Another airport security story

We all have airport stories. If you don't, you either don't travel or you've been incredibly lucky. In Jan. 2007 I had a business trip to Vegas. My company would only pay for travel to and back from Vegas, but I wanted to visit a friend in CA for a few days first. Amazingly, I found a flight on United from Dulles to Vegas that first stopped at LAX and then backtracked to Vegas. I picked this one, as it would get me to CA and the company would cover it since Vegas was the final destination. I figured I'd just get a flight on Southwest from LAX to San Jose to see my friend and then back to Vegas in time for my conference a few days later.

In Vegas I planned to rent a BMW R1200GS (then my dream bike, now my current bike) and spend a day riding around Valley of Fire (I later got married there). Of course, this would require lugging my riding gear with me on this trip, which was plenty of girth and weight - helmet, gloves, boots, riding pants, jacket and lots of warm layers. It turned out to be 37 deg. the day I rode and that was just the ambient temp. Add a 50-80 mph wind chill for the ride and it was coooollllldddd.

Anyway, I had all this shi.....stuff packed up neatly to check for the flight. At the check-in counter, I asked the lady to have my bags tagged for LAX, as I was getting off there. She said that was not possible, as my ticket was for Vegas. I told her I was getting off in LA and really needed those bags to be with me, especially, since I was planning to rent a bike when I later got to Vegas, which I could not do without riding gear. She said the bags could not be on the plane without me. I countered by saying that's why the bags should get off in LAX, since that was where I was getting off and she couldn't stop me from getting off there. The robot lady was having none of it. She then said it was a security issue. I asked how it was a security issue if I was asking to have my bags get off with me in LA, while she was insisting they continue on the plane to Vegas without me. Can you believe this? Oh, it gets better.

Finally, she said it would be a $100 charge to redirect my bags to get off the plane in LA. Of course, I had to ask her why, if it was a security issue, I was able to get out of it by paying $100. Whatever. These days you never win by using logic or reason or making a scene at the check-in counter. While she was processing my payment, I commented that I'd gladly spend more than $100 to not have to fly United again.

The trip went fine and, immediately upon my return home, I fired off an angry email to United's customer service. I got a $100 voucher for my trouble.