Checking in
Posted by marshall Thu, 24 Mar 2005 04:00:00 GMT
Lara and I left for LAX almost exactly at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, March 23. It took nearly three hours to get to the airport, partly due to normal traffic and partly due to the constant rain throughout the drive slowing everyone down. We arrived just before 8, and we had a somewhat rushed goodbye as I moved my stuff from the car in the rain and we tried not to hold up traffic.
The check-in process was different from the rest of the flights I've been on. Usually in recent years I've checked in at the counter, then carried my bag to a security area where they scan/search them. In this case, they had me take my bag to the security area first, where they scanned it, put a sticker on it, and carried it for me to the check-in counter. It was placed with a bunch of other bags waiting to be checked in, and when I made it through the line I had to point to which one was mine.
I asked the lady at the counter for exit row seats, but I'm not quite sure she understood me. I wound up with a seat at the bulkhead of the first flight, and a normal aisle seat on the second one. Once I was checked in and had my boarding passes, I headed toward the food area. The Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX has a McDonald's, a Mexican place, a sushi place, and other restaurants in a second-floor restaurant area. I didn't get to visit any of them, though, because I couldn't figure out how to get there. The security checkpoint seemed to block the escalators up to that area, but once I'd gotten through security I couldn't find a way to get to the restaurants. The signs all seemed to be pointing me back out through security again. I settled for a grossly overpriced chicken croissant, blueberry muffin, and bottled water from a stand near my gate. It came to nearly $13, and didn't taste particularly good.
