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#251
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Encounters with the TSA
"Sleepy Racoon" wrote in message ... PTRAVEL wrote: You can also use plastic trash bags for raincoats. And you remove and dispose ot it as soon as you are inside your court building. If anyone asks, just tell them the airline lost your umbrella. Or if you are staying at a good business hotel, ask the concierge to lend you an umbrella. Sorry, but my clients would not accept a lawyer who dresses like a homeless person. As for borrowing umbrellas, that's fine _if_ you go to the hotel first, _if_ you're going to return after and _if_ you don't mind dragging a full-size umbrella around at court all day. Many ifs. 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 That is bi-mode phone. (digital/analogue with only one digital technology). Tri-mode would be a phone capable of GSM, TDMA and analogue. Verizon has CDMA and analogue, that is bi-mode. No, tri-mode are dual-band CDMA and analogue. Motorola and Samsung make them for Verizon, among others. Now, they also have 2 frequencies for digital (850 and 1900). If you are without battery charger, you simply disable the analogue mode. And then I can't make or receive phone calls, which is the whole point of the cellular phone. I'm sure it's difficult for you to conceive of this, but some people actually need to be reachable, and need to be able to reach others, as part of their jobs. If you are travelling from an airport to an hotel to a court, you're not going to be spending that much time in the boon docks. I am if I'm taking depositions at a party's offices or if, as is quite common, I have a two-three hour drive from the airport to wherever it is I am going, because the carriers have dropped full-size jet service to secondary airports and I don't fly commuters. It fascinates me that you, who haven't a clue what it is like to do my job, have no qualms about telling me how to do it. What firm do you practice with? At your hotel, you have your room phone which you can use to make calls, and when you receive a call on your mobile, you tell them them you'll call them back from another phone. I'm going to guess that you're a student somewhere, who hasn't had a real job yet. My clients have my cellphone number because, as part of the service I provide, they can call me 24/7 if they need me. That's one of the reasons (and only one) that my clients are happy to pay my extremely high hourly billing rate. I don't tell my clients, who provide my livelihood, "call me back at this number," nor do I tell them, "I'll call you back." I take the call. Period. Incidently, if and when you do get a job that requires you to travel for business, you'll learn that long-distance calls are heavily surcharged in business hotels. The cost of a single 1/2-hour conference call could be more than the cost of a good cellphone. This way, your battery life is greatly extended on your mobile. If I valued battery life over my career, I'm sure your system would work. People are understanding creatures. Sorry, but you haven't a clue. Having to overburnden yourself 99% of the time so that on the 1% of times when luggage is lost, you can continue totally transparently isn't very smart in my opinion. I don't "overburden" myself. I have two carryons. One goes in the overhead. The other goes in the underseat space of the seat in front of me. There's not an airline in the U.S. that has any problem with that. The fact that you do bothers me not at all. You explain to people that luggage was lost and they'll understand you have to phone them back from a landline. You haven't a clue. Once, when I was flying to Orlando from SNA to do a trial, I checked a bag because I had hurt my arm and it was a pain to lug the thing around. Inside it was my suit. And guess what? The airline (TWA) "misplaced" it. The next morning, instead of preparing for the final pretrial status conference, I was running around looking for a Mens Wearhouse, where I spent $1,000 out-of-pocket on a suit, shoes, belt, underwear, etc. so that when I showed up at court a 1pm, I wouldn't be thrown in jail by the judge who will NOT understand why at attorney admitted to practice before the federal court has shown up in Dockers and a tee-shirt. I will _never_ check bags when I travel for business. Another incredibly naive statement. People survived before the advent of computers, airplanes, automobiles, and calculators as well. Well, if you want to use that logic, then I will ask you: If you rely on SMS (sorry this may be new to you since you are on a US network not using the world GSM standard), then your SMS service doesn't work in analogue areas. I don't use SMS. However, Verizon has an adequate substitute -- email can be sent direct to my phone. It doesn't work analogue, either. I also don't rely on SMS. I do rely on voice communication. What do you do if you can't receive an urgent SMS because you're in an analogue area ?????? What will you do ? I don't get what you probably consider an "urgent" SMS. Or, more accurately, if there is something truly urgent, my secretary will send email to my phone and to my in-firm and private email, will call my cellphone, and fax my hotel. He'll also call my wife and my travel agent. Fortunately, this happens but rarely. However, if my client wants to call me, that _is_ urgent, as far as I'm concerned. Which