A Jobsworth and a Half

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We took our friends back to Alicante Airport today, after a 10 day break with us. They were relaxed, refreshed, and happy - until they got to the Check In Desk. The clerk refused to accept their boarding passes, which had been downloaded and printed, because they weren't on A4 paper. They were the same size as the ones that had been accepted at Birmingham Airport en route. We'd stood in the queue for an hour, as this clerk found something wrong with everybody - either their luggage was overweight, or the cabin bag was too big. She wanted to charge our friends 40 Euros each - which was more than their return flights cost - before she would allow them on the plane. We asked if we could get a photocopy somewhere and she said photocopies weren't acceptable - it had to be the original downloaded boarding pass. Now what is that if it isn't a copy? I mean, you don't peel it off the computer screen, do you? By now, my friends were understandably frantic, but luckily someone in one of the offices copied the passes onto A4 paper and told her to tell Check In that he'd just downloaded them for us. There was absolutely no difference between the two, other than size. Then she wouldn't accept both passports from the same person - each of them had to present their own passport. The checked in baggage was 1 kilo overweight, so she said they'd have to pay an excess, as there wasn't time to move things into the cabin bags - which were well underweight. Between the 4 of us, we redistributed the baggage in about 20 seconds flat. Finally, we had to ask for a wheelchair for my friend. Bearing in mind she'd already been standing in the queue for an hour, the clerk wouldn't allow her to go 10 yards to sit down and wait, which is what usually happens. She had to stand by the Check In Desk, so the wheelchair attendant knew who he had to collect. As by this time, she was the only one in the area, it was hardly rocket science. We were furious, they were stressed, and it was all totally unnecessary. I know there's a need for extra vigilance, but does it make someone a terrorist just because their boarding pass is on A5 paper instead of A4? Have you got an example of a jobsworth like this? It's a hard act to follow, but please try, otherwise we'll think it was because we all looked like would-be suicide bombers!