Who knows why, but I published this earlier today with a slightly more NSFW title ("TSA - Travel Sadists Anonymous") and now it doesn't appear anymore. Did I offend someone? Automatic Blogdrive sensors? Please let me know, so next time that I want to I can do it on purpose if I need to...
So I just got done with six flights (2 int'l + 4 domestic in USA), including into and out of Chicago's O'Hare. Mostly pleasant experiences, except for that sharing of densely populated barefoot floor space near the security check with other thousands of people that passed their in the last couple o'hours. My mother commented before leaving her in Chicago "most people wear socks" (as though that would render it more hygienic with sweaty stinky socks breeding who knows what inside closed smelly tennis shoes?). Doesn't seem very hygienic to me, but hey, what the heck, it's only HNV1NH or whatever that they're worried about, not really security, since after I got out of the last airport, and was searching for my transit pass, and digging through my marsupial found BOTH nail clippers and a pocket knife I had forgotten about buried below kleenex in the bottom of a little side pocket? Through 3 different security checks, and they worried about a jar of peanut butter and excessively numerous batteries (because I had too many - a dozen - doesn't anyone in the TSA have a digital camera to know how fast they suck the juice out of batteries)?
And to be truthful, on the TSA site they do actually say you can't bring peanut butter in your carryon in more than 3.4 oz. size, as it is considered a creamy spread, even if the one I wanted to bring is Skippy Super Chunk (so how does that make it Gel, Liquid or Aerosol? At least call it a restriction on Gel, Cream, Liquid and Aerosol).
And that baggage charge even for your first bag, and more for a second, and now a beer on a domestic flight that costs $7 (SEVEN DOLLARS) as though you were at a some fancy jazz concert instead of drinking an 85¢ brewski from a can while stuffed into cattle steerage. And the fact that they use a "Commuter Jet" for the Chicago-Atlanta flight so half of the people on a quarter empty plane needed to gate-check their standard sized carry-on since "there won't be enough room for all of them onboard". Since when do people "commute" from Chicago to Atlanta?
It would seem that the airlines are actively trying to drive away travelers and convince them to use other means of transportation, or not travel at all...
