Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Airport arrival angst
I drove to Logan Airport (Boston) Monday to pick up my wife who was coming back from visiting her brother's family in Pass Christian, MS.
Before the "Big Dig" and Logan's reconstruction, driving there was such a pain that it was usually better to fly into Providence, and the airfares were sometimes cheaper as well. That doesn't seem to be the case now as airfares at Logan seem to be cheaper, but it's not an issue any more. The new Ted Williams Tunnel gets you right into the airport, but the new roads are set up in levels so you have to circle the airport twice to get to the International/Northwest arrivals terminal.
I parked my car at the terminal 10 minutes before the scheduled arrival time and just as I was going into the terminal I got a text message from my wife saying they had landed, by the time I got to the designated "Northwest/KLM Arrival Lounge" she was still on the plane. There were a series of glass doors but only one was open where there were passengers from previous flights walking out and a TSA agent standing at that open door, so I text messaged my wife that I was there waiting, in one of the rather uncomfortable metal seats.
Ten minutes later I get a call, my wife is already in the lower level looking for the baggage carousel, where am I? So what's the sense of having an "Arrival Lounge" when that's not where the passengers are going to go, especially if you both don't have cellphones to keep in touch? Fortunately for us, we did.
$7.70 in tolls to drive about 30 miles on the MassPike and the Ted Williams Tunnel seems a bit steep, but the driving experience was a breeze, maybe it's worth it in that it kept my blood pressure down.
The reception Anne got from her kitties was what I expected. Lucky was at the door to sniff the luggage, while Buddy didn't move from his sleeping position on the dining room table, and appeared rather irritated when she picked him up to give him a hug. The cold shoulder treatment continued until it was time to eat.
Before the "Big Dig" and Logan's reconstruction, driving there was such a pain that it was usually better to fly into Providence, and the airfares were sometimes cheaper as well. That doesn't seem to be the case now as airfares at Logan seem to be cheaper, but it's not an issue any more. The new Ted Williams Tunnel gets you right into the airport, but the new roads are set up in levels so you have to circle the airport twice to get to the International/Northwest arrivals terminal.
I parked my car at the terminal 10 minutes before the scheduled arrival time and just as I was going into the terminal I got a text message from my wife saying they had landed, by the time I got to the designated "Northwest/KLM Arrival Lounge" she was still on the plane. There were a series of glass doors but only one was open where there were passengers from previous flights walking out and a TSA agent standing at that open door, so I text messaged my wife that I was there waiting, in one of the rather uncomfortable metal seats.
Ten minutes later I get a call, my wife is already in the lower level looking for the baggage carousel, where am I? So what's the sense of having an "Arrival Lounge" when that's not where the passengers are going to go, especially if you both don't have cellphones to keep in touch? Fortunately for us, we did.
$7.70 in tolls to drive about 30 miles on the MassPike and the Ted Williams Tunnel seems a bit steep, but the driving experience was a breeze, maybe it's worth it in that it kept my blood pressure down.
The reception Anne got from her kitties was what I expected. Lucky was at the door to sniff the luggage, while Buddy didn't move from his sleeping position on the dining room table, and appeared rather irritated when she picked him up to give him a hug. The cold shoulder treatment continued until it was time to eat.
# posted by Paul @ 9:05 AM 
