Thinking About Airports

So I'm home sick today, sitting here in the recliner with a Kleenex stuffed up one side of my nose, drifting in and out of sleep between coughs. I just caught something during my TV channel-flipping that I felt compelled to share.

Airports are considering the idea of putting advertising in the bins at security checkpoints. These are the plastic bins that you put your shoes, laptop, jacket in before you go through the metal detector. I can't fault the airports for trying to find new sources of revenue, but this is ridiculous. We have advertising on bathroom stall doors, on the back of grocery receipts...we are inundated with this crap. Can't I just stare into gray nothingness in the 2 seconds before I toss my shoes in the bin?! The line is already slow enough.

On another note, I also saw something on the news lastnight that made a lot of sense...airports are testing out a kind of "speedpass" lane for security checkpoints. Frequent fliers can purchase a pass for $100, and then each time they fly they insert their card into a special machine, step on a platform that checks their shoes, etc., and scans their retina or fingerprint to confirm identity. This gets them through the line faster, but also decreases the traffic in the "regular" lane. Just like managing congestion on a highway. The system is being tested in a few airports in the U.S. I predict it will be coming to an airport near you very soon!

All this thinking has me tired again. Time for another cold medicine induced coma. Peace.