Air travel blues

Think twice (and a few times more after that) before transiting through Ireland. I recently made an international connection on Aer Lingus through Dublin, en-route to the UK. For the first time in nearly eight years, I experienced international transit passengers being put through immigration and customs checks at the transit airport. Apparently, this was done because we were at the port of entry into the European Union. Then, we were made to exit the terminal area and join a queue for security check. Problem was, every passenger entering the airport at Dublin was also in the same queue! There was no quick side-screening for transit passengers.

The flight to Dublin was late by about 15 minutes, cutting my scheduled 1-hour connection to less than 45 minutes. The queues were long and essentially static. Jumping the immigration queue did not help, and I missed the flight to the UK. They apparently held the flight for as long as they could (yet it seemingly departed on time, so what was the big courtesy they expended towards me?) I missed a huge chunk of the meeting I was traveling to, since Aer Lingus would only put me on their next flight seven hours later. Compensation? A 5-Euro voucher for breakfast, when my stomach was already churning from the transit ordeal.

I do not question the procedures. They are what they are. But the airline should be aware of them, and account for such expected delays while scheduling their itineraries. It is not as if they were doing me a favor flying me to the UK and back. They got more than 1500 good reasons to do so. Customer service and accountability seem to be unheard of nowadays. Not even money can buy them!

More drama on the way back. The Dublin-Boston flight halted at Shannon in Ireland, just half an hour after take-off. The flight attendants had to confer before confirming that everybody had to get out with their bags. We went through US immigration right there in Ireland! I got my I-94 card stamped here. This was followed by a mad rush to re-board the plane, with the Shannon-Boston crowd getting priority! The plane then stayed at the gate while they located and removed the checked bags of two potential travelers who were denied the right to be on the flight. A harrowing and financially wasteful trip, to say the least.

And a funny incident at Boston's Logan Airport the very next weekend, on my way to San Francisco. The guy ahead of me had a tough time keeping the security scanner quiet. Beep! Beep! He was repeatedly asked if he had anything metallic on his person, which he stoutly denied. Beep! Beep! When the officer finally forced him to check his pockets, out came a quite large spoon from the back pocket of his pants! Was he expecting an ice cream sundae on his flight?!