Both sets of flights involved a takeoff and landing in Missouri, and a takeoff and landing in California. But that’s about where even the vague similarities ended.

The latter of the two trips was to Los Angeles — in airplane code, DSM to LAX via STL. The former was MCI to OAK via PHX, just another set of flight names and numbers. Except it wasn’t, because while the latter was last weekend, the former was in August — August 2001. Back “then.” Before planes used by two airlines were turned into guided missiles — weapons of mass destruction. Last Friday was my first flight since Sept. 11. As such, it was my first encounter with the “new reality” that to many is not new anymore.

The first sign that things were not as they had been was in Des Moines, where Transportation Security Administration officials had a scanning machine in an area previously occupied by chairs for passengers in the ticket counter area.

After going up the escalator, which only ticketed passengers could do, signs said to get your boarding pass and photo ID out and put your stuff in the plastic bin.

After the incident in late 2001 in which Richard Reid had tried to blow up a flight with a bomb in his shoe, the screeners had started asking for those, too. In this area, though, the process was a bit haphazard. Some took their shoes off without being asked — probably those who had traveled before. A man in the other line was asked to take his off. But I passed through all the detectors without having to do so, and others did as well.

Then there’s the carry-on rule. Instead of the full two allowed in the past, the rule is depicted as “one-plus,” meaning one full carry-on and one personal item. But what did this have to do with security, or preventing hijackers? It wasn’t as if they needed that second carry-on for their knife or box cutter. Exactly what part of passengers’ safety is enhanced by limiting carry-ons?

Changing planes in St. Louis, one of the repeated announcements over the loudspeaker said you no longer had to show a photo ID while boarding. Even at a Code Orange alert (something else that didn’t exist for my previous trip) it is overkill to have to show the ID yet again, since you’ve already shown it once or possibly twice. And again, what does that rule really do for security? Two separate indictments charged men in Virginia and New Jersey with providing fake driver’s licenses to Sept. 11 hijackers, according to CNN.com. While attaching an ID to every passenger may bring peace of mind, it’s not going to be a stumbling block for those determined in their task.

The real intrusion came when I found a plastic tie around my suitcase zippers at the hotel. Inside it, I found a nice cordial greeting from the TSA. Said the paper:

“To protect you and your fellow passengers, the [TSA] is required by law to inspect all checked baggage. As part of this process, some bags are opened and physically inspected. Your bag was among those selected for physical inspection. …

“If the TSA screener was unable to open your bag for inspection because it was locked, the screener may have been forced to break the locks on your bag. … TSA is not liable for damage to your locks resulting from this necessary security precaution.”

Then why have a lock at all? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the whole thing? I shudder to think about what would have happened if I had a bag with a combination lock, or one of our older suitcases.

That inspection was the most unnerving part of it all. Given the lengths that some criminals will go to hide illicit goods, a suitcase inspection may not serve any good at all — until the day that it does, and we will all be given an I-told-you-so speech. The chances of that happening are probably a bit better than receiving the news that something was averted because the passenger was limited to one-plus carry-on.

But if all those security rules are there, no matter how ineffective they may seem, there’s no chance they’ll be ignored. In St. Louis, on my return trip, I met a group from Marshalltown who said they had been in Dallas. They told me that the terminal was evacuated for over an hour after one man caused a security breach.

The Associated Press reported the man went through the door the wrong way and caused all three connected terminals to be emptied, and then everyone went through the security process again.

While deriding the changes that are now the “new reality,” I can’t help but think these have been wanted for a long time. When grandchildren ask, we’ll have to tell them that once you could take two carry-on bags and once your suitcase contents left your eyes, there was little chance they would be seen by anyone else’s until you got it back.