But You Are a Woman

Margaret Jackson, the chairman of largest Austrian air carrier Qantas, is visiting Beijing to push for a expansion of the Beijing Sydney line when a Chinese reporter complained to her about the security line in Australian airports. She responded with a personal experience at LAX.

She was stopped by the security guards last year at LAX after he noticed she was carrying airplane documents. She told the security guard Bill that she was the chairman of an air carrier. 'But you are a woman', said Bill. She was allowed to continue her trip after they were able to verify her identity about an hour later. Before she left, she wrote Bill with Qantas letterhead, 'Dear Bill, this is a letter from the Chairman of Qantas, and she's a woman'.

The blogger had bad experience at LAX too. While I was packing my laptop after going through the security check, a woman picked up my cell phone from a plastic box of mine and ran away. A TSA officer later told me that he witnessed the whole scene, but he didn't say a thing when she was running away. I waited half an hour for a police officer to log a case number, who never came until I had to leave for my flight.