Heated atmosphere at Heathrow

I have been fascinated by airports since early childhood. What attracts me is the dynamism of an airport. The different flows in motion. Flows of people, flows of luggage, flows of boxed food or boxed trash, outgoing and incoming, outgoing to different destinations and incoming from an other set of places. All these needs to be arranged, controlled and maintained simultaneously, in a very efficient way. These flows merge and cross and branch. The fine line in between chaos and order.

I think I was 6 months old when first traveled by air. We do have a family history of living abroad and traveling. My grandma loves air travel as well, she loves the part when the plane takes off. And the bigger the plane is, the more fascinating the take off is. It is all about beating gravity. It is about the 'Fuck you normal life, I am flying again!!' feeling.

So needless to say, I was very excited when I first arrived to Heathrow. It was when I moved back from the US, and due to delays, my Washington-Frankfurt-Budapest Lufthansa flight was rerouted as Washington-London-Budapest with British Airways. It was well before 9/11, in the good old times when airlines were friends and airport staff were at your service.

That excitement evaporated. These days I just hate Heathrow. I love some other airports, but I hate Heathrow. Just the whole place is unpleasant. The long walk in dark damp tunnels, parts of them are always under construction. Then the rude airport staff. Then the small waiting area. And wifi access is not free.

And all the new "necessary precautions", the multiple security screening points (to make sure by the time you put your belt and hairclip on, you can strip again), the small plastic bag for your toothpaste and eye drops, the fact they make you discard your coke, larger than 100ml perfumes, lipsticks... You might say these are not special, other airports are introducing the same rules. Oh yeah. The difference is:
Other airport staff: "Ma'am, unfortunately I will have to ask you to drink that coke before you go through the gate. I am really sorry, but this is the new rule."
Heathrow specially trained staff: (shouting)"I SAID THROW THAT BOTTLE OUT!! CANNOT YOU HEAR ME PEOPLE, OR WHAT?"
And the other difference is that some airport (like San Francisco) actually have the option that you can put your weapons of destruction, such as nail files and lipsticks into a self addressed envelope and mail them home. No, not Heathrow!

But on top of all, now they managed to introduce the most ridiculous rule, combined with especially rude treatment, beating all earlier ones. It says "Only one piece of cabin luggage is allowed." Oh yeah. When I arrived I passed by the connecting flights transfer area. Or I wanted to pass, but the scene I saw made me stop and stare. It was like in a concentration camp. Poor folks coming from different airports with eg. (scandalously!!!) a laptop bag AND a small lady's purse, oh what an offense!!! Five security staff was walking up and down the line, shouting "ONE PIECE ONLY, ONLY ONE PIECE IS ALLOWED! YOU EITHER DISCARD THE OTHER OR YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO PASS. I REPEAT BECAUSE YOU DO NOT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND. AS I SAID, ONLY ONE PIECE." And they indeed had huge trash cans. I saw this security guy pulling aside a scared five member family, and shouting at them, as they had 9 pieces of luggage, including small waist bags, purses, pink kid's barbie backpacks, umbrellas. Scandal!! They have to be treated as criminals for this!! Terrorist!! They try to flood the cabin with waist bags, but now these culprits are stopped!! They deserve to be shouted at!! Humiliate them!!

When I said, after being sent back 5 times to take off more clothing, even though the gate did not beep at all, so when I quietly noted "This is the world's most ridiculous airport!", the security officer shouted back "You have obviously never been to the US!". Oh, yeah.... Please advise me more.

Airport staff is not at your help any more. You are not the customer any more. You are lucky that you can enter the airport, and if you do not line up nicely, strip when instructed, let your belongings taken, follow orders, then you will face consequences. And do not you dare to complain.

Really, the only positive thing about Heathrow is that they always have HSBC ads on the walls, which I like. It is always a pair of photos, with captions, and then the same pair, with switched captions. The whole thing is about connotations. But you know what, I do not need to go to the airport to see them! They are here, click on Download to see what I mean: http://www.yourpointofview.com/hsbcads_airport.aspx