Cities and suburbs, real and imaginary.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

passing through security in philadelphia

"where do we pick up our luggage?" says the sleepy travelers, "don't we have to get our luggage first?"
customs official responds in a brusque, unfriendly tone of voice, "until we know who you are, we're not giving you anything." then he wanders off.

security screener in philedelphia, holding up the tiny bottle of scope in the legal plastic bag that I had just gotten from them as if i had done something horribly wrong, "you should have told me you had scope in here so i wouldn't have to open your bag and search it. next time, tell me about the mouthwash!" of course the point was moot. i wasn't were i was supposed to be. i had asked repeatedly where i could go to get my second boarding pass, and i had been shuffled through security by security officials who kept telling me to go that way to get the next boarding pass - though i didn't have a new boarding pass.

i made it all the way through to the terminal without a proper boarding pass and had to ask a supervisor where on earth i could find my second boarding pass. he took one look at my ticket stub, assured me this was not a proper boarding pass and that i had no business in the terminal. i assured him that his staff had shuffled me in this direction repeatedly everytime i had asked them where i could get my second boarding pass.

the supervisor escorted me out of the terminal, apologizing for the poor customer service of his staff. i should not have gotten into the terminal at all, and i wasn't trying to sneak through security. i was just trying to get my second boarding pass.

they lost one of my bags, too.

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