Fri, 09 Jul 2004

New "9/11" Policy
9/11 sure brought a lot of fun changes, and my attempt to bring some whale back home from Barrow was full of fun.

Since I can't exactly take a bunch of frozen meat product on a 2-lag 1900 flight, I needed to ship it frozen airfreight.

And in no way at fault of the airline, I could not airfreight this product due to federal 9/11 policy. After 9/11, you can only ship airfreight if you are a known shipper. Being a known shipper requires you to have airfreighted more than 24 pieces of parcel before 9/11. How one gains this status after 9/11 is anyone's guess.

But here's the kicker: If I just write "Keep Frozen" on the box, they will check it and put it in the freezer--this ends up being the same exact freezer the airfreight uses on the airplane. So what is the point?

One may argue that because of the fact I am flying with my own cargo, I would be less likely to commit a terrorist act. But what is more interesting is that under the particular status I was flying under, they would not pull my checked bags if I did not show up or was bumped from the flight. They would simply be sent to the destination--without me.

Its funny how such a double standard protocol ends up screwing me over, but also violates their own policies; basically making the flight no safer than it was without the regulation in the first place.

But at least they kept my meat product frozen.

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