I decided to check my small suitcase. It will fit in the overhead bin, but I didn’t want to deal with any more inspections than I had to. Walking along…
I decided to check my small suitcase. It will fit in the overhead bin, but I didn’t want to deal with any more inspections than I had to.
Walking along the 6th floor parapet, overlooking the 5th floor security areas, I could see the added walls they’re putting up around the security checkpoints, and enough switchbacking line barriers to warm the cockles of Walt Disney.
I did try the A-bridge security point, and it’s definitely the way to go. There was even a DIA Guest Services guy there handing out candy.
Corkscrews are not allowed. Now, I wasn’t dumb. I did not have a corkscrew that had a little knife. Makes no difference. Corkscrews are not allowed. I’m not sure what I could do with the corkscrew I had in my briefcase that I couldn’t do with, say, a pen, but … well, my corkscrew got donated to the Checkpoint A Contraband Box. It was either that or go back and check it. Sh’yeah, right.
Things were deserted. Weekend travel, based on our experience on the Orlando trip, is still heavy. Weekday business travel? Chirping crickets and tumbling tumbleweeds in the aisles.
On the train, heard a woman joking about how careful she was to not be carrying anything metal, only to be caught in the metal detector by her underwire ….
Sometime between when we left for Orlando and when we got back, Delta, at least, started a secondary security screen at the gate. Random names are called, and any carry-on they have is hand-searched. At DIA, they’re doing it in the space behind the big gate counter display.
On my second leg, Cincinnati to Philly, the little drop-down LCD screens were showing the “Delta Navigator,” which basically has fight information (Altitude 30,000′; Speed Mach 0.76; Outside Temp -46F) and a cool graphic showing the plane moving across the map at various scales. And then I saw the plane, and Washington, DC, and New York City. And the graphic reminded me of way too many newscasts. And for the first time in my flying since 9-11, I felt a little chill down my spine.