Cattle call

I have been fortunate in the security-line department (besides my experience at DCA a few weeks ago, which probably landed me on a government watch list).

At Logan, there are so many smaller checkpoints leading to smaller amounts of gates, and the airport is not much of a national hub airport for any carrier, so I rarely encounter lines longer than 10 minutes.

Oddly enough, my worst security line experience was at Providence’s (well, Warwick’s) T.F. Green airport a couple years back. I had an early morning departure and about 10 days on the road, so I booked a stay-and-park package at the Radisson the night before, thinking I could sleep an extra hour rather and pretty much just roll out of bed and go to the airport, leaving my car at the hotel for the cost of what parking itself would have been at the airport (essentially a free room for a night).

I showed up at the airport to see the security lines stretching all around various parts of the upstairs ticketing area, then learning that the line’s end stretched all the way downstairs and in a couple of makeshift queues throughout the baggage claim area. An employee held a pre-printed sign on a post reading “Line Ends Here,” suggesting to me that this was a regular problem at T.F. Green.

The similarities to this situation and flying Southwest are astounding.

This was, I believe, just one of two times I have ever missed a flight (the other also originating from T.F. Green…that place is bad luck for me, so I avoid it now). Thankfully, Continental confirmed the security problems with their flight’s destinations, and judiciously rebooked people without incident.