This year I have been to quite a few airports, namely Tokyo, Fukuoka, the Faroe Airport, Copenhagen, Athens, Chania/Crete, and Frankfurt, of course.

This morning I spent three hours at the Frankfurt airport again to send our son as an unaccompanied minor on a flight with Continental Airlines to Baltimore, MD.

When we registered our 14-year-old to get this accompanying service (an extra charge of € 200), we had to submit the stateside address where he would be staying. But when we got to the Frankfurt airport this morning, the lady at the check-in counter did not have it in her files and she asked us for the address once more. In this day and age, where we mostly rely on computer memory in an electronic address book, we don’t carry addresses in paper format with us anymore.

She had to consult with another employee at a different desk who had access to our files. This did not seem very organized.

Also only one parent is allowed access through security, so my husband took him up to the gate. I ended up waiting another hour in the departure terminal.

This time though I was glad NOT to be a traveler, only an observer. I saw tired passengers, upset passengers (the couple next to me had gotten bumped off their flight – I was tempted to ask whether it had been Olympic Airlines…). I saw long lines in the check-in area, passengers hanging out at McDonald’s without having made a purchase, people looking for toilets, tired toddlers being dragged along.

I was so glad to be going home after three hours of checking our son in, filling out more forms, showing passports, and waiting at the airport.

To everyone out there – Have a good journey!