In September, I traveled to Eastern Europe with a stopover in New York on the way there, and with a stop in Italy (to scuba dive) on the way home. I’ve done similar in the past and have traveled through several international airports. I have also flown with many different airlines, including foreign airline companies.
Upon leaving Ukraine (on Ukrainian Airlines), I went through customs and noted that while the European Union customs booths were adequately staffed so that the passengers were quickly processed, the one, single, non-European Union (“all-other-passports”) booth was woefully backed up. I saw a paid, skip-to-the-front-of-the-line isle, in which, for a small price (I don’t know what it was, since I didn’t check), you got to go ahead of everyone else. A sign on the customs booth warned everybody that bribing the customs agent was a criminal offense. Nevertheless, many did take the opportunity to pay to skip ahead of everyone else. (I couldn’t be critical over this, because overt corruption in which the bribes are legally paid and transparent, is a step in the right direction. The next time I go, however, I hope there will be only a small incentive to pay the overt bribe to skip ahead of everyone else.)
In New York, I saw evidence that we are slouching into third-world status, here in America. Misleading signage, uninformed or uncaring TSA agents, and rickety infrastructure caused me to almost miss my flight to Europe, and resulted in me missing my flight back from New York to Salt Lake City.
One of the most aggravating moments of this trip home (which should have been hilarious, had I not been so tired and on the incipient stages of a bad cold) was waiting in a TSA line in which they kept re-channeling us by changing the crowd-control device configurations. It almost appeared that they were doing it because they were bored.
Summarizing the experience: I sat in a bus on the tarmac for 15 minutes, experienced a delay through customs, was directed to the wrong terminal, spent more than sufficient time in line waiting for the security check, and I was not allowed to board the plane coming home, even though the plane sat at the gate for a full 30 minutes after I had arrived!
I spent the night and the next “lovely” day at an airport hotel, and then arrived more than several hours early at the airport. Nevertheless, I sat on the tarmac in the plane for more than an hour, due to redirected flights. To top off the ordeal, I finally arrived in Salt Lake at 2 am, sans my checked baggage. Thankfully, this was remedied two days later.
Loren M. Lambert © October 3, 2017
Upon leaving Ukraine (on Ukrainian Airlines), I went through customs and noted that while the European Union customs booths were adequately staffed so that the passengers were quickly processed, the one, single, non-European Union (“all-other-passports”) booth was woefully backed up. I saw a paid, skip-to-the-front-of-the-line isle, in which, for a small price (I don’t know what it was, since I didn’t check), you got to go ahead of everyone else. A sign on the customs booth warned everybody that bribing the customs agent was a criminal offense. Nevertheless, many did take the opportunity to pay to skip ahead of everyone else. (I couldn’t be critical over this, because overt corruption in which the bribes are legally paid and transparent, is a step in the right direction. The next time I go, however, I hope there will be only a small incentive to pay the overt bribe to skip ahead of everyone else.)
In New York, I saw evidence that we are slouching into third-world status, here in America. Misleading signage, uninformed or uncaring TSA agents, and rickety infrastructure caused me to almost miss my flight to Europe, and resulted in me missing my flight back from New York to Salt Lake City.
One of the most aggravating moments of this trip home (which should have been hilarious, had I not been so tired and on the incipient stages of a bad cold) was waiting in a TSA line in which they kept re-channeling us by changing the crowd-control device configurations. It almost appeared that they were doing it because they were bored.
Summarizing the experience: I sat in a bus on the tarmac for 15 minutes, experienced a delay through customs, was directed to the wrong terminal, spent more than sufficient time in line waiting for the security check, and I was not allowed to board the plane coming home, even though the plane sat at the gate for a full 30 minutes after I had arrived!
I spent the night and the next “lovely” day at an airport hotel, and then arrived more than several hours early at the airport. Nevertheless, I sat on the tarmac in the plane for more than an hour, due to redirected flights. To top off the ordeal, I finally arrived in Salt Lake at 2 am, sans my checked baggage. Thankfully, this was remedied two days later.
Loren M. Lambert © October 3, 2017
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