Flying with Northwest

On July 15, 2003, I flew by Garuda from Jakarta to Singapore, where I spent the night. The next day I proceeded to fly to Washington DC on board Northwest Airlines. My boarding pass was No. 667717 and I'm also a WorldPerks holder, No. 036024660.

Before the flight, Northwest gave me flight information, including the permissible quantity of baggage. I arrived at Changi airport at 3 a.m. and queued up to have my luggage checked. I took with me a bag containing what I would need to spend a night in Singapore. I waited to be checked by Singapore police about my destination and my luggage. I saw other passengers carry more than one bag.

After I checked in, my bag was again examined manually and through a machine. The officer in charge did not allow me to take toothpaste, shampoo, soap, deodorant, powder and other things, including lipstick, that I would need for a bath. He said they were liquid and that U.S. regulation did not allow these things to be carried into the place. They had to be included in my baggage. I was also told not to take my Aqua bottle into the plane.

Before boarding, I had another check and was again asked about my purpose going to the U.S. On board the plane I saw a man in front of me carrying a large Aqua bottle. There was also someone carrying two bottles of wine. A woman sitting next to me had her perfume and some people walked about carrying toothpaste.

When I arrived in the U.S., the immigration officers checked my visa and other papers and found no problem with them. They were quite hospitable. When I was going to collect my luggage, I found it in a mess.

I found myself to have been treated with discrimination. The information that Northwest gave me did not say anything about the tight examination and also about the things I was not allowed to take with me onto the plane. Besides, I was told to have only one bag, a condition that forced me to rack my brains arranging what I should take with me. In fact, this stipulation did not apply to other passengers. Why should you check the originality of my visa, because in my opinion it is the U.S. government that has the right to do the checking? I don't know whether this is your internal regulation or that of the U.S. government.

CARLA JUNE NATAN, Washington DC