Ever-Tightening Security Creates Misery for Senior Fliers

 

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But Linda Prospero, a Princeton, N.J., writer who just turned 60, said she would not curtail her air travel despite the new challenges.

"It's annoying, yes," said Prospero, who writes a food blog, "Ciao Chow Linda." "If that's what it takes to make us safe while flying, so be it. There's a reason that El Al is the safest airline to fly in terms of terrorist attempts and maybe we should take a lesson from them."

For decades, Israel's national airline El Al has been the envy of the world's airline industry for its tight security. The airline has not had a terror incident since a 1968 hijacking.

"For me, I wouldn't say it's age that makes travel harder, but the cramped airline seats which have been in place for years," said Prospero, who is 5-feet, 9-inches tall. "I do have back problems and knee problems and the small seats I normally have to sit in are very restricting."

But she is willing to put up with the risk and the discomfort: "I just love to travel," said Prospero, who leaves for a ski trip to the Italian Alps in two weeks.

"We'll just leave for the airport a little earlier and have a drink at one of the new places in Newark Airport, relax and read until boarding," she said. "As I get older, I have learned to not get uptight about those long lines at security, as long as I have allowed sufficient time before the flight. Some things I used to fret about as a younger person, I just resign myself to now."

"These are not things we have much control over, so why work yourself into a tizzy?" asked Prospero, reminding that "tizzy is a word only us old fogies would use."