is why they are given my cellphone number. When I travel internationally, I have a GSM phone that I take with me with an international number (it happens to be based in the UK). They get that number, too. I also _always_ travel with my computer, and subscribe to an ISP with international local dial-up specifically so that I can check email. If you go to a place without digital coverage, you tell your secretary not to send you SMS messages and instead leave a message in your voicemail. You can then manage by regularly checking your voicemail. Which I would do from my cellphone. Which would need to be charged. How about the suit that I need to wear to court? Should I show up in a polo shirt and dockers? That is why garment bags are generally accepted as hand luggage. So are carryon bags with cellphone chargers. What do I tell my wife when the judge locks me up for contempt? That you'll sue the airline for losing your luggage causing you to lose your job as a lawyer. If you explain to the judge the situation, he would be absolutely silly to lock you up for contempt. You don't know the first thing about the practice of law, that's evident. Read what I wrote above. And, no, I didn't sue the airline for losing my luggage. I don't have the time or the money to bring a negligence action for a couple of thousand dollars. 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. Funny, I don't have such problems. Obviously, because you don't have my job. I use my judgement to determine what I absolutely need and what I don't need. So do I. I also don't presume to tell anyone else what they need. And I take a few seconds to think about "what if" scenarios to see what I would be able to do without, what I would be able to replace etc. I don't have general rules, I deal with each trip separately. And if you feel so much that you cannot live without your laptop, have you considered the possibility of how you would handle a case of your laptop being broken (sopftware or hardware) or stolen ? Yes, it's happened. My IS department will get another one to me, even if it means messengering it to the airport and placing it on a plane (I've had to do that). Do you have any idea how much it costs to do something like that? 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. You didn't read what I said. A handler loading a flight to paris seing a luggage with a big "LONDON" sticker on it is more likely to seek out the tag to ensure it does state CDG on it. If he sees LHR, then the handler will take the luggage out and send it back to be sorted. Sorry, but I think you're wrong. I don't think handlers look at anything other than check-in-applied luggage sticker. They don't read hand-written tags. They don't notice hand-written tags. The last step in loading luggage is done by humans who assume the luggage has been sorted properly. Putting the "LONDON" sticker doesn't garantee they will spot a sorting error, but it increases their chances. And that's contrary to everything that I know about flying. Have you ever _watched_ a luggage handler? They're not looking at anything. They simply throw the bags from the cart onto the belt. And in the USA, if you do not take the last flight of the day and your luggage does miss its connection, it will travel on the next flight and you will get it. Again, you haven't a clue what you're talking about. If your luggage misses it's connection, it is sent to a luggage handling facility where it is entered into the "lost luggage" system. Once someone actually determines where it is supposed to go, it is slotted on to a flight, and then routed to the destination lost-luggage office. They, in turn, will eventually organize a delivery service to bring it to your hotel. If you're lucky, it happens in 24 hours. If you're not, it can take weeks. This has happened to me many times on non-business trips, or on returns from business trips when I decide to check luggage. Whether that luggage has your phone charger in it or not, you will still have to deal with the airline, sign forms etc to have that luggage delivered as soon as it arrives. Do you think a luggage delivery person will be allowed to bring it to me in court? Handlers don't read anything but the baggage tag applied by the check-in agent. Wrong. Handlers at the last bit don't even read the tags. Exactly right. They just transfer sorted lugagge from one bin to a container (or trolley in case of non-containerised aircraft). Exactly right. You need to bring to their attention the potential for a mistake for them to check the tag. And I don't care if you stick a tag on your bag that says, "Read this and I'll pay you $100." They won't, because they'll never notice it. 