO demonstrated compassion by Southwest or BWI personnel). As far as I am concerned this was inhumane. I am confident that had an animal been treated the way my fellow passengers were, that the ASPCA would have fined the individuals responsible for their neglectful behavior (and a bunch of animal rights folks would have chimed in too).

When I queried both Southwest personnel and FAA pesonnel about this situation, I learned that the very same conditions have existed for weeks at Concourse B! While I imagine that Southwest is pointing fingers at BWI, and vice-versa, I believe the problem lies with Southwest. Southwest load factors are high, and the funnel leading to their gates exceeds the capacity. If Southwest was concerned about these conditions, Southwest could shift aircraft from one concourse to another (to more evenly spread out passenger loads), REDUCE the frequency of flights into and out of BWI, or REDUCE loads on their flights, given their knowledge of the limited capacity to screen passengers at BWI.

This was my first and last experience with Southwest. My impression is that Southwest has a long, stellar track record for service, safety, and profitability. BUT, with the new Federally-mandated security requirements Southwest's old systems DO NOT work.

I think Southwest has some work to do.


[This message has been edited by BeantownDisneyFan (edited 10-23-2001).]