Note: this post has been posted in Helsinki, after cooling down. I still stand behind my words.
American airports are a constant source of disappointments in their quality of service. Washington Dulles International Airport doesn’t make any difference. First the lady in the front of the queue to the check-in desks — by the way, a job that is not needed in the rest of the world — didn’t know that the SAS EuroBonus silver members may use business class check-in (very nice perk). We were ushered to the economy class line and after some complaining her manager picked us from the line to the business class counter with apologies.
The check-in was swift, but we had to take our luggage to a security check near the desks. That place was in complete chaos, several dozens of luggage cases were lying in front of an ancient x-ray machine that destroys film. Hello! We are living on the 21st century, these kind of machines should have been scrapped a decade ago.
The luggage security check took a looooong time. The people were not very swift on their movements, a line was forming and these officials were just chatting with each other… Of course, it could be that the machine set the pace. After leaving our luggage to the floor, we had to go to the other end of the machine to wait for the scan and possibly assist in opening the cases. Approximately one third of the cases were opened by the staff. Some were studied more carefully, others just wiped with sheets for chemical analysis. All were opened in front of prying eyes of fellow passangers. The last part is most probably just pointless, as the staff has keys for all cases and it can be done in privacy in 99% of the airports.
After the luggage was screened, we queued into personal security check. The area was filled with people moving slowly. Our passports (or other photo identity) and boarding passes were verified. Computers had to be taken out from their bags and belts removed. Again something that is rarely needed outside the States. People were, for some reason, taking their shoes off and putting them into the X-ray machine. Nobody had asked to do it. There was not a proper space or helping personnel after the X-ray machine; instead, the bags were dumped into some sort of downward escalator made of rolling tubes. The machine kept pumping new bags and I had hard time to get all my stuff before they were buried under bags of other people.
It seems to me that Americans want to provide assistance before doing something, such as check-in or security, maybe to shield these workers from people that are on the wrong place. But no attention is paid on anything that happens after the task is done. The totally clueless pre-check-in clerk would been better used in moving our luggage to the security check instead of checking whether people are are in the correct line.
Anyhow, after we got through the security and got our stuff sorted out, we had to move to another terminal with a bus that is designed for loading people to the planes. Maybe the terminal building is protected because of its architecture or something else prohibits creating walkways between terminals, the distance wasn’t that huge. This whole thing took one hour, spent in queues or in transit between them.
Our final terminal was quite empty. The shopping experience was next to none, the newsagents didn’t even have a copy of GQ magazine. Other shops are not worth mentioning. Fortunately, there were a couple of fast food joints and we had a fast meal in Burger King.
After the meal, we found ourselves in a queue again, trying to get Economy Extraseats with our EuroBonus points. Once again, there was an assistant at the start of the queue — and she knew absolutely nothing about anything. Fortunately I didn’t dream on going to the lounge, as people with business class tickets (!!) had to wait to get a pass for the lounge. Hello again? Isn’t the business class boarding pass good enough proof to allow access to the lounge? We had to wait in the queue almost ten minutes, as the only service person had to let the crew in to the plane. Twice. Finally, we got the upgraded boarding passes.
There was enough time left to visit in the toilet and then queue again for the entrance to the plane. Families with small children and elderly people were taken in first — just to sit in the plane-mate vehicle and wait for everybody else to board.
Fortunately we didn’t encounter any more stupidities, such as being seated for the plane for half an hour or so before taxing without any possibility to visit toilets or take anything out from the overhead compartments.
My message to American airport operators: come to Europe and see how things are organised in decent and still secure manner. People don’t need shepherds for finding the right queue — there are big enough signs — but more efficient and proactive attitude for helping them to the gate, fast and secure.