Friday, October 20, 2006

Bumped 3x in 2 days

When I flew out of Indianapolis a month ago, I was told that there was no way for me to opt out of the air puffer machine used at the airport - as I was a SSSS (secondary screening selectee) due to not showing any ID.

Well, the security line at Indianapolis on Thursday was freakishly long, and although I had already made my mind up to be a good boy and follow the rules earlier in the morning, I changed my mind when I saw the line.

The airline gave me a special no-id boarding pass, and thus I was able to bypass the entire security line, and go straight through the special selectee line. W00t!

Much to my pleasant surprise, this time, no one batted an eyelid when I declined to go through the air puffer machine. I'm not sure if they have changed their policies, have new staff who do not know the rules, or I was lied to before. But I'll be calling TSA up when I get back to Indiana next week.

In other news - my flight to DC was oversold, and so I gave up my seat - and flew into DC 3 hours later. In exchange for suffering this delay, I was given a free round-trip ticket anywhere in the US on Northwest.

Today, sitting at Baltimore airport with my girlfriend, we gave up our seats once, and are waiting for the next flight - which is also looking oversold. If it works out, we'll get 2 free round-trip tickets each (we have one each already from the first flight today).

Which will mean 3 free round trip tickets earned in 2 days of airport shenanigans.

For those stuck in airports:

Northwest has free wireless access in their lounges. Sit outside and you can mouch signal.

United/US airways has t-mobile wifi in their lounges, and you can sign up for a free 30 day trial using this link: https://selfcare.hotspot.t-mobile.com/accountcreate/ExternalSetPromotionCode.do?promo=KD1MTH105

It makes the time just fly by.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not that you'll be flying much soon, since you'll probably be on the no fly list. ;)

But personally, I'd take a $300 voucher from NW, instead of the free round trip ticket. Much easier to use, and you get miles for them.

-JC

gt said...

Hi Chris. I might be able to make you a reasonable offer for that ticket. gtbear at gmail. I'd also enjoy your thoughts about flying out of indy without ID. I haven't flown since 2000, and have been following the gilmore thingy. I'm the guy who filed suit a few days ago against indiana's voter id rules. http://joellpalmer.blogspot.com
- arbitrary aardvark.

Anonymous said...

Northwest has free wifi in their clubs, but it recently they made access password-protected. If you can get someone to tell you, you're in. If not, best of luck!