Fun AT LGA Today
 

I just flew back from LGA this morning after having a very nice time Saturday in New York City. I was scheduled out at 6:25AM. I was at the airport at 4:45AM and the line for concourse was huge, I would estimate over 100 people in the line. I first went to the CO PC which is pre-security
and came back to the line at 5:30AM. Line was still long. A guy in front of me told the line monitor (not TSA) he had a flight in 10 minuntes to IAH and she told him (not very good at english) no problem, you will make it as you will clear in 5 minuntes. I told the guy to just go to the front of the line but he was afraid of the lady so he said if he missed the flight there was another flight to IAH at 6:25AM
When I got the metal detector the TSA guy asked me if I had on 2 pair of pants. I have been asked alot of things by TSA but never that. The line was not moving very fast and I see why. At LGA you have 2 lines going into only 1
metal detector. Also, here they are still asking people to show their boarding pass as you come through the metal detector and some people have their ticket in the items being screened and is on the belt. For some time at all the airports I have been using no longer require you to show your boarding pass
after the initial screen, not sure why they make you do this at LGA.
When I get to my gate I hear yelling accross from my gate at a Jet Blue gate. A man and son are trying to get on a LGA-FLL flight but he is ticketed for a JFK-FLL flight. He says why can't they just put him on this flight he has to go to a funeral this afternnon but the agents will not budge.
They tell him to go back to the ticket counter and but another ticket LGA-FLL
and only flight avalaible is in the afternoon. he keeps arguing with the agents
until the flight leaves. (With 3 airports in NYC I wounder how many othe people make the same mistake.)
As that same flight leaves a man and his wife walk up for the flight and they are told the flight just left. The man is yelling (screaming) about the long line through security is why they are late. The man asks he call the pilot on the runway to ask him to please bring back plane so they can get on the flight. The agents say no, the flight is gone. The man is yelling and cussing
after he is told the next avaliable flight to FLL is in the afternoon. The agents warn him if he does not keep quite he will not get on any flight today and they will also call the police. At that point I needed to get on my flight so I could not hang around to see if the guy kept quite. I think he had been doing alot of drinking he still was hungover.

:D
Like my experience there on 4/14. 6AM departure on AA. No power to the entire middle bank of AA ticketing where all the E-checkin kiosks are. Lines to check bags were all over the place. They do take mobile BP's at security but the single ID checker was forgetting to give the plastic proof of BP card to pax. So everyone waited on two lines, then got sent back, even though they needed a BP to get to the X-ray machines anyway. And, you need to repack everything, take it with you to the ID checker, hope he remembers you, then go back to the Xray line and take it out all over again. It was pitiful.

All the more reasons just to stay away from the airport:td:

My experiences over the years have been the same for these early morning flights on Sat., Sun. and Mon. mornings....the passengers are not the only ones hungover from the night before. Airport employee tardiness and absentees are quite high on these days.

Why are they still asking for your BP immediately after the WTMD? Seems so pointless!! Do they believe that the guy will catch something, giving your BP a staredown?

I must say, when things go wrong at LGA, they go spectacularly wrong. From the Red Coats guarding the checkpoint entrance to the way the checkpoints operate, it's just bad news.

that is also a pissoff for the employees who do show up.

Wow! So the TSA is making up a new thing by asking about two pairs of pants on you? - but not following their rule of checking BP's for flight origination - the guy who had a JFK BP but was at LGA.

Lines are longer everywhere these days. Lots of airports have that terminal that's infrequently used - that connects to everywhere else in the airport, but I find nowadays there is only one screening point at those points, putting you at the mercy of some dumb9sss who doesn't understand how metal detectors work, etc....

You went through the Central Terminal Building A Concourse which handles Continental and JetBlue. It is a very small checkpoint (a 2 x-ray to 1 Walkthrough). The reason being is the airlines and airport refuse to expand the area even though it is a busy checkpoint.

The TSA doublechecks the boarding pass because the airport doesn't use dedicated selectee lanes as the checkpoints are too small.

Around the 14th there was a power outage in the American Airlines area which effected the ticket counters and the baggage screening areas. Between the Port Authority, American and Con Ed they have worked it out.

The paperless boarding pass scanners just started at American so people are getting use to it.

People go to the wrong airport all the time.

Well did you have baggy pants on?

I had on blue jeans. I have no idea why he asked me that.

I did have my wallet in my front pocket. Is it Ok to have items in your pocket. I thought you only had to remove metal objects. I had no real carry on bags andI sure was not going just put my wallet on the belt in a bin becuase of the slow progress through security people's bags were well ahead of the actul person so it would be isolated for a few minuntes and someone might take it.

I keep my wallet in my front pocket also. If there are buldges or bulky looking items they can do a quick pat down right at the walk through.

I forgot to mention one other funny incident. At the ticket counter a guy did not want to pay to check 2 bags, so he was trying to empty one and put everthing in one bag. But both bags were very full. He had his clothes including underwear and other belongings all over the floor. It just would not work and the agent told him he would have 2 either check 2 bags or he would have to disregard manhy items and toss them. What a Sunday morning at LGA. Too bad it is not always this interesting at the airports I visit. It was a great Saturday, weather was nice in NYC and I got upgraded to first class (no RJ) both ways and was using a CO.COM special fare and only paid $119.00 bucks round trip plus tax and the $25.00 change fee for come back on Sunday.

I frequently fly on aa out of D gate (at lga), most often on a Friday. The lines have never been very long, for both regular flyers and fc. However, at around 6 am, Hudson News, bring in their magazines, newspapers and other items for their concessions--they monopolize an entire security line; my guess is the same thing happens at the other terminals. At JFK they no longer look at the bp after you go through the metal detector.

LGA on the weekends can be a zoo. I often fly out of there early on weekdays, and it goes relatively smoothly as the number of frequent travelers is very high. On Fri-Sun, though, you get a much larger number of infrequent travelers. LGA (and NYNJPA, in general) is not the most user-friendly place, and it really is easy to get confused. On the flip-side, once one becomes adept at using LGA, it can be one of the most efficient airports in the country.

Personally, I think there is particular combination of personalities of New York metro residents that can make this worse, but that is just speculation on my part after having lived there for a number of years. :D

The vendors are a big problem in the Central Terminal Building because there isn't another way to get the items down the concourses. The other Terminals aren't as bad as they have service elevators.