Wackiest. International departure. Ever.
And I haven't even left yet.
So I'm now sitting in the domestic terminal, waiting to board my international flight to Sydney, for SAGE-AU'2006.
This is after a very slow check-in with my least favourite airline, United, because they had to do everyone's check-ins sneaker-net to some remote location because the "computers were down".
I was sitting in the departure area (post x-ray machines) eating some dinner (with a metal fork and a plastic knife, incidentally) and having a beer, and an announcement came through that we had to move to a gate in the domestic terminal. This is after I've checked in, surrendered my I-94, and done the bullshit US-VISIT thing. I'm effectively out of the country now.
This made me realise, that if I wanted to "go dark", all I'd have to do is check in for an international flight, check out of the country on the bullshit US-VISIT thing, and then turn around and exit the international departure lounge area and disappear. Seems like a rather serious flaw in the system to me.
Oh, and because I'd exited the international x-ray area, I had to go through a way busy domestic x-ray security check point.
They're now calling up passengers for "documentation checks". This flight is so not leaving on time.