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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Michael Whenever we're flying back to San Francisco from Germany, we travel with heavy luggage. Often, it's four large bags, packed full and carefully balanced until the maximum weight is reached. However, after landing and picking up the luggage from the conveyor belt, the problem arises of maneuvering the suitcases about a quarter mile (and up an elevator) to the taxi stand. Every airport in the world provides luggage carts for its passengers, sometimes for a small fee at popular transfer points. For example, in Frankfurt, renting a cart costs one Euro.
Until recently, this was also the case at SFO, the international airport of San Francisco. However, the cart operating company "Smarte Carte" apparently thought, "Why not cash in big time and jack up the prices? What else are the passengers going to do, carry their luggage themselves?!" In my imagination, the haggard figures in the boardroom then burst into loud, evil laughter, similar to Dr. Evil's henchmen in the movie "Austin Powers."
Well, of course, one could carry less luggage and each person could just roll a suitcase, but for those of us who like to shop, unfortunately, this option is not available. Just like an obviously British gentleman who, struggling to balance three suitcases without a luggage cart in the elevator up to the taxi stand, whispered to me: "I can't believe they're taking 8 dollars for a cart!" and I had to agree with him with "Yep, it's ridiculous!" Because from those 8 dollars, the passenger gets exactly zero dollars back when they return the cart. An employee of the company collects the carts, brings them back to the machine, and 8 dollars per cart go to the operating company of Dr. Evil. But apparently, the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, is not inclined to ensure that arriving tourists are not already annoyed by the unacceptable conditions at their vacation destination at the airport. The nightmarishly rundown downtown later provides them with enough reasons for that!
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