Flying like a turkey

One of the best travel writers, Scott McCartney of the Wall Street Journal, offers this excellent preview of Thanksgiving travel:

The fear is that Thanksgiving travelers—many of them students, families and older people who fly once or twice a year—will be unfamiliar with TSA procedures and slow to get through checkpoints. Full-body scanners require removal of wallets, belts, jewelry and everything inside pockets.

“With people getting partially molested at checkpoints, all that is going to be a real shock for them,” said Greg Wells, senior vice president of operations at Southwest Airlines. “TSA will create an issue for us. It’s going to slow things down.”

Southwest will have employees with walkie-talkies at checkpoints to hold airplane departures if passengers are stuck in long lines. - WSJ.com’s Middle Seat

Kudos to Southwest for planning ahead. Here’s hoping all your holiday flights are more graceful than a turkey.

Comments

[Alan B]

Our local paper today features an editorial cartoon by Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle. It shows customers in a "gentleman's club," not looking at the ecydysiast cavorting around a pole, but instead, at a pair of signs on an adjacent wall advertising ancillary services.

Ecydysiast? For illustration of what that means, don't miss the Christine Aguilera and Cher movie coming out in a few days, "Burlesque."

Anyway, one sign advertises: "LAP DANCES...$20."

The OTHER sign reads: "TSA PAT DOWNS...$25."

Have a pleasant trip this Thanksgiving. As for my wife and I, headed for the Coast right after the Big Turkey gives its all...we're traveling by car.