Recently we were traveling from Dublin to the United States on Aer Lingus. Things were pretty stressful - we had little kids with us in strollers and our incoming flight had been delayed by more than a day. My spouse was already late returning for work and we had spent the prior night with an unplanned stop due to the airline 'forgetting' to ticket our reservation. So things didn't start out well.
We went through US pre-clearance without a hitch, made it to our gate and started boarding. After our boarding passes were scanned, an employee (Aer Lingus? Airport? I don't know) pulled us aside, mentioned we don't have to carry the strollers up the stairs and should use the elevator instead. That seemed nice. The employee used their card to activate the elevator and up we went.
After breezing through US pre-clearance (our first and last victory of the day), we got to our gate and started boarding. Just as we thought we might actually pull this off, an employee - Aer Lingus? Airport staff? Some random person? - suggested we take the elevator instead of lugging the strollers up the stairs. So nice, right? She used her key card to activate the elevator, let us get on, pressed the button ... and then didn't get on herself. When the doors opened again, we got out and were back in the general security zone - outside of US pre-clearance. Elevator doors closed and... were locked. Of course, the elevator needed an employee ID to function. The employee who led us into this bureaucratic black hole? Nowhere to be found. Great job, us.
There were some stairs leading up, but I assumed if we left the area, we'd be screwed: The flight was 15 minutes from departing, and going up there meant we were definitely out of the US pre-clearance as I could see signs for a transfer counter from where we stood. I could see people boarding behind the glass door and tried to get their attention by knocking (okay: hammering) on the glass - but I guess people just thought we were crazy, and our plan to get their attention and to find some staff didn't work out: passengers either ignored us or gave us looks ranging from bewilderment to disgust. Can't really blame them I guess - this situation was as new to us as to them. So, what to do?
At this point my spouse walked through the door and backward from where the people who were boarding the flight were coming, finally finding not just 'an' employee, but the very same one who had who keyed us in in the first place.
Instead of offering an apology, the employee scolded my spouse (WHAT BUTTON DID YOU PRESS?! ... none? you know, because we didn't have an airport employee card, remember?). She came back with us, keyed us back into the elevator (this time coming with us) to take us down where the whole elevator thing started out in the first place. Then made us carry the strollers up the stairs (better safe than sorry, right?) ... only to pass the very door that was released through the emergency release, eventually letting us board the flight. I'm not sure what security procedures was accomplished by this, but airport / airline / random person seemed happy with this.
You'd think the most fun part was over, but turns out by frantically trying to get people's attention I had sprained my hand (or thumb? definitely turned into a painful sausage shaped thing over the next few minutes). But hey, I got an ice pack from the flight attendant, so there’s that. The real fun was using said sausage-hand to hold our 1-year-old for half the flight, because carrying a fussy toddler with a busted hand until he falls asleep is just my kind of challenge.
Anyway, we all arrived safe, though maybe not sound. I reached out to Aer Lingus what a mess this was. Aer Lingus shrugged their shoulders and said - what happens at Dublin Airport, stays at Dublin airport - go tell Dublin Airport, we don't care. I mean, why not, so I did go tell Dublin airport and they didn't deem it worthy a reply either. Fantastic.
And I'm baffled why Aer Lingus couldn't give less of a shit if something goes wrong during the boarding process. I'm even more baffled as to why the US Department of Homeland Security let's Dublin Airport handle pre-clearance when they can’t even manage a simple elevator trip without people getting locked out.
