I got this from my cousin Yulanda today:

7:30am Saturday morning, I am ready to leave for the airport to stand in
line for my 11am flight to Phoenix. The TV News has already warned everyone
about the long lines at the airport and asked every passenger to arrive the
airport at least 2 hours before the flight. 11am flight, minus 2 and half
hours waiting, minus half an hour drive, minus an extra half hour for
traffic and waiting for the shuttles, so I should leave the house at 7:30am.

Just as planned, I got to Parking Lot B at 8am. LAX is closed to private
vehicles. Only commercial vehicles such as courtesy shuttles and taxi are
allowed in the terminals. This is one of those many so called "security"
rules that was implemented after the Terrorist Act but does not make
security any better only to make the traveling experience even more
difficult. If the terrorist really want to bring a bomb to LAX, what's the
difference to them whether they use a car, a shuttle, or a taxi? Anyways,
back to my trip. There are a long row of empty shuttles at Lot B, maybe it
is early in the morning, but I thought that was very efficient. A shuttle
leaves when it is full, then the next shuttle in line will pull forward to
load more passengers. I did not waste any time on waiting for a shuttle.
There was a big traffic jam on Century Blvd. About a block away from the
airport, all the lanes merged into one and at the end of the lane, right
before the airport, there are cops looking into every car. All private
vehicles were turned away. It took the shuttle bus 20 minutes to go 400
feet, mainly because all the little cars are cutting in from of the big
buses when 4 lanes merged into one. I secretly promised to myself that I
will never cut in front of the big buses again.

Southwest is at terminal 1. Their counters occupy about 1/2 of the length
of terminal one. I got off the shuttle and found myself a very long line
that wrapped around 3 times inside the terminal building, and 2 times
outside on the curb, everyone waiting to be checked-in to their Southwest
flight. It reminded me of the wait-lines for Disneyland rides, only no
one's selling iced lemonade next to you. I planted myself at the end of the
line and thought, "maybe 2 and half hours are not enough..." The lady
before me lost a package on one of the shuttles. Every time a shuttle
stopped at the curbside, she would leave her luggage in line, go on the
buses, and search for her luggage. Sometimes, she would be gone for a long
time, and left the rest of us very very scared. Did she abandoned her
luggage? Who knows what did she put in her luggage, what if it is bomb?
Finally, under the help of the LAXPD, she found her package on the shuttle.
This brought up another question in my head, so anyone can just leave a
package on those airport shuttles without being detected???? This then
bring back the question, what is the difference then whether the terrorists
use a shuttle to carry a bomb or his/her own car? What is the point of
banning all private cars from the airport?????

The line for checking-in moves fairly fast, because 90% of the southwest
counters were open with an agent. I got to the head of the line only after
2 hours of waiting. No special procedures were taken at the check-in
counter. Same 2 questions that they have been asking since the beginning of
the time: "Has anyone unknown asked you to carry anything?" "Have your
luggage been out of your immediate control since you packed them?" Even the
quick glance over my photo id was the same 0.5-second long. 2 seconds
later, the Southwest lady handed me a little piece of print out that will be
used as my proof as a ticketed passenger. (In cases, you did not know,
Southwest do not give you a boarding pass, they do not assign you seat.
They hand you a little plastic number card at the gate, and everyone board
the plane by number. So if you get there early, you can get which every
seat you choose.)

At the bottom of the escalator going up to the gates, 2 airport securities
were checking for the proof of ticket, only the ticketed passenger are
allowed to go up the escalator. Again, a new, but useless security
procedure. Since they did not ask for any photo ID, anyone can just take
someone else's proof of ticket and go to the gates and get on the plane. At
the top of the escalator locates the security check-point with the x-ray and
metal detectors. From what I heard on the News, I thought everyone's
luggage will be subject to open examination. Apparently, that is not true.
There are about 20 people in front of my, and I did not see anyone's luggage
got taken aside for open examination, including my own. Is it because
everyone was being good and did not bring anything suspicious? I don't
know.

