I flew Bearskin Airlines (or as my boss likes to call them, Bareass Airlines) for the first time today. My flight was scheduled to depart at 8:15 this morning. Knowing that Bearskin doesn’t require you to check-in as early as other airlines, and knowing that I didn’t have any baggage to check, I timed leaving the house to arrive 30 minutes before the flight. Normally, the drive from my house to the airport takes about 40 minutes in traffic. Today it took an hour. So I arrived 15 minutes before my flight. Getting my boarding pass was no problem (and aren’t those handwritten boarding passes cute?).
Getting through security was another issue. The people in front of me in line had the following issues:
- Didn’t know you have to take your laptop out of your bag at the security check point
- Didn’t speak enough English to understand that the security officer was telling them to take their laptop out of the bag
- Needed to have their bag further searched after the x-ray machine
- Were carrying scissors in their carry-on luggage
I finally made it through security and sprinted to the gate, where the plane was waiting for me. I arrived on board at 8:16.
Aside from the fact that you pretty much have to fold yourself in half to get on the plan (I’m not sure how KnobCreek, who is over 6 feet tall, actually got on the plane) it was a pretty good experience. The staff were all smiling and happy, even though I was late. There was no delay getting on or off the plane, no waiting for a gate, no irritations whatsoever.
If you need to go somewhere that the Bear flies, give them a shot.
