A Slow Start

Congratulations to Benitez International Airport in Santiago, Chile for winning the award for the Most Disorganized Airport for any we have ever visited!

It was a tough competition:

• Home town favourite Calgary International Airport was an early front runner with their decision not to have travellers form lines when they arrive at customs, but they lost their edge when partially fixed this situation in recent years.

• Frankfurt Airport made a weak entry by staffing their information booth with an unhelpful, grumpy hag who seemed annoyed that tourists from overseas didn't have a deep, insightful understanding of the inner workings of every airport they've ever landed at.

• London Heathrow made a solid attempt a while back when it took them three hours to unload our baggage from the plane, but they lost points since they were dealing with a workers' strike at the time.

However, Benitez blows the competition away. Their efforts looked promising early when we connected through Santiago a few years ago and they made our entire flight wait in line at security for an hour so we could get back on the very same plane we had just gotten off of. However, the victory was sealed with their efforts upon our arrival today. It was a bold choice to only have two cashiers on hand to process the reciprocity fees when three fully-loaded 777's landed within 20 minutes of each other. Furthermore, necessitating 3.5 hours to clear the airport after landing as part of "business as usual" with no extenuating circumstances was a masterpiece! Well done!