Wednesday, February 15, 2006

I’m sorely tempted to stop making an effort to get to the airport early. Today’s experience at Edmonton International is the source of that temptation.

I had a 7:09 a.m. flight from Edmonton to Chicago O’Hare, connecting at O’Hare to Des Moines, Iowa. It’s about a 30-minute drive from my Edmonton Hotel to the airport, so I did some rough calculations and decided to get up at 3:40 a.m. to pick up a cab at 4:30 and be at the airport by 5 a.m., leaving me better than two hours to get my boarding pass, clear customs, and get through security. Plenty of time.

My time was perfect. The cab pulled up to the curb at the American Departures terminal at 5 a.m. on the nose. I exchanged my Canadian currency for American dollars and got into the United line. And there I stood. Chicago-bound passengers waited and waited without moving as three ticket agents brought Denver-bound passengers to the front of the line. The Denver flight was leaving at around 6:30 and these passengers—I counted about 30 of them in all—had all arrived late, as late as 40 minutes before flight time. It took nearly 40 minutes to clear the Denver passengers, who seemed to just keep trickling in. They were so late that, ultimately, the Denver flight was delayed. The plane for my Chicago flight couldn’t even leave the hangar until after the Denver flight had left; consequently (a highly appropriate word), the Chicago flight was also delayed. I barely made my connection.

I don’t wish a missed flight on anybody. And if a handful of people show up late and get moved to the front of the line, that’s fine, too. Cars don’t start, alarms don’t go off, there are legitimate excuses. That wasn’t the case this morning, when 30 people showed up 40 minutes before an international flight. So I ask you: What’s the motivation to be at the airport on time when you know you can sleep in, arrive late, and be accommodated at the expense of other passengers who did get there on time? If more late arrivers had to wait their turn and missed flights, perhaps more people would get to the airport on time.

Posted by Shel in • Airports
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