You can request a companion pass from some airlines. I know Delta allows it...one of th budget ones do t (Spirit?)
Essentially you ask their service desk for a companion pass and tbeu run your ID and print you our a ticket to go through security. I use it because I have family that do not speak English test visits me and I walk them to their gate...but if you just want a hug you can, they don't need a reason to issue one.
But I understand what you are saying, and the ability to be at the gate to drop off or meet domestic passengers brought back old memories.
Flew domestically in Australia two days ago, and yep - no boarding passes needed for security. Liquids fine, no taking off shoes, no queue (and not even space for one to form). Like a whole different world.
Yes, the security aspect is ridiculous (and more than likely completely unnecessary) but also bear in mind that airports are busier than ever. If everyone flying took an average of one person to the gate with them, that's twice as many people in the airport. Most I've passed through lately (Europe and Asia) have been crowded as it is.
In 1999 I had bags in the hold but had to respond to a page, by the time I had resolved the incident I had missed the flight. I was super-stressed but the check-in girl just laughed and said, get the next one, it’s fine. And it was. Can you imagine that now?
Yes that is very common, unless you buy the cheapest tickets available. I'm sure people in 1999 would be shocked to learn that a ticket from Berlin to London is available for around 50 USD if you don't have luggage and expect to actually board the planes you have booked.
Yeah, you get quantity, and lose quality. I've been overbooked few times (so sorry, please fly tomorrow unless we overbook you again, we don't care what this causes for your plans/further travel, and here go through crazy online forms and month-long process just to get those 250 euro you are entitled to by EU law).
Or cancelling flights for 'bad weather' reason, when all other flights departed just fine from the airport - in this case, airline doesn't have to compensate anything (freakin' Easyjet - I realized I am not rich enough and don't have enough extra vacation to use such a crappy random-quality services).
> In 1999 I had bags in the hold but had to respond to a page, by the time I had resolved the incident I had missed the flight. I was super-stressed but the check-in girl just laughed and said, get the next one, it’s fine. And it was. Can you imagine that now?
It actually literally happened to me in November 2001, even for an international flight: I missed my flight due to a 3-hour line at MDW, but my luggage had already boarded. I was assured by everyone concerned that it would be offloaded, but it flew ahead, and was (somewhat miraculously) still waiting for me at the luggage claim when I got there over 12 hours later.
Happens pretty often - by accident, that is. My luggage went on a trip all of its own (someone loaded it into a plane bound elsewhere than I was going), so I was peppered by e-mails where it's now for the next few days, while it was misrouted to all sorts of weird places "oops, lost it again! no wait, there it is! no wait, lost it again!". Got it back at last, no damage.
Why not? It's been through the same security as everything else, including all the air freight that's also on board that nobody seems to think about. Usually they'll offload it as a convenience for the passenger but not always if time doesn't allow.
Sometimes this happens even without a strike. Once I flew San Francisco - Houston - Little Rock with about a four-hour layover in Houston. When I got to Little Rock my bag wasn't on the baggage carousel - it turned out they'd put my bag on an earlier flight. (I wasn't on that earlier flight because the long connection turned out to be a lot cheaper than a short one.)
That doesn't make sense, how would they ever get misdirected bags to you if bags weren't ever allowed to fly without their owners being onboard?
It happens all the time that bags get to a flight that the passenger misses and passengers get to a flight that bags miss. Not remotely unusual. It's happened to me recently too.
Essentially you ask their service desk for a companion pass and tbeu run your ID and print you our a ticket to go through security. I use it because I have family that do not speak English test visits me and I walk them to their gate...but if you just want a hug you can, they don't need a reason to issue one.
But I understand what you are saying, and the ability to be at the gate to drop off or meet domestic passengers brought back old memories.