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17 Airport Rules We’re All Sick Of

17 Airport Rules We’re All Sick Of

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We may not be airport security professionals, but most travelers could not, if their lives depended on it, find a good reason for these airport rules to exist. We’re just about ready to petition for their abolition! If we only had the right customer service number to call and the patience to wait on hold for hours. Here are 10 airport rules we’re all sick of — or the lack of them.

billingsgazette.com
billingsgazette.com

 

You have to go barefoot through security

We understand that you need to take off boots and closed shoes, but why must we take our shoes off even if we are wearing flip flops? Nothing covers the foot but a tiny strap and, news flash, we wore the flip flops specifically so that we would not have to walk barefoot on that germ-infested floor.

circuitrysolution.com
circuitrysolution.com

You have to scan your laptop separately

Really now? The machines are so bad that they can’t just tell that it’s a laptop in our suitcases? We have to hold up the line while we take our laptop case out of our suitcase, and the laptop out of the case, put it in a separate bin and put it all back together again at the end?

ThinkStockPhotos
ThinkStockPhotos

 

Wrapped gifts can be opened

Again, how is it that the machines can see the contents inside of a thick, leather or steel suitcase, but can’t see what’s inside wrapping paper as thick as a strand of hair?

ThinkStockPhotos
ThinkStockPhotos

You have to show your boarding pass to buy something

In many airports, you have to show your boarding pass just to buy a pack of duty-free gum. The point is so that nobody who snuck into the gate area reaps the tax benefits of duty-free shopping. But if someone has snuck into the boarding areas, shouldn’t their access to cheap gifts be the least of security’s concern?

Shutterstock
Shutterstock

 

You have to pay for Internet

How is that airports — which have installed some of the most technologically advanced security machines in the world — have not taken the effort to install free Wi-Fi yet? More importantly, how is it not included in the cost of the $500-to-$1500 plane ticket?

blog.recenter.tamu.edu
blog.recenter.tamu.edu

You have to check in two to three hours before international flights

It doesn’t hurt the airline if we miss our flight — they get their money either way. So if we want to sleep in an extra hour in the morning and risk waiting in long lines at security, so be it.

ThinkStockPhotos
ThinkStockPhotos

 

Carry-on size is not regulated

Sure, those little metal frames sit by the check-in desk for you to see if your bag will fit in the overhead compartment on the plane, but nobody uses them. And nobody wants to pay the baggage fee so most just drag their oversized bag on the plane with them and hope for the best. Meanwhile, the overflow of staff around the check-in area never stops these travelers to say, “Hey! You’ll need to check that!” Instead, everyone on the plane has to wait while a passenger tries to cram their giant luggage in the overhead compartment, only to realize they do indeed need to check it.

southafrica.to
southafrica.to

First class, business class, elderly and people with children board first

OK, we understand why these individuals should be seated first. What we don’t understand is the general lack of organization for the rest of us ordinary citizens in coach. There has to be a better system than all of us crowding around the boarding area.

ThinkStockPhotos
ThinkStockPhotos

Airport parking fees can be tremendous

There might be no business that takes greater advantage of the lack of competition than airport parking lots. Most charge anywhere from $80 to $120 for five days of parking!

www.destinyman.com
www.destinyman.com

People can drink as much as they want

This isn’t really a rule so much as a lack of a rule. But seriously, bartenders in airports should be required to pay even closer attention than ordinary bartenders to how intoxicated someone is because if someone gets on a plane too drunk, they can’t exactly be kicked out the back door an hour in when they’re disturbing passengers and clogging the bathrooms with vomit.

ThinkStockPhotos
ThinkStockPhotos

Taking out prescription drugs

Um…excuse us but most prescription drugs are of a rather private nature! It’s highly unlikely men going to visit their lovers across country want to show their…eh…performance enhancing drugs, or that anybody wants to whip out their anti-depressants for all to see.

tungstenrepublic.deviantart.com
tungstenrepublic.deviantart.com

Taking off and out all medal

We wouldn’t be surprised if the number one place wedding bands are lost is at the airport! If those scanners we’re now subjected to can see completely through our clothing, they can probably tell that that little lump in our pocket is a coin.

ThinkStockPhotos
ThinkStockPhotos

Late travelers get priority

This is an unspoken rule but, typically if you’re running very late for your flight, you can tell a TSA member at the security line that your flight is about to leave, and they’ll allow you to cut the line. Meanwhile, the rest of us who got there on time have to wait longer to accommodate your tardiness.

wikimedia.org
wikimedia.org

Duty free shopping isn’t regulated

Sure, the number of carry on bags you can bring through security are limited but the number of bottles of wine and boxes of chocolate and framed art you can buy once in the duty free area are not! They should be, since the person sitting next to you has to make space for your enormous purchases.

flickr.com
flickr.com

Outside food is allowed

If you would have taken fifteen extra minutes, you could have eaten your very smelly food at home or even in the car before entering the airport. But, since people are allowed to bring food through security, sometimes travelers get stuck behind one snacker who is closing up tupperware and finding somewhere to balance yogurts before they take their laptop out of its case. Food in the security line just slows everything down.

flickr.com
flickr.com

The 3 ounce rule

Honestly now, has airport technology not advanced enough yet to a point where TSA can just determine what is in our liquids? Breaking up large bottles of shampoo into ten tiny bottles can take an eternity.

flickr.com
flickr.com

No more boarding after the gate closed

If you’ve been on an airplane just a few times, then you know you often sit at least a half an hour–sometimes over an hour–on the runway waiting for takeoff. When you consider that, it’s very frustrating when you arrive just seconds after the gate has closed and you’re not allowed to board. So you stand there, and stare at your plane that isn’t budging but that you’re forbidden to get on.