Friday 15 January 2016

Modern ways of flying

It's been 7 years since I last flew. That's when we migrated here and a year before that I had the business trips and flew on my own while pregnant with Alexus. I remember it was the time that American Airlines had a bug or glitch in their system and my flights in different states were affected. I also remember using kiosks for checking in back then.  Today, I'm flying on my own again, hopefully the next ones would be business trips going around Canada and around the world. :)  Gone are the days of long queues. Well there are still lines but there are more people using the kiosks. I was nervous to try it first,  I probably looked like a kid looking at a new toy. But like all new things that need to be conquered and explored, I did it. A few swish and touch on the screen and voila, I printed my boarding pass and secured an aisle seat.  The passport is the key, as you would have to scan it for the machine to capture the information from the barcode - cool! Well only the Millenials would say, that's so easy, that's not a big deal! Not for a near fifties woman like me hahaha.

Since I am also going to the U.S., I had to go thru the security process of scrutinizing docs, luggage and all.  In that lane going to the U.S., you will have to pass by kiosks again for another pass - security pass where passport will be scanned again, you will have a picture taken and probably have finger printing, I didn't do that because my passport was Canadian but to me the little kiosks looked cool again! I was even able to choose the picture to print in the pass unlike the picture taken by those border immigration officers whenever we go to New York.  My wish is for a miracle that the Philippine government will replace the lag lag bala gang with these kiosks.



The security scan was the thing I didn't like best, you have to remove jewelries, that I didn't have anyway, remove shoes and waited like a decade for the bags to come out. I was hoping they will not let me bring out the Knorr cubes and Sinigang mix with bayabas that I brought for my sister. Pinoy pasalubong siyempre hahaha. Anyway, the Pearson airport is a modern airport and the waiting area at the gates are cozy like a lounge. Before I forget they also have free Wifi that's why I am able to post this in my blog while waiting to board. Wala lang, I just want to compare the ease and comfort that I experience today with my past life at NAIA and other Asian airports. I could be mistaken as it's been ages since I boarded on an airplane and I'm sure that the airports I've been to have improved a lot too. Just killing time here. Here's the lounge with free use of wifi and iPads in comfortable and cozy chairs.