at the philly airport, nearly 2 years ago.
Last night I used my last buddy pass from Jeff. I think this whole "you can fly first class on a buddy pass" thing is a myth, since in the year that I had used them, I never once got in first class. (I almost did last night, but then they combined flights and off I was sent to 25F, in a seat in front of the emergency exit row and therefore without reclining capability.)
There's a dress code when flying on a pass -- I guess so first class doesn't hate you if, on some rare occassion, you actually get bumped up there. I sometimes wear the same dressy outfit to and from the location, and then just change when I arrive at my destination.
So I went through Atlanta security, no problem. But at the Philadelphia airport security area, I noticed the woman took a highlighter to my ticket and sent me down a hallway that the family just before me didn't go down. It looked like a normal security check, but it wasn't -- it had a fake metal detector. It annoys me when I see anything fake - fake fur, fake tan, fake phones, fake medication, even fake solar panels (one which I purchased online and it was delivered to me and was a perfect replica of the real deal - still not over that!)!
As soon as I went through in the same outfit I had worn in Arizona, a soft "beep" was heard -- it wasn't even the beep indicating that something metal had gone through. But that was cue -- they immediately called for a scary she-male to probe me. After the search, I waited for the guy to finish up with my luggage. He zipped it up and then took my highlighted ticket and punched through the "SSSS" part on my ticket.
"So that's why they asked for my address?" I asked the man. He nodded.
"And that's why I got send down this hallway." He nodded again.
"And why the metal detector went off." He nodded, said it was because of the way I had purchased and then changed my ticket, and then sent me on my way.
I understand getting flagged for a search -- but be honest about it. Don't insult my intelligence by sending me through a metal detector that we both know is fake.
