Air Travel Made Easy Part 2

Before beginning this post read "Air Travel Made Easy" below.

”What?” came the first reply. They were not pleased, I believe that is when the woman declared all out war on me. “You got a problem?” My mind raced and I began thinking about all the ruling against un-ruley passengers and began to think, am I acting like one of them? In case I lost you, approximately 7 to 10 years ago a new term was coined “air rage.” It was not long after “road rage” and slightly before “bowling rage” (okay, the last one I made up).

Where was I? Oh yeah, explaining why I am stuck in Newark. After a brief argument with the woman and the man (who chimed in at the end) I was standing with my case in the same place I had stood for the last 20 minutes. “Okay, look I’m sorry” I said, groveling, hoping for them not to deny me a seat on the flight, after all I had read about Courtney Love, The guy from Lock Stock, and Dianna Ross, all being handcuffed as they deplaned. “Can you just check my bag…please?” I asked. “You gotta take it over there to security!” she said, now quite perturbed. “You know, there are new rules in effect!” “I know, I just flew last week.” I had just flown from Seattle to New York the week before, and only about 2 weeks before that I had flown from Seattle to Manchester, England, and from Manchester to Warsaw and so on. I was well aware of the “new rules.”

”Maybe it was a different airline!” She was determined to come out the winner. Now she was just being rude. I realized what they were telling me, they didn’t take the bags and turn around and put them on the conveyor anymore, at least not this airline. So I picked up my bag and gathered my thoughts as well as my things. As I took the first step away from my two biggest fans I heard, “HAVE A NICE DA – AY!” I walked to TSA (another story completely) gave him the bag to run through security, then I turned around and walked back to her, “What is your name?” I said, looking at her badge. It’s Lat-oy-yah!” She bitched back, “Do you want me to spell that for you?!!!” “No, I’ll manage.” I walked away trembling as my blood boiled, with her face, name badge, and smirk etched in my mind.

I understand there are unruly passengers, I understand there are threats of terrorism, and I understand that airline employees may have been treated badly at some time in the past, but that does not give them the right to treat passengers badly now. Try flying most any other carrier outside North America and you will find a very different situation, most of the people working on these airlines want to help and seem to enjoy their jobs. If KLM can treat their passengers with dignity and respect why can’t Delta, Northwest, or Delta?