1st time air travel with firearm

[Noah_Zark]

TSA PreCheck. Best $ I ever spent. No removing belts, shoes, jackets or liquids from carry ons.

Could not agree more, and the $85 fee reinforces my belief that it is no longer about security but about the benjamins.

Noah

[markshere2]

I wish that was the case in West Palm Beach. Last time I flew out of there, in August of this year (2019), American Airlines asked me to wait for 10-15 minutes before going through the security screening, in case TSA wanted to open the case to inspect. I waited 15 minutes, no call from TSA, then went through the checkpoint to the gate. My flight was delayed by weather for over two hours, so I went to get lunch. I then boarded my flight to Philly. When I arrived at Philly, I noticed a missed phone call from American Airlines, the message asking me to call the WPB baggage office. They told me my bag was still in Florida, and I should go to the baggage office in Harrisburg (my final destination), and they would tell me why, and what I had to do to get it.

I went to the Harrisburg baggage office, where the woman told me TSA wanted to inspect my (properly stored and locked) pistol, but neither TSA nor the airline could locate me and I did not respond to their repeated attempts over the PA system. I had to give them my pistol case key, which they overnighted (but it took 2 days, since it was already too late for the overnight envelope to be sent that day), then I had to make several calls to confirm the WPB AA baggage office received the key and had TSA unlock and inspect the pistol, at which point it was then put on a plane and sent to Harrisburg.

Overall AA and TSA suck.

Morals of the story:

A. Never fly with something you cannot afford to lose.


2. TSA is a .Gov function and therefore as fcuked up as tits on a boar.


Fourthly, avoid air travel like the plague. Cause thats how the plague* will get here.

* ebola, bird flu, space cooties, whatever. You are trapped in an aluminum tube with a couple hundred virus incubators and they sanitize NOTHING inside that tube between loads of disease spreaders.


Its gotta be a family emergency a LONG distance away to get me back on a jet.

[PAcarrier]

The entire travel experience was a nightmare. Each leg of the flights, two legs each way, was delayed a minimum of two hours. The first leg, H'burg to Philly, was cancelled after we checked baggage, so we had to claim our baggage, go home, and come back the next day for a flight to a different airport (Ft. Lauderdale, almost an hour from WPB). We almost had our rental car towed from our daughter's apartment complex at 1 am. Fortunately, I was up with my crying 8 month old grandson, and saw the flashing lights outside and investigated, or the car would have been gone in the morning! Then the whole TSA/AA debacle on the way home, along with the delays. At the time, I swore if I was going somewhere within a 2-day drive, I would drive instead of fly, and I told AA I would never fly with them again.

Holy crap! That was definitely worse. Don't blame you about not flying AA again.

Last time (October) we drove Tampa to Pittsburgh, I swore I'd never drive it again.

[PAMedic=F|A=]

Just to add my 2 cents, had to fly back from Poland to the States commercial when my daughter was born. Happened to buy the tickets from AA because it was cheaper. Won't ever fly AA again.

On the outbound I only got a ticket for the first leg. When I landed in london, British Airways had no record of my connecting flight. Even though AA sold the tickets it was a joint AA/British Flight, and AA didn't connect the flight numbers properly. They also ran it as a separate transaction, not a connecting flight, so my baggage got unloaded instead of transferred.

Landed in Boston. Airport is the worst I've ever been to, suggest avoiding. Due to weather, AA recommended I ditch my flight from Boston to Harrisburg, and instead go Boston to Philly to Harrisburg. This worked, but my bag was lost. I will say the customer service lady at Harrisburg was very helpful, and my bag was magically sitting at my house a day or two later.

Returning to Poland. They did not provide breakfast, as the ticket claimed. Only one snack, and lunch. Lunch was half of what it was on a British Airways flight. That was also the only time the crew checked on the plan. They made it very clear that asking them for anything made you the largest asshole in the world.

Upon landing in Budapest the gate door was locked so we could not enter the airport. Causing me to miss my puddle jumper to Poland. No effort was made by the AA crew to help people who missed their flights because of the half hour delay. AA had no representatives at the airport, or what to contact them without a personal cell phone. There is a central ticket desk at Budapest which can help you, if you're flying with anyone else, but not AA.

[PAcarrier]

UPDATE: Just got a text from Mrs PAcarrier that she made it through check-in at Pittsburgh Int'l with no issues. Her words, "No big deal...they just thoroughly checked my bags."

If there are any further details, I'll update after I pick her up from KTPA.

Thanks again to everyone for sharing and boosting confidence of a first-timer.

At least now I can have my EDC back and stop carrying her "pretty" purple-handled Sig P238.