doink   (it's one of those things about nothing) homus || backlog || elsewhere || huh?   Monday, October 15, 2001 i flew last week for the first time since 9/11. i arrived at the airport the recommended 2 hours prior to departure time, and then spent an hour sitting at the gate twiddling my thumbs. same story on the way back, too. a few observations: In both LAX and San Jose, far more people were flying Southwest Airlines than American Airlines. the lines at both airports for SWA check-ins looped through the mazes and well out of the ticketing lobby areas. AA lines were easily less than 20% as long. happily, i was flying AA. There are people with machineguns in the airports. at the security checkpoint in both airports, national guards-type people were toting m-16's. that's a new experience. i wonder, how long will it take before heavily armed personnel just fade into the background? Have your ID handy. you've gotta show id pretty to get pretty much anywhere now. Pack light. all airlines have enacted tighter restrictions on carry-ons. you're pretty much limited to a wheelie and another small bag, if you don't want to check luggage. If you're parking in Lot C at LAX, park near the depot. The lot buses are slow, so you're much better off walking directly to the depot, unless you packed too much stuff. And on the return trip from the airport, all buses drop all riders off at the depot. no more driving around the lot (smaller shuttles do that work now). so if you park close to the depot, you can skip the smaller shuttle lines and hassle. despite the thumb-twiddling time (and the painful waking hour on my outbound trip), my travel experience was a smooth one. mostly empty planes, and very smooth flying. and i'm off again this weekend, back up to the bay area for a friend's wedding. hopefully the weather's a repeat of this past week! (11:18:24 PM)   powered by blogger        copyright © 1973-2001, mike manning