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. Throwing insults at me doesn't enhance your image. They're not insults, but observations. It is clear that you don't travel for business. It is also clear that you don't understand the importance of looking professional and have the tools of your profession with you when you do. And that is the stupidest thing you've said yet in this thread. Business travelers rarely have many options about when they can travel. But a smart person will look at the options and judge the flights. You can alos look at predicted weather and an experienced traveller will have a good idea of the odds of making the connection or not. You then pack accordingly. Most business travelers, including myself, do not have the luxury of picking when they'll fly. Has it ever occured to you that a simple ziplok with a bit of detergent in it would allow you to clean your shirt overnight if you didn't get your luggage ? I work in the hotel room. I don't wash and iron clothes. (and I suspect most hotels would provide you with some laundry detergent if you asked the right folks). Has it ever occured to you that most hotels will provide you with a ironing board and iron if you ask ? (and the really big hotels will have overnight dry cleaning/ironing services). No business hotel that I'm aware of has overnight cleaning services, including the ones I stay at in major cities like New York. Seems to me that you're the one who hasn't travelled much and doesn't have much experience in dealing with lost luggage so you tend to bring everything but the kitchen sink as carry on because you don't know how to handle a situation where you lost your luggage. You haven't a clue what I bring, other than my cellphone charger, which is all that I've talked about. I have no problems travelling with my carryons, nor do I cause problems for anyone else based on what I bring. If you want to know how much I travel, and what I do, spend a little time on google -- it won't take you long to find out. |
#252
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Encounters with the TSA
"Miguel Cruz" wrote in message ... PTRAVEL wrote: "Stephen Harman" wrote: PS try doing US security with a baby and a stroller that only fits through some x ray machines. There's an obvious answer, but that's another, and very old, thread. Forego the stoller and ask a nearby business traveler to carry the baby "just until we get on the plane"? Duct tape. Works wonders. miguel -- See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/ |
#253
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Encounters with the TSA
Roland Perry wrote: In message , mrtravel writes What is the big deal about carry it with you in the first place? I don't see why there was an issue. They are small enough to fit in a pocket. I usually carry mine in my laptop bag when traveling. Oh, do keep up! The "big deal" is whether it's essential enough to be in your carry-on rather than in your (might get lost) checked baggage. Why in the world would you not have room for a cell charge in your carryon? |
#254
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Encounters with the TSA
Sleepy Racoon wrote:
mrtravel wrote: Are you saying you don't have the ability to carry your laptop in your hand without dropping it on the floor? One normally packs in such a way that one can walk, stand at check in counter etc without fear of dropping items. But when you prepage to go through security, you tend to "reconfigure" you hand luggage, at which point, you hands may get quite busy with stuff and the laptop is no longer such a sure thing. What "reconfigure"? How many hands do you need? You can reconfigure BEFORE getting in line. Generally you should have a hand free to hold your laptop in. I tend to agree with the idea of waiting until you reach the table before taking laptop out. Another potential problem is waiting for the tray to put your keys, change etc into. One solution is to bring a ziplok bag with you and empty the contents in the bag and then put the bag into your carryon. You can then walk way from the checkpoint faster since you don't have to handled the coins/keys etc in the small tray. That is my point.. Your change, keys, etc should already have been put away BEFORE getting to security. |
#255
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On Sat, 08 Nov 2003 16:55:34 -0500 in rec.travel.air, Horny
Raccoon wrote: And if you have stuff that is *really* important, then you send it FedEx a few days early and then verify that it has arrived at hotel so that if there has been a problem, you can bring a second copy of documents with you. you have NO clue about business travel. PLONK. |
#256
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Encounters with the TSA
PTRAVEL wrote:
person. As for borrowing umbrellas, that's fine _if_ you go to the hotel first, _if_ you're going to return after and _if_ you don't mind dragging a full-size umbrella around at court all day. Many ifs. Reminds me of the guy from Wham who had a whole video redone because he didn't like the way his hair was. If you are so important, then you can take a cab that will drop you off directly in front of the court house and won't have to feel more than a couple drops of rain. And if the court appearance is so important, you won't be arriving last minute and those few drops of rain will have had plenty of time to dry off. Of course, if you are 90 years old and take half an hour to walk from the cab to the entrance of the court house, things are different. And again, we are talking about those occasions where your luggage woudln't have made it *AND* the weather is such that it is raining. No, tri-mode are dual-band CDMA and analogue. Motorola and Samsung make them for Verizon, among others. That is what Verizon calls them. But they are bi mode dual frequency. They only support 2 protocols (IA95 (CDMA) and analogue (AMPS)). There are tri-mode phones on the market (AT&T will be needing them to service its GSM and old TDMA and older AMPS networks), and those will also have dual frequency to use 1900 and 850 for the GSM and TDMA modes. And