Free drinks and spotty security - life on the road: Jerry Chandler lets fly

I always carry my reporter's notebook when I travel. You never can tell what will happen. Case-in-point: an ostensibly ordinary business trip from Birmingham (BHM) to Dallas Love Field (DAL) and back. Twenty-four hours.

First, the good part. The plane was late pushing back from the gate at BHM, but just 25 minutes late. When we went wheels-up, after leveling off, the drink service started. Suddenly, passengers understood why, despite its low fares and lack of in-flight amenities, discount airline Southwest almost always lands atop somebody's “best of” list. Because the flight was late departing, drinks were on the house - all around. Understand, we're not talking hours late here - just 25 minutes.

Nice way to start a trip. Smiles all around. You don't have to have bells and whistles to attract customers, you just need to render them some respect. Southwest does it with astonishing regularity.

The trip back was a bit different. The flight was okay, getting to the flight was not. I got stopped at security in Dallas for carrying a knife.

It was a Swiss Army knife that I'd forgotten was in my backpack - not a machete. The Transportation Security Administration officer who stopped me was polite and professional. She escorted me over to a place where I could mail the knife back to my home - for a $9.95 fee. It's special to me, a gift from my late father. I didn't want to lose it. I thanked her and started to go to the gate. Then, it struck me: how did the knife make it through security on the trip from Birmingham to Dallas? The backpack was screened, but nobody noticed. No one said a thing.

Oops.

It's this kind of airport-to-airport, screener-to-screener inconsistency that seems to continue to bedevil TSA. Good security is built upon consistency, and - from this writer's perspective - the system still falls short.

Perhaps the federal government could take a lesson from Southwest Airlines in terms of managerial style. They deliver a consistent product day in, and day out. It's a philosophy TSA might do well to emulate.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Cheap Flight News

Comments

[Nikki]

With the Swiss Army Knife, it can also go that the angle the knife was in the bag was too difficult for the TSO to identify. Also the TSO might not be 100 percent gifted when it comes to reading the x-ray images. If you notice you go through with something you shouldn't have PLEASE notify the airport it happened in... direct the concern to the "FSD".