on airport love

cooljammer00

Ok, I'm writing something, and just for fact checking purposes, I need to know if:

-the new "security" at airports after 9/11 has affected the old movie trope of "waiting for your significant other at the airport", either at the gate, or at the baggage claim

-was this ever possible? or was this just a work of Hollywood fiction? even before 9/11 and "beefier security".

Moobly

In every airport I've been in since 9/11 you can wait at baggage claim, but not the gate. The only way to get to the gate is to have a boarding pass for another flight.

DarkPrimus

Some airports are designed in such a way that allow you to wait for your SO closer to where they depart than others, but chances are your SO is going to have to walk by at least a dozen-plus gates and (at the bigger airports) take a shuttle to the main building before they get into the public area where you can meet them.

Darkewolfe

Yes, you could meet people as they came off the plane back in the day, and they could sit with you while you waited to board. It was a happier time, when all the land was full of chocolate and sunshine, and men were manly while women sighed wistfully at every air terminal.

cooljammer00

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Yes, you could meet people as they came off the plane back in the day, and they could sit with you while you waited to board. It was a happier time, when all the land was full of chocolate and sunshine, and men were manly while women sighed wistfully at every air terminal.

don't forget the leg curl when they embraced each other.

ok, now that I know these things about it, what do you folks happen to think about it? is "airport romance", as it should be known, dead? did airport security kill it?

Moobly

When times were happy and I was blissfully ignorant of my former SO's infidelitous tendencies, I can assure you, seeing her after a long time was always exciting it doesn't matter where in the Airport. Don't worry whatever it is you've got happening should go well enough.

JohnnyCache

Man, I think you just . . . you know. .. have the reunion happen in the right part of the airport.

What airport did you have in mind?

Speakeasy

...or he could be doing some sort of report/play/script on this.

cooljammer00

cooljammer00 wrote: »

Ok, I'm writing something, and just for fact checking purposes, I need to know if:

edit: Thanks Speakeasy. Although the rest of the thread, it's very sweet of all of you to wish me well.

vonPoonBurGer

cooljammer00 wrote: »

ok, now that I know these things about it, what do you folks happen to think about it? is "airport romance", as it should be known, dead? did airport security kill it?

I started to die well before 9/11, I think. As a child, I often had to fly between my parents' cities as an unattended minor. The first of these trips was in '87 or '88, and I distinctly remember my mother was able to meet me at the gate. But that was in a small-town airport that had pretty lax security compared to what I saw in larger airports at that time, and even then it may have been because I was an UM. By the early 90s, they were meeting me at the baggage claim area, and post 9/11 when I fly home we have to wave at each other through a glass partition while I wait for my bags at the carousel. If your story is set in the 70s, I'd say it's maybe possible, but I'd check with someone who would have flown in the 70s to be sure. Your parents maybe?

Trowizilla

Usually I've been able to walk with the person actually getting on the plane up until the security checkpoint before tearful goodbye time. When they get in, there's a little roped-off area right by the baggage claim that is full of people waiting on their significant others or family members, at least at the Atlanta airport.

Either way, I've done plenty of airport waiting, and will be doing it again in a couple weeks. Not soon enough, though!

JohnnyCache

Speakeasy wrote: »

...or he could be doing some sort of report/play/script on this.

I read the OP. There's only a few hundred major airports in the world. Unless his piece is set in a generic airport in peru or something, he can just check the actual airport out online.

Smasher

At San Francisco airport (SFO) it was definitely possible to wait at the terminal pre-9/11. I believe you only had to go through one layer of security to do it, too. I assumed this was true everywhere (at least in the US), but I guess it might have varied.

Dalboz

You can't get past any security checkpoints without a ticket now, so post-9/11 you cannot wait at the gate. If you are writing something that takes places before that, then yes, I was able to go to the gate to wait for some family members at LAX before 9/11. LAX of course being a major airport also. You had to go through security (metal detectors and all that), but they would let you through without a ticket and without ID.

kitch

This was one part of Not Another Teen Movie that I thought was pretty hilarious. The guy gets to security, and tells his sappy story, and the security official basically says, "Fuck it, go on through."

Of course, the funny part is when the next guy comes up and someone tells him, "We've already heard that story." But yeah. You can't get through security without a boarding pass. Baggage claim is usually outside of the security checkpoint, though. So that's fair game.

Lewisham

You can still walk up to gates in Wellington Airport in New Zealand. Not Auckland I don't think.

It sort of depends where you live, and how big the airports are.

Feels Good Man

Make it really romantic; s/he was willing to buy a ticket just to be at the gate. :P

edited for gender neutrality!

MichaelLC

As most have already said, pretty much all US airports won't let you past the baggage claim without a ticket. Which in some airports (O'Hare) means paying to park or risk getting ass-raped then towed by the police.

Our church group used to have yearly scavenger hunts at O'Hare where we'd run around trying to collect things or meet certain people. Ain't happening anymore.

truck-a-sauras

hell I remember in the late 80's still being able to go chat in the cockpit with the pilots. Then get your own set of wings to pin to your shirt........ wow the world sucks now

Ruckus

cooljammer00 wrote: »

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Yes, you could meet people as they came off the plane back in the day, and they could sit with you while you waited to board. It was a happier time, when all the land was full of chocolate and sunshine, and men were manly while women sighed wistfully at every air terminal.

don't forget the leg curl when they embraced each other.

ok, now that I know these things about it, what do you folks happen to think about it? is "airport romance", as it should be known, dead? did airport security kill it?

No, it just redirected it.

I have two words for you.

Rubber Glove

Kate of Lokys

At Pearson in Toronto, non-passengers are not allowed into the baggage claim area unless they have a damned good documented reason (ie, assisting a passenger with a disability, or something). The Arrivals level of Terminal 1 just has three huge gates, sealed off with opaque glass doors: one for flights coming from Canada, one for flights from the US, and one for international flights. The baggage claim areas are on the secure side of the doors; everyone waiting around to pick up a passenger just jostles for space in front of the appropriate gate. The gates themselves are elevated a foot or two above the level of the floor in the waiting area, then 15-20' ramps extend down to either side, with a sturdy metal railing between them and the crowds. So, even if someone *wanted* to try to be romantic by sneaking into the baggage area, they would probably be seen and caught before they could make it up the ramp.

cloudeagle

Oh, pffft. Meeting a SO in the public area is every bit as romantic as meeting him/her at the gate. You just have to wait a little longer after the plane arrives.

I recently met my girlfriend at the public area (before the gates, but deeper than the baggage claim) while holding a bouquet of roses. She cried. It was very, very touching.

....well, at least until one of the other passengers met her daughter and started ]screaming at her that she was a bitch.

AlyceInWonderland

When my boyfriend went over to Italy for the National guard for a month, I picked him up at JFK when he returned. I had to wait in this huge mass of people to pick him up at the baggage claim. I couldn't even see him walk out, cause I'm short, and there were about 50 people in front of me. Not only that but the plane was about 2.5 hours late
I wanted it to be exciting, but after waiting, and dealing with creepy people, and not being able to greet him, when I finally saw him, I was just really freakin' irritated.


Yeah. Airports suck.