There's nothing like a long plane trip to make running into unexpected security hassles seem worse. So, this will serve as a warning that if you're flying to Atlanta with a guitar you need to either plan on entering the US somewhere else, or be sure your guitar goes as carry-on luggage.
I have ma acoustic guitar with me, it rides around in a really serious hard shell case. Indestructible. That means I can check the guitar and know that if I see it on the baggage trolley I'm ok. Until, that is, landing in Atlanta.
In Atlanta when you come through the International Terminal from suspect places like Paris or London, you need to collect your bags, go through customs like normal. When you leave customs, however, you need to put your bags back on the trolley to collect them at the FAR end of the airport in an un-secured area open to the public. Yeah, I understand it's a safety thing, and I'm ok with that.
Here's the snag: Guitars go on the oversized baggage trolley, suitcases go on the normal one. So, right off you have 2 different places in the airport to collect things. OK, fine, in the interest of security I can hang with that. What they don't tell you is that the oversized bag trolley goes through the part of the airport where all the boxes and other cargo is processed. Suitcases? They were there when we arrived, waiting for us. Not a problem. The guitar took 6 hours to make it to the same area. SIX hours. And that's normal, BTW.
People were leaving their golf clubs, etc, and coming the next day to collect them. But this is where all the kids car seats, guitars and other essentials of life go. Can you imagine? Six hours to collect your kids car seat after a 9-hour flight?
If this is the world we now live in, making parents wait that long for a car seat to take a tired infant home from the airport, it's hard not to feel like the terrorists are winning. Either that, or they've changed jobs and are now designing all the draconian proceedures we need to live by at airports.
Really, I'm totally fine with the extra security, and always thank the TSA people for what they do. But this is a little extreme, no?
