k0an.com

I just spent a few days in Atlanta last week on business. I didn't get to experience much of the area since I was working pretty hard on the project I was in.

When it was time to go home I got to the airport two hours early so I had plenty of time to waste. When I got to the security checkpoint they flagged me for one of the thorough screenings. I didn't care since I had plenty of time. It wasn't a big deal and people were nice. When I got to the part of the airport where I had to take the lightrail to my terminal I saw how people were crammed into the thing and I decided to walk since I had plenty of time and needed the exercise. After a few minutes of walking I noticed I was in an area where nobody else was. I took an escalator and then when I got to the top I noticed it was the same escalator I took when I arrived at the airport a few days earlier. I was in the baggage pickup area and outside the secure perimeter! So I had to go back through the security checkpoint and since I had been flagged once for individual inspection I had to go through that process again... People kept looking at my boarding pass and saw all the stamps on there and wondered why I was going through again. I started worrying that they would think I was stealing someone else's pass and detain me. Fortunately they didn't really care and I got to my gate with plenty of time left.

I guess that's why it's good to get to the airport earlier. Or... that's why it's good to not try to figure out "clever" routes through an airport.