Category Archives for Airports.
When checking in with bags, airlines used to ask two questions: Did you pack these bags yourself? Have they been outside of your possession?
The questions were routinely mocked. They never caught a terrorist. Little did I know they were actually important to uncover rogue mothers packing bags on behalf of their adults sons.
A Customs and Border Protection beagle ‘alarmed’ at the luggage of an Ecuadorian traveler entering the U.S. through the Atlanta airport on Thursday and found a whole roast pig in their luggage.
It was spotted by a 6 year old beagle named Hardy, who thought the bag smelled delicious. But he wasn’t allowed to eat it.
In writing about New York’s $13 billion plan to renovate New York JFK airport I pointed out that the redesign wasn’t about serving the passenger, it’s about serving investors.
Airports aren’t being designed with passengers as the focus, they’re being designed with selling to passengers as the focus.
Security staff in India are being told to smile less. They’re worried about the perception of lax security, in other words security theater, although the agency’s director seems to believe that good security treats passengers poorly.
We’d be much better off with airports that efficiently moved people from their initial location to their gate, and on arrival to their final destination, than with sprawling complexes that are cumbersome to traverse but accommodate more retail.
You can only sell off the airport’s future income stream once. Investing the money is new mega-terminals means not investing the money in things that would actually improve the airport most. As a result these choices mean the New York JFK travel experience will be worse than it otherwise could be.
TSA policy allows you to bring empty shell casings with the primer removed or discharged. So bullets that have been disabled and cannot be fired are fine.
Unless that bullet could keep your drink cold in which case they’re going to confiscate it. Since they have plenty of abandoned drinks at the checkpoint they want their drinks to be cold.
This is an incredible story. Air traffic controller Anthonius Gunawan Agung was working at Palu airport in Indonesia on Saturday when several earthquakes occurred.
The tower evacuated but he stayed behind to ensure Batik Air flight ID 6231 got off the ground. It was a 5:55 p.m. scheduled departure. The captain pushed back 3 minutes early and was cleared for takeoff at 6:02 p.m.
The TSA doesn’t keep us safe. TSA detection rates are likely worse than before the federalization of security. And the only travel experience worse than going through TSA is actually working for TSA.
That’s because the misconduct of senior officials goes unpunished, too. In fact frontline staff who speak out suffer from retaliation, according to a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report.
The US have a ‘visa waiver’ process which is more or less still a visa. Eligible passengers fill out an ESTA, Electronic System for Travel Authorization, to seek permission to travel.
That form has a question, “Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?”
Conventional wisdom is that you cannot fly in the U.S. with weed. Colorado Springs airport installed amnesty boxes so that passengers could leave their weed rather than break the law (free pot for airport employees).
Now though LAX has posted an official policy that you can bring pot through security at the airport.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
