The three worst "waiting at an airport" experiences of my life were
all in the US.
(1) First ever trip to the states. 3 jumbos arrived at LA almost simulaneously. We were queuing at passport control for
three hours (after a 13 hour flight). This was with lots of "US passport only" stations lying completely unused, of course.
(2) Flying back from Boston in January (it snows a bit, then...) All the flights were severely delayed (ours for more than 4 hours). Looking down the "queue aisle" was a bit like looking at the approach to the DeathStar in StarWars - it literally went on till it just blurred in the distance. Another two hours of delay on the plane while they deiced the wings. Finally we were warned takeoff would "be a little bumpy" as the planes before us had left ruts in the ice on the runway.
To be fair - what can you do with the weather? Although waiting around at Boston airport makes Heathrow look like a luxury resort.
(3) Flying to Las Vegas, with a Houston connection, a whole group of about 30 of us had our luggage put on the wrong flight. So we're at lost baggage claims, and they take 45 minutes dealing with the first two people in line. They have two people actually dealing with claims, and another four people doing nothing but watch our queue. Which may not have been a bad plan, because we were starting to get more than a little p*ssed off. When asked "what's the big deal?", I did point out that at the current rate, it was going to take
more than 10 hours for them to deal with everyone waiting. To be fair, it did go a lot faster then.
And of course, it's only in the US that a TSA operative can decide you might be a terrorist and ship you to Syria for "extreme rendition" a.k.a. torture. Land of the Free and all that...
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