So I flew to Atlanta today for work. And lets just say the security while ever present was severely lacking in effectiveness.
I checked in at the desk and got a seating assignment first. No problem. Then I went through the security check point to go to the gate. I stepped through the metal detector and ‘BEEP!’ The agent there said; “step back through… oh, no. Doesn’t matter, your airline selected you for a random screening. OK. So they went through my laptop bag pocket by pocket and scanned my shoes and hand scanned me and checked my pockets. Annoying but OK.
So now I’m waiting at the gate when I hear my name called to come to the desk. I get up there and they are handing out seating assignments. So I tell the woman I already have mine – that I got it from the check in desk. She looks at it and says ‘OK.’ Then five minutes later she calls my name again. So I go over there and she says; “did I call you again?”
“Yea,” I say. Then looking down I said “that’s probably because my name is on that boarding pass right there.”
“That’s your name?”
“Yes.”
“Well this boarding pass has a different name on it.” She says pointing to the boarding pass I was given at the check in desk.
At this point my mind is saying; “you’re fucked. Somehow you made it all the way through security – having like 6 people look at your ID and boarding pass and none of them noticed the names where totally different. You must be a terrorist. You’re fucked.”
But no. The attendant just handed me the boarding pass with my name on it, trashed the other one and said, “I wonder how that happened?”
I feel so secure. Do you?