Travelers ‘tortured’ with red tape

I AGREE 101 percent with the comments of Antonio A. Oposa and his wife Anna R. Oposa, as reported in the news article titled “Redundant, inefficient, cumbersome, useless—why our airport procedures don’t lead to real security.” (Inquirer, 3/13/11)

In our once-in-a-while travels outside the country, I can’t help telling security guards outside the NAIA terminals, “O, ang check-in counter security guard na ang tumitingin ng ticket.” (So, it’s the check-in counter security guard who now checks the tickets.)

I would say it of course with sarcasm, and my wife would remind me that the poor chap is only following orders and I should not be treating him that way. By the time we’re boarding, I would usually mutter under my breath, “Why can’t these airport bureaucrats take time out to just copy the procedures in international airports in the United States, or even just in Taipei.”

If you’re a traveler yourself and your ticket came to you through the e-mail, you may not have noticed that the travel tax of P1,620 is not included, so you have to pay that at the check-in counter. For this purpose, you first have to deal with at least two employees of the Department of Tourism: the first one checks your e-ticket, stamps something on it; and then he passes it on to another employee (the cashier), who inspects it again then asks for your payment.
There were four of them at the counter at one time we were there for this tax payment, and my wife got so exasperated that she asked: “Why do we have to pass through two people just to pay this tax?” No reply.

On yet another method of bureaucratic torture, the Philippine Airlines in Los Angeles airport (LAX) has recently come up with this procedure: Economy passengers will have to line up and wait outside the doors of the airport. (It does not matter how cold it is outside the terminal building.) No one is permitted to go directly to the check-in counters until some fellow (in our case, a very much Filipino-looking man who speaks with a slight American accent) allows the line to move in, after which he takes his post waiting for the late arrivals and sees to it they queued up too.

Even if I was not aware of this new procedure, I did join the line when I saw it, but I told my daughter to stay inside the building as it was biting cold outside. When the man saw my daughter joining me once I was inside, he told us, “That isn’t done here,” and asked my daughter to go to the end of the line outside. We ignored him and I was ready to pick a fight with him had he insisted.
There was a scowl on his face when he left us alone.

—ROCKY B. DENOGA,
rocden41@yahoo.com