Home – Feb 26
Feb 28th, 2020 by rallyadmin
The alarm goes off at 4:45AM but we’ve both been awake for some time. I’ve already showered and Barbara is dressed and just about ready to go. We had repacked our bags last night so now it’s one more check of the room and down to the lobby to check out and wait for the shuttle bus to the airport.
The shuttle bus is on time and very convenient. I doubt that a taxi would be happy to pick us up at 5:00AM for the small fare that the short ride to the airport would generate. But the convenience of the bus is dampened by the drop off at the airport’s P57 shuttle bus stop.
P57 is where I got on the bus last night to the airport after the hike when I dropped off the rental car. The good news is that we don’t have to hike all the way to Terminal 1. The bad news is that it’s just after 5 in the morning, it’s cold and windy and we’re dragging all our gear halfway across the airport. We finally get into Terminal 2 proper and mercifully there’s an elevator to the departure check in.
Last night, I had changed our seats to exit row seats for the 2 hour and 20 minute flight to Amsterdam. But that required using KLM’s automated check-in kiosk and there is usually a glitch with the kiosks. This time the glitch is only one baggage tag emerges from the kiosk. We get all of our boarding passes for all three of our flights but only one baggage tag.
Back to the counter. The counter agent is surprisingly friendly considering the time of day but we essentially have to got through the entire check-in process again making the kiosk adventure a waste of time. But, there are no glitches and we head to the gate.
I had read an article on the flight to Finland that Helsinki is rated in the top 3 for airport security and I was about to find out why. As usual, because I’ve had a hip replacement, I always fail the walk through scanner and get the super-duper scan and pat down.
This security scan is the usual. I walk through the usual scanner, fail and get diverted to the high security scan. Only here in Helsinki they don’t use the super-duper scanner but they do do the super-duper pat down. And it is a super-duper pat down, actually more like a super-duper rub down. I should have sent the security agent roses for that one.
I get the full treatment. From the hat on the top of my head to the soles (literally) of my feet. First the front side, belt off, pants hanging precariously, then the back side. Then the boots go through the x-ray. Barbara could have been halfway to the gate by now.
Finally, I pass. But when I go to get my computer and photo bags, the x-ray agents want to empty both bags, piece by piece. In the end, they don’t find anything and I have to repack both bags, get dressed again and, 20 minutes after we first got to security, we leave the security area for the gate. The lesson here is if you want to smuggle something, don’t try it in Helsinki.
Though it seemed when we we’re leaving the hotel that leaving at 5:00AM for a 7:00AM flight in a not very busy airport was a bit of over caution, the fiasco at the check-in and the super-duper security pat down with the added carry-on bag searches only leave us a few minutes before we’re ready to board the flight.
The flight leaves on time and even arrives in Amsterdam more or less on time. But we have a quick connection of less than an hour and we have to go through passport control for the international flight to Atlanta. And the hike from Terminal C to Terminal E. And Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport is one of the busiest airport’s in the world.
We hike to Terminal E and when we get to passport control the mouse maze waiting line to the control point is what seems like miles long. Luckily, a security agent I asking for passengers with a 9:35 flight departure and is ushering them (us included) to a very short line to our very own passport control officer. “Let’s give it up for Line Jumping.”
The wait in the line jumper line is just a few minutes. We get to the officer, present the passports and boarding passes. The officer checks Barbara’s docs gives her a long photo check, waits for the automatic passport reader to give the green light (or whatever passes for ‘OK’ on his computer terminal), gives her back her docs and looks at mine.
My passport is always entertaining to these passport control officers. The only time I get through passport control without much of a hassle is when the passport is new. After a few trips, some stranger control stamps and added visas for places that most people don’t go to, the passport scanning process slows down while the officer checks the stamps and visas for whatever they are looking for.
They understand the stamps and can read the countries that stamped the passport and when they stamped the passport. Although the officer is just looking for the entry stamp for this trip, he seems to check everything in the passport for something, maybe just entertainment. Who knows. This time it’s not the Myanmar visa or the PRC visa or the UK visa. It’s the US stamp at Poker Creek in Alaska.
The Poker Creek entry point in Alaska is on the US/Canada border where the Top of the Wrold Highway meets the Taylor Highway. The road is the connection between Dawson City in Canada and the Alcan Highway east of Tok in Alaska. And when you cross into the US there, they invite you the come into the customs building to stamp your passport with a large stamp that leaves the image of an elk and the words Poker Creek, Alaska. That stamp stops him and generates a smile. “You don’t see many of those do you?” “No, this one is the first.” He smiles (a rare event for a passport control officer), “Have a safe trip.”
We make it to the gate, egt in line for another passport check. “Have you been in China in the last 14 days?” (If this is how we’re fighting the corona-virus, we’re screwed.) Get on the plane. Stash the bags. Sit down. Get up as the passenger in the window seat arrives. Sit down again. The plane door closes. Looks like an on-time departure.
But before the plane actually leaves the gate, a flight officer comes down and collects the window seat passenger and escorts him to the cockpit where he’ll ride until after take-off. A flight attendant tells me that he isn’t a pilot but he flies so often with KLM that this is a perk that he’s been given. Extraordinary. I’ve never seen or even heard of this happening since 9/11. He mus fly a hell of a lot or, at least, have great KLM connections. Some perk.
Ther flight is uneventful. Just long. Very long. Over 9 hours or 2 meals, 3 movies, 4 trips to the loo and the last 2 hours of fidgeting. Just as we start the descent, the light attendant comes and collects window passenger and brings him and his bag back to the cockpit for landing. Again, some perk.
We land on time and head through the rabbit warren to immigration control. Surprisingly, the immigration hall is almost empty. I’ve been here when you could barely move for the crowds but today the room is almost empty. Up to the Global Entry kiosk.
Barbara gets through the new procedure. It used to be that the kiosk would take your picture, scan your passport and scan your fingerprints. If the computer was satisfied that you were who you were supposed to be, it would print a receipt and you’d be on you way to a quick stop at a passport control officer to hand in your receipt and off to claim your baggage.
That was then but this is, as they say, now. And now is the new, improved kiosk which tries to do facial recognition that compares the photo of record that they have from your Global Entry application and the photo that the kiosk takes of you. If the machine likes the facial recognition, you get your receipt and you’re on your way. No passport scan. No fingerprint scan.
There’s a lot that can go wrong with the facial recognition, bad photo, lousy programming, bad design. Not the least of which is that you may not look like your photo of record. You may have gotten grayer hair and beard. Of course, facial recognition failed and I had to go through the old drill which is fine if the kiosk doesn’t get pissy. With the help of a border security officer, we finally get a kiosk to deign to print a receipt. Stop at passport control officer. Present receipt and docs. “Welcome home.”
We claim our bags. Re-check them for the flight to Charlotte. Head through security again. This is the exact opposite of Helsinki. Artificial hip or no artificial hip, the who;e security process takes about 2 minutes. After Helsinki, Atlanta’s security isn’t very confidence inspiring. To the gate and board.
It’s only a 35 minute flight to Charlotte and we leave on time and arrive in Charlotte on time. The taxiing at Atlanta and at Charlotte combined take more time than the flight. We get our bags. Ayron arrives to pick us up just a few minutes after we ge to the new passenger pickup area.
The only drawback to this return trip is arriving in Charlotte just as the afternoon rush hour is beginning. We slowly make our way down the Billy Graham and then down I-77. Finally, up the drive to the house.
We’ve been gone a little over 2 weeks and it’s been a great trip. But it’s great to be home again.
Time to start planning the next trip.
Obi-wan