Encounters with the TSA

Roland Perry wrote:

In message , PTRAVEL
writes

Which is why you pick up your stuff and step away, which brings us right
back to the start of this thread.


But the "stuff" is now in several piles, and you can't just "pick it
up". Especially when there's nowhere other than the floor to put it down
again. Or is there another table, next to the first one?

Why is it in several piles? You shouldn't wait until the checkpoint
before taking your laptop out of the bag.

AJC wrote:

That is probably because, as the op already said, he did not expect to
have to take his laptop out of the bag.

Then why did he say in his first post:

"I was expecting to take my laptop out of the rack sack"

He knew he was going to have to take it out of the bag.

On Sat, 8 Nov 2003 20:45:34 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , PTRAVEL
writes
Several piles?

Jacket, shoes, top coat, duty free, camera, and the troublemaking
laptop-in-the-briefcase. (I make that seven).

Of which three, possibly four, can't be said to fall into the category
of "essentials". If you need to manage that much every time you go
through security, you are definitely carrying too much ...

Julian


--
Julian Fowler
julian (at) bellevue-barn (dot) org (dot) uk

On Sat, 8 Nov 2003 20:42:37 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , Julian Fowler
writes
I really do wonder what all these essential/non-replacable items that
people *have* to take with them are.

Tickets, passport, foreign currency, itinerary and maps, invitations to
meetings (needed to get past the door), papers for the meeting, other
papers to read while travelling, pens, writing paper,

Sounds like you have a paper problem ...

business cards,
diary, fold-up umbrella, computer, power supply,
all-those-other-bits-a-computer-needs [1], mobile phone, phone charger;

No problem w/ the rest of those. That's pretty much what I travel
with, all fitting into a packpack.

and for many destinations that don't really have shops near the meeting,
a razor and clean shirt for that early morning meeting. Obviously, this
requires one to travel wearing the suit and tie (with much disparaged
jacket).

Grow a beard? Find an occupation that doesn't require you to wear a
daft uniform??

If cold, a coat as well.

Unless we're talking about *seriously* cold destinations, I find that
dealing with a coat more problem than its worth ... after all, you're
going to be far too warm if you try and wear it in the airport or on
the 'plane.

[1] Including for some venues a long ethernet cable and hub. I'll often
also have a digital camera, cable and spare batteries.

.... none of which, I think, can be claimed as "essentials".

Julian

--
Julian Fowler
julian (at) bellevue-barn (dot) org (dot) uk

"Hungry Racoon" wrote in message
...
PTRAVEL wrote:
perhaps, not much at all. Maybe YOU can live without a mobile phone
charger, but I can't -- the mobile phone is critical to my business, and
I'm
frequently gone for more than 3 days at a time (the absolute limit of my
battery).

We are talking here about instances where your luggage doesn't make it to
you
in time. Your phone charger would arrive usually well before those 3 days.

And if it doesn't?

And
meanwhile you can greatly extend the life of your phone by using that old
fashioned thing called a payphone at airport and using your customer's own
landline phones in their offices.

You can also use plastic trash bags for raincoats.


And get a more modern phone on a network that doesn't need analogue.

You're confused about cellphone technology. It has nothing to do with the
ntetwork to which you subscribe. A tri-mode phone will roam in both digital
and analogue systems (and there are still many areas of the country, notably
more rural areas, that are analogue-only). Verizon still has analogue as a
fall-back system in many areas, which is why, when airport cell sites are
overloaded, I'll get a channel through, and you won't. Of course Verizon is
also the company that provides the best coverage nationwide.

Remember
that people survived before the advent of mobiles.

Another incredibly naive statement. People survived before the advent of
computers, airplanes, automobiles, and calculators as well. Don't think,
though, that you can stay competitve if you don't use these tools now.
Again, it's obvious that you don't travel for business.


No one buys a new razor, pens and paper every time they fly.

You'd only need to replace those when the luggage doesn't arrive, not
everytime you fly.

How about the suit that I need to wear to court? Should I show up in a polo
shirt and dockers? What do I tell my wife when the judge locks me up for
contempt?


Perhaps you
can survive without an umbrella, but I cannot show up in court looking
dripping wet.

Again, on those rare occasions where your luggage wouldn't show up, there
are
many ways to deal with this. But I guess if you're too old, you've lost
the
ability to improvise and really can't live when your routine is perturbed.

Only someone who doesn't travel for business could be this naive. Get a
job, try to earn a living, then go on the road and tell us how you do it.


And finally, luggage gets lost regardless of what is written on it --
baggage handlers only look at the baggage tag that's placed on the bags
at
check-in.

Nop. Scanners only look at those tags. Humans who look at the lugggage
will
still see non-tag writing (such as "fragile" for instance).

Nope. Not only do you not travel for business but, apparently, you don't
travel at all. Luggage handlers will no re-route luggage because you wrote
"London" on the side.

The presence of an
extra label doesn't garantee the handler will see or act on it, but its
abasence garantees the handler won't see it.

