Being a frequent airline traveler, both personally and professionally, I welcome the new security at the airports. Well, at most of them, that is.
On the evening of Aug. 10, I returned from a trip to Mexico, and my flight arrived at O’Hare International Airport at 6:14 p.m. from the Houston connection.
My friend was picking me up outside of the baggage claim area. My luggage had not yet arrived, so I ran outside to tell her I’d be a few minutes longer. She pointed out two unattended bags that someone had left by the doors. She said she had been watching them for about 15 minutes and that nobody had claimed them and nobody had noticed them.
Trying to do my duty, I went inside and told the first uniformed man I saw that I needed security. He said, in language hard to understand, that he couldn’t help me and to go upstairs.
I took the escalator and ran to a ticket counter. I told the man there that I needed security. He told me to wait. Finally, he asked me what the problem was, and when I explained, he said not to worry about it, that there are a lot of unclaimed bags left at the airport.
I persisted, telling him these bags had been there for more than 15 minutes and, as travelers, weren’t we supposed to report them? He said he would notify the police and dismissed me.
Twenty minutes later, when my luggage finally arrived and I was leaving O’Hare, the bags were still there, and no police were evident. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, how serious the airlines are about security?