then I can't make or receive phone calls, which is the whole point of the cellular phone. Unless Verizon has crippled features, learn to use your voice mail and call forwarding effectively. And if you are really such a hot shot, why don't you get an Iridium handset and service ? Again, if your old phone only has automony for 3 days, that is more than ample time for your luggage to arrive. Learn to use it more effectively. secondary airports and I don't fly commuters. Your problem not mine. If your time is so valuable, how come you can afford to drive such long distances and arrive tired instead of taking a smaller plane ? job yet. My clients have my cellphone number because, as part of the service I provide, they can call me 24/7 if they need me. Do you know what voice mail is ? Do you have your phone when you're at the toilet ? Do you have a waterpropof phone so you can have it with you while you take a shower ? If your phone is so important, you should get one that has greater automony. "call me back at this number," nor do I tell them, "I'll call you back." I take the call. Period. What happens if they call you while you are at a very dangerous/difficult intersection with lots of traffic ? Doe they get to hear your death as your car crashes into some truck, or do you politely tell them that you're driving and you'll call them back in a minute or two ? (or just to hold while you get out of the dangerous situation ? Incidently, if and when you do get a job that requires you to travel for business, you'll learn that long-distance calls are heavily surcharged in business hotels. Nobody is advising you to use hotel phones on a regular basis. Only in those cases where your phone battery is running low. I don't "overburden" myself. I have two carryons. Well, someone in this thread did mention some of the folks who carry too much stuff. Isn't that what the thread is all about ? tee-shirt. I will _never_ check bags when I travel for business. And don't expect any sympathy when TSA decides to fully examine the boatload you are carrying as carry-on luggage. Had you said "there are times where I can't afford to risk losing luggage and hence carry it all with me", you would have had respect. But your blanket statement makes you look like the inexperienced one. I don't use SMS. However, Verizon has an adequate substitute -- email can be sent direct to my phone. Unless you have a phone equipped with the CDMA eequivalent of GPRS, those email messages are sent as an SMS to your phone and you only get the first 150 characters (or multiple messages of 150 characters). (GSM is able to fit 160 characters in an SMS). I don't get what you probably consider an "urgent" SMS. Or, more accurately, if there is something truly urgent, my secretary will send email to my phone its's an SMS. and to my in-firm and private email, will call my cellphone, and fax my hotel. He'll also call my wife and my travel agent. See, there are ways to reach you when your phone is inoperative. then manage by regularly checking your voicemail. Which I would do from my cellphone. Which would need to be charged. You can check your voice mails from a pay phone. Saving your batteries. I guess it isn't cool for an expensive lawyer to be seen using a payphone. Sorry, but I think you're wrong. I don't think handlers look at anything other than check-in-applied luggage sticker. They don't read hand-written tags. They don't notice hand-written tags. I am not talking about tags with your name on it attached to the handle. I am talking about large stickers on both sides of your suitcase. And I am talking about computer generated labels, not handwritten ones. And that's contrary to everything that I know about flying. Have you ever _watched_ a luggage handler? They're not looking at anything. They simply throw the bags from the cart onto the belt. There are many levels of luggage handling. The ones you see on the tarmac are not the only ones. You also have the ones in the luggage makeup room that take sorted luggage and load them onto containers (or troleys for non-containerized aircraft), and in smaller airport, you have manual luggage sorting that bring luggage to the right bin in the luggage makeup room. (this is mechanical in larger airports). It is the ones in the makeup room that have a chance to spot routing errors and correct them. Again, you haven't a clue what you're talking about. If your luggage misses it's connection, it is sent to a luggage handling facility where it is entered into the "lost luggage" system. Missing a connection is quite different from misrouted. They will know right away that your luggage has missed its connection, and they can them put in on the next flight (and yes, they will enter it into the computer so that you, at the other airport will have an idea of when it will arrive. With misrouted luggage, it is more lengthy process since your luggage must first turn around in the luggage belt until it is declared unclaimed, at which point they will look at the tags, and if it was misrouted, enter it into the computer, again with next flight to destination. Meanwhile, at the terminating airport, you have the airline enter the delivery details of where the luggage should be delivered. The computers will assemble both messages into one based on the airline tag number. the destination lost-luggage office. They, in turn, will eventually organize a delivery service to bring it to your hotel. "eventually" is not quite right. When the lugagge is found, it is given a special tag so that at the destination it is sent immediatly to the lost luggage dept. Do you think a luggage delivery person will be allowed to bring it to me in court? They would leave it with the security guard if so instructed. Not different from FedEx. I work in the hotel room. I don't wash and iron clothes. And I guess your wiofe should remain barefoot and pregnant ? No business hotel that I'm aware of has overnight cleaning services, including the ones I stay at in major cities like New York. I have stayed in a few that had. I've had a black tie suit pressed overnight a few times. Note that all those occasions were outside the USA. Perhaps the USA big hotels have that service, but you never inquired. |