I got the plastic #14 card at the gate. I was excited, because #14 is the
first boarding groups which means I can pick a good seat. Just then I found
out the flight was delayed for an hour. My flight originates in San Jose,
going to Phoenix, stops over at LAX. There weren't enough crew at San Jose,
most of them were stuck in some other airports in the country, Southwest had
to fly some attendants from other airports as a last minute solution. I do
not know how many people were suppose to be on this flight, but the flight
was about 75% full. The flight was pretty smooth, mostly because I was
asleep as soon as the door was closed, all the way to Phoenix airport.

Phoenix airport is a different story than LAX. No useless rules about no
private car in the airport. Private cars are allowed in the airport, but
only for immediate loading and unloading at the curbside. Only a selected
few parking entrances were open. There are securities at those parking
entrances to check every single car that's going into the parking structure.
A full-search type of checking, not just a 0.2-second scan type of check.
Mike was not allowed to pick my up at the gate, he was not allowed beyond
the security points in the terminals. I was a bit surprised that he was
waiting for me right outside the security point. I was expecting he would
just tell me to wait for him at the curbside. Wow, what a good boy!
Surprisingly, my luggage got to Phoenix before I did! Wow, talking about
efficiency!!!!!!

Monday afternoon, I was getting ready to fly back to LA. Since I had the
experience to wait in line for 2 hours on Saturday, I thought I should get
to the airport early, just in case. My flight was at 7:30pm, and I got to
the airport at 4:25pm. PLENTY of time!!!!! I was shocked to see NO ONE in
line at the Southwest counter. Great! Now I have 3 hours to kill!!!!!
Acting like Yulanda, I jokingly complained to the Southwest agent about my
situation, and she was very nice and asked me if I would like to catch an
earlier flight. Of course I took the offer. The securities at the
checkpoint, unlike those in LAX, asked for my id alone with my proof of
ticket. The earlier flight leaves at 5pm and I got to the gate at 4:40pm.
The agent at the gate gave me the little plastic card with number 7 on it.
I was the last person board the plane. The plane carried, including the
Southwest crew, a total of 12 people. I have never been on a plane with so
few people. According to other passengers on the plane, LAX was very quite
and no one was in line on Friday and Sunday. They were shocked to hear that
I was in line for hour and half on Saturday. This is not a good sign, this
means American people are still afraid to fly, which is what the terrorists
would want. If everyone continues to be afraid, the airlines will go
bankrupt very soon and our economy will definitely get hurt from this.

A co-worker also went to Phoenix this past weekend and his travel experience
was the opposite of mine. He was asked for his ID 4 times in LAX, but only
once in Phoenix. The only possible explanation we could think of is that
different security officers does things differently. This is dangerous.
Only 1 easy security office is required to allow another terrorist through.
The airports definitely need to look into training their personnel betters.

Conclusion: I am very dissatisfied with LAX's security protocols. It only
made all the good citizen's life harder with no real security improvement.

One last thought on "armed" air marshals: great, no the terrorist don't
even need to bring their own weapons, we'll supply them.

Suggestion to Future travelers: definitely check with the airline to see if
your flight is cancelled, be prepared for a lone wait line (you never know,
better make your luggage as light as possible, and DO NOT bring any sharp
objects.

*****************************************
Mingster's side note:

She's young (just out of college), a bit sarcastic, and very cute (and single). If you're single, tall, built, humorous, and make lots of money, let me know.

No, i'm not pimpin'!

 

Now if we were tall, built and made lots of money, do you really think we would be driving an S2K? (Just kidding)
-- Aaron

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by amartin
[B]

Now if we were tall, built and made lots of money, do you really think we would be driving an S2K?

 

Hey Mingster,

It doesn't surprise me that the security procedures are still a joke at LAX.

I didn't think they were allowing any carry-ons at all. From your cousin's diary, it looks like people were taking cary-ons on the flight. Strange.