Consider the handler who gets to load the aircraft containers from a
carousel.
his job isn't to "sort" luggage, it is to load the container. If he knows
it
is a flight to Paris, and sees big "LONDON" written on the luggage, he
might
take a look at the tag to see LHR instead of CDG on it, at which point he
would oput the luggage back into the sorting system. If he doesn't see the
big
"LONDON", he won't bother looking at the tag.

Handlers don't read anything but the baggage tag applied by the check-in
agent.


However, the issue isn't misdirected luggage, but delayed
luggage. If you have a tight connection at a hub, you might make it but
your
luggage might not.

**** happens. But when you don't get your luggage right away, there are
many
things you can do without until you do get your luggage.

There are many things YOU can do without. You, however, don't travel for
business and, most likely, don't have a job at all, or, at least, the kind
of job that requires any standard of dress, performance and professionalism.


Selecting the right fllights with reasonable connections also greatly
reduces misconnections.

And that is the stupidest thing you've said yet in this thread. Business
travelers rarely have many options about when they can travel. Moreover,
airlines schedule flights to maximize hub transfer periods. As I said, the
more you write, the more it's obvious that you are an inexperienced traveler
and don't travel for business.

mrtravel wrote:

It sounds like he is one of the many people who don't even try to
get the laptop out of the bag until it is time for them to walk
through the metal detector.

I'm one of those people who is "guilty" of never taking my laptop out of
the bag until reaching the metal detector, and I will continue to act
this way without contrition. There is no way I will risk dropping the
laptop on the floor while fumbling through my bag while moving in line
up to the machine. I will only attempt to remove it on the table right
at the machine (long or short table, as the case may be).

I observe many people who aren't ready when it is their turn.

I am always ready, and it only takes a couple of seconds to get it out.
I am usually waiting for people to empty their life collection of junk
out of their pockets into the trays. I typically move keys, coins, and
such things into my bag or jacket pocket before reaching the machine
area, so that is one less thing to do.

I don't buy the issue about people carry so much stuff they are
unable to get the laptop out before they get to the x ray machine.

It's not an issue of having too much stuff, as it is a safety issue in
protecting the laptop.

In message , PTRAVEL
writes
No one buys a new razor, pens and paper every time they fly. Perhaps you
can survive without an umbrella, but I cannot show up in court looking
dripping wet.

To be fair, I think he wanted us to put these items in checked baggage,
and only buy new if they go astray. But the problem on the outbound leg
is that it's not often that easy (perhaps every USA airport has a
seven-eleven open all hours, but I've flown to plenty of places where
all the shopping is closed by the time I get there late at night, or
there never were any shops - many older European airports are very
utilitarian.)
--
Roland Perry

In message , Hungry Racoon
writes

We are talking here about instances where your luggage doesn't make it to you
in time. Your phone charger would arrive usually well before those 3 days.

True story. My first trip to the USA involved meeting with some business
partners and visiting a few people together. They'd flown into Dallas
from the west coast. One chap's luggage was missing. We flew to an
associates office in east Texas, and the chaps luggage followed a day
behind. The problem was that next day we flew back to Dallas and the day
after to Las Vegas. It wasn't until he'd been there two days that his
luggage caught up!

And meanwhile you can greatly extend the life of your phone by using
that old fashioned thing called a payphone at airport and using your
customer's own landline phones in their offices.

Maybe these things (including the tolerance of the people you are
visiting) are common in the USA. I tend to be in conference centres and
meeting rooms (often governmental ones) rather than people's offices,
and running my business on my host's phones is frankly absurd, even if
there was an identifiable host (rather than conference organiser). Being
contactable for incoming calls is way more important than making
outgoing ones, anyway.

--
Roland Perry

In message , PTRAVEL
writes
Remember that people survived before the advent of mobiles.

Another incredibly naive statement. People survived before the advent of
computers, airplanes, automobiles, and calculators as well. Don't think,
though, that you can stay competitve if you don't use these tools now.

Even worse, when I used to survive without a computer or mobile phone, I
employed someone fulltime [a secretary - remember them?] whose job it
was to organise things for me, and most of all know where I was, so she
could contact a secretary wherever that was, who would be sent out to
find me. And to keep on topic, it would be the secretary who understood
itinerary planning and bought the airline tickets. No-one I know employs
secretaries like that any more. Life has become more hectic, and yet we
also have to be more self-sufficient.
--
Roland Perry

In message , Martin WY
writes
However on earth did we cope with doing business in the 1960s and 70s?
Im at a loss to think how I managed.

As I've explained in another posting, I had support staff (sometimes
several) and was only expected to do one meeting every few days. Life
has increased in pace since then.

Another anecdote from about ten years ago: It seems that many business
travellers would have sufficient time to spare that they would arrive
early for meetings and take in the sights. Even if flying domestic USA.
The extra hotel bill was more than compensated by a cheaper flight
"staying Saturday night". But one chap had a nasty fall on a Sunday,
having flown in on the Saturday, and the large corporate employer
changed their rules at the behest of their insurance company - no extra
risk, so no extra days. Of course, their airfare budget must have
suffered rather; but it was also another small step along the road to
"just in time" travelling.
--
Roland Perry