Northwest Airlines

We as a country want to believe that the security at the airport is top notch. We want to believe that showing up early, standing in line to go through the metal detector, having our possessions go thru the x-ray machine, and being "randomly" selected to have further search makes flying safer. We want to believe that the people working for the airlines, security and the government make sure the passengers are where they are suppose to be and get to their final destination safely.

Of late, I am beginning to wonder how successful the people that actually work for the airlines are at keeping passengers like myself. A few months back, my mother flew without her luggage and the airport knew about it. My cousins just recently did the same thing. How is it possible to send someone's luggage but not have the person on the plane? That seems like a perfectly good opportunity to blow up a plane. (Please note, that no one I know is capable of blowing up a plane, has any intention of doing so, or would like to harm any innocent passengers, however, it is possible for people who want to hurt, injure or kill others to do so).

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of flying out of Hartford, Connecticut. I believe that the Hartford/Bradley airport (known as BDL) has 12 gates. It is rather small, but extremely efficient, or so I thought. I was to fly from Hartford connect in Detroit and then follow along to Denver. As, I was sitting on the ground waiting to board my flight, I was playing on Swallow's iPod touch (definitely buying one, but that is for another blog). Here I am sitting between two gates, with my head phones in listening to whatever music she has on there, checking my email and not paying attention. I hear something over the loud speaker, but not clear enough to be able to tell you what was said (remember I was jamming out to music/or white noise for those of us who are tone deaf). I saw a pack of people stand around the gate, and so I got up and followed along, just as I have always done before (I am very good at following instructions, even if my mother disagrees). I gave the ticketing agent my boarding pass, and continued down the tunnel to the plane. I found my aisle seat, pulled my book out, put my backpack above me and settled in for my trip. I still had my iPod on and my nose buried in my book. The best way to show the person next to me that I am not interested in conversing at all! We pull away from the gate, I take my head phones out, turn off my iPod and continue to read. Just before take off, the flight attendant makes the announcement that we are headed for Minneapolis. RUT RHOE!

I thought to myself, well this should be interesting. I am wasn't going to stress about, eventually I would make it home, but I was hopeful that I wouldn't have to buy another ticket. The philosophy of "breath in, breath out, and move on" certainly came in handy. I waited until we were in the air to push my call button. The lovely flight attendant (Shannon) comes over and asks if I need something. I told her about my dilemma. I showed her my boarding pass, showing that I am suppose to be flying to Detroit. She was none too happy. She took my boarding pass up to cockpit and came back about 10 minutes later. Shannon came back and said that I would be re-routed through Minneapolis and I would fly standby on the flight to Denver. She asked me how and why I was on this flight. I just kind of looked up at her and shrugged my shoulders. I honestly had no clue, how I managed to pull this off, but I did and without question from ANYONE!

The woman, next to me chuckled at what top notch security we have when it comes to the airlines. Shannon came back later and explained that the Detroit flight was at the gate next to the Minneapolis and it was scheduled to leave BDL 10 minutes after the Minneapolis flight. Clearly, I just ended up in the wrong cattle call, but how did the machine not beep when she scanned my boarding pass? How did I happen to sit in a seat that wasn't assigned to anyone else? It all worked out, but it was pretty funny to see how poor our security really is! I ended up making being able to fly standby and I only got home about 20 minutes after I was scheduled to do so. So, all in all it was a successful adventure home.