#257
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Encounters with the TSA
PTRAVEL wrote:
"Miguel Cruz" wrote: PTRAVEL wrote: "Stephen Harman" wrote: PS try doing US security with a baby and a stroller that only fits through some x ray machines. There's an obvious answer, but that's another, and very old, thread. Forego the stoller and ask a nearby business traveler to carry the baby "just until we get on the plane"? Duct tape. Works wonders. Just please remember to leave an air hole in the coccoon. miguel -- See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/ |
#258
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mrtravel wrote:
What "reconfigure"? How many hands do you need? You can reconfigure BEFORE getting in line. Generally you should have a hand free to hold your laptop in. Well, if you need to remove your shoes while holding on to your briefcase, umbrella, laptop, laptop case etc, it can be quite an exercise unless you are some acrobat :-) That is my point.. Your change, keys, etc should already have been put away BEFORE getting to security. Define "getting to security" ? If you must wait in line for 45 minutes before getting to a point where you are 2nd or 3rd in line to go through the arch, at what point do you start to prepare for it ? Pointless to have your laptop out of case for that length of time. And if there is absolutely nobody at the security checkpoint, is it then wrong to stop at the tables to get all your stuff ready and then proceed ? Or should you do that ahead of time prior to approaching that spot ? Also, do you really want to have all your hands full when they ask you to see your boarding pass and for international flights, passport ? The thing is that things vary from airport to airport. I was once all into the routine of dumping all my stuff from pockets into those little trays, until I got to a security checkpoint where I had to wait because all those trays were still on the other side and I had to ask for one. That is when I though of having my own plastic bag for pocket contents. |
#259
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Encounters with the TSA
"Stephen Harman" wrote in message ... "AJC" wrote in message ... On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 08:53:52 GMT, mrtravel wrote: AJC wrote You are again ignoring the fact that by that stage his carry-on bag, his coat, a tray with his keys and coins may well have been on their way through the scanner. Are the security personnel really going to want someone to move away at that stage? --==++AJC++==-- Keys and coins could be put elsewhere.. 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. That is probably because, as the op already said, he did not expect to have to take his laptop out of the bag. He said he goes through security at a major international airport every day and does not have to remove it from it's bag. It seems the US has particular practices that differ from standard security practices in other places. That's fine, but it means that people who are used to going through security checks at airports in other parts of the world may not be aware of what is required to prepare for a security check at a US airport. --==++AJC++==-- No there was no queue when he arrived at security. Hence no time to pre prepare. The laptop caused a problem, others ariving then resulted in a queue. PS try doing US security with a baby and a stroller that only fits through some x ray machines. Take the baby out of the stroller and put them through the x-ray machine separately :-) |
#260
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Encounters with the TSA
"Roland Perry" wrote in message ... In message , Dick Locke writes in a business negotiation context. It implies that Brits are less comfortable with direct gaze than Americans. It's something to do with the degree of familiarity. Americans in business negotiations seem to me to get to the point where they want to be your buddy, and at that stage eye contact is required to demonstrate sincerity. It's the situation between strangers that's more likely to crop up in an airport. Agreed, they read books telling them how to become your instant buddy, with all the eye contact, body language, writing notes about personal details etc etc. Whereas in the stranger situation you don't look someone in the eye, because its a threat and they may pull a gun on you. I guess in the UK we dont normally look total strangers in the eye e.g. when passing in the street, its just when we 'engage' them in conversation that we do. |
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