Greetings
There I was, ready to check into my flight at O’Hare Airport in the Windy City with my backpack and bike when the TSA agent delivered the news: “sorry, you can’t take your bike with you…”
OH MY G_D WHAT THE H_LL AM I GOING TO DO NOW!!!
Well, I’ll just have to lock it up out in front and hope it’s still there in a week or two, I thought.
TSA Agent – “If you lock it up ANYWHERE in or around the airport, we’ll cut it off”
Me: “You mean there’s NOWHERE in this whole airport a traveler can lock up a bike?”
TSA Agent: “That’s policy, and it’s the police who’ll remove it.”
So, they agreed to book me on a flight 24 hours later, no charge, so I could go back home and leave the bike on the Blue line train as I came.
Actually, the TSA agent was a really good guy – sympathetic, pleading my case to his superiors, but to no avail.
O.K., I should’ve been more prepared – but the last time I took a bike with me, luckily there were spare cardboard containers lying around that they gave me to use.
I’m now learning about “official” protective cases which are too big and bulky to carry along while riding, but I’m sorry – the airlines themselves should be providing these apparatuses – they can certainly afford to. Extra Baggage Fee to do so? Hmm, well, I guess that’d be reasonable.
Hence, we’re free to ride DIRECTLY from the airport at our arrived destination in a minimalist and sensible way.
Time to raise this ruckus!!
