I just wanted to let everyone know what happened to me today so that maybe you can avoid it in the future.
I flew into BWI (Baltimore) on Southwest Airlines last thursday for medical reasons. About 3 weeks ago before I bought my ticket and then again last monday, I called SW and asked them if there was any problems for me to bring back corals and fish on my return fly to West Palm Beach as cargo/luggage. The first time I spoke with some supervisor of god knows what that tells me so long as the containers are sealed and packaged appropriately, that should be no problem and that I could check them in as my luggage. I then was told the same last monday.
What I had in mind was to bing back all my corals that a friend has been more than generous to keep for me for about 5 months now since I moved. Given that it was OK by the airline, I spent 2.5 hours packing all my corals with my buddy this AM. Everything was good to go. I showed up at the airport and go up to the ticket counter where I was quickly told that they do not allow any containers on the plane with liquids and so the corals can't go. Same for the fish. I will spare you the mental picture of my anger to hear this bullshit at the last moment when my plane is now a little over an hour from leaving and I have my wife, my 2 year old, and an angry/hungry 7 week old next to me. To make the long story short, they "suggest" I look into the other airlines to see if would let me ship it as cargo or better yet send it via FedEx or UPS. First off, the cargo terminal for any airline is literally miles away from the terminal. At the very least you would ahve to drive over there. I walked to one of the counters of Delta to ask and was told that unless I am a "certified shipper" I am not allowed to ship anything via Delta or any airline. I asked what this certified shipper is and they tell me that since 911 unless you had either a shipping account with the airline before or have been certified by the government as a business that ships more than 6 times per month or some crap like that, nobody can ship anything via cargo with an airline. What a load of ****. So, I called FedEx and they tell me that for some ungodly amount of money they would ship it "same day". But, there is something to it. You have to have a FedEx account that was opened before 911 and you have to be home to have the package picked up. You can't even drop it off at the FedEx terminal, ahhh, it gets better, because FedEx actually ships it via airline cargo. Talk about monopoly feeding monopoly.............................
The only thing that saved the day was that my friend was around to quickly drive back to the airport to pick them back up. To say that I appreciate what he did would be a gross understatement.
To say that in principle alone I will never again fly via Southwest Airline is also an understatement. Not only that, but I will tell everyone I know too. I plan to send SW a letter, and although I realize it will not change anything it will make me feel better, detailing what happened and telling them how they will never see my business again.
The worst part of all to me is that it is amazing to me how far have we come driven by nothing but irrational fear. All these changes for "safety". I take my shoes off at the airport for "safety". What a load of crap. No wonder the rest of the world laughs at us daily.
I flew into BWI (Baltimore) on Southwest Airlines last thursday for medical reasons. About 3 weeks ago before I bought my ticket and then again last monday, I called SW and asked them if there was any problems for me to bring back corals and fish on my return fly to West Palm Beach as cargo/luggage. The first time I spoke with some supervisor of god knows what that tells me so long as the containers are sealed and packaged appropriately, that should be no problem and that I could check them in as my luggage. I then was told the same last monday.
What I had in mind was to bing back all my corals that a friend has been more than generous to keep for me for about 5 months now since I moved. Given that it was OK by the airline, I spent 2.5 hours packing all my corals with my buddy this AM. Everything was good to go. I showed up at the airport and go up to the ticket counter where I was quickly told that they do not allow any containers on the plane with liquids and so the corals can't go. Same for the fish. I will spare you the mental picture of my anger to hear this bullshit at the last moment when my plane is now a little over an hour from leaving and I have my wife, my 2 year old, and an angry/hungry 7 week old next to me. To make the long story short, they "suggest" I look into the other airlines to see if would let me ship it as cargo or better yet send it via FedEx or UPS. First off, the cargo terminal for any airline is literally miles away from the terminal. At the very least you would ahve to drive over there. I walked to one of the counters of Delta to ask and was told that unless I am a "certified shipper" I am not allowed to ship anything via Delta or any airline. I asked what this certified shipper is and they tell me that since 911 unless you had either a shipping account with the airline before or have been certified by the government as a business that ships more than 6 times per month or some crap like that, nobody can ship anything via cargo with an airline. What a load of ****. So, I called FedEx and they tell me that for some ungodly amount of money they would ship it "same day". But, there is something to it. You have to have a FedEx account that was opened before 911 and you have to be home to have the package picked up. You can't even drop it off at the FedEx terminal, ahhh, it gets better, because FedEx actually ships it via airline cargo. Talk about monopoly feeding monopoly.............................
The only thing that saved the day was that my friend was around to quickly drive back to the airport to pick them back up. To say that I appreciate what he did would be a gross understatement.
To say that in principle alone I will never again fly via Southwest Airline is also an understatement. Not only that, but I will tell everyone I know too. I plan to send SW a letter, and although I realize it will not change anything it will make me feel better, detailing what happened and telling them how they will never see my business again.
The worst part of all to me is that it is amazing to me how far have we come driven by nothing but irrational fear. All these changes for "safety". I take my shoes off at the airport for "safety". What a load of crap. No wonder the rest of the world laughs at us daily.
