BootsnAll Travel Community

Ok, I've flown less than some, and more than most Americans.

I'm now a veteran. I put all my toiletries in clear plastic bags, I don't carry large bottles ON CARRRY ON, and all knives are in my backpack.

Result?

I've lost my best knife, the one I paid 30 bucks for, but others got through safely. I now arrive at the airporft 4 hours early.

I don't travel through London if I can help it. Every time I do something goes very wrong. The last time it was a missing piece of baggage lost in the transfer between NYC and Philly.


I sometimes have to remove my shoes, sometimes not. I have very serious doubts about the efficacy of their scanning, since my cell phone could very well be a B--b, and they allow those without question.

I've articles on the proceedures. Apparently, the really big risk is not being addressed. The Air cargo. Thats right. Every time they limit the weight of our allowed luggage, they allot it to paid air freight. Anyone know that?

Who checkes air cargo? No one. No machines are being used to check air cargo while they go over every bag held by a passenger.

Who stops employees from smuggling weapons onto a plane? No one.

Do you really think the toolkits of the mechanics are searched every time they get near a plane?

The one thing that might work, profiling, is being done in such a stupid manner that they're kicking congressmen off planes because his name got onto a no-fly list, which by the way, are secret and cannot be changed without an act of congress.

They're searching nuns, and letting scruffy looking middle easterners with a desperdeate look in their eyes through.

Ok. figure that one out.


In short, its a way of making people feel safe, while merely inconveniencing them.

Worst nightmare? Heathrow. Hand checking luggage one at a time for 30 flights coming into their hub. Their portable x-ray machines apparently aren't working.

I've only seen it worse at the Georgian border, and I need to write a booty story about that.

Just a stone.....

Sometimes I bring a stone, or a shell, from a new country I visit. Better than a tacky souvenir (possibly made in China).
This time I had a red sandstone, from the beach in Barranco (Lima). I didn't manage to bring it home though. On the stopover in Newark, the x-ray woman didn't think it was just a stone. She called her boss, a big man in a uniform:
- What is it? Is it a stone?
- Yes, it's a sandstone from a beach in Lima.
- Are you a scientist?
- No, I'm not. I just bring a stone from a new country I visit, as a souvenir. Is there something wrong?
- what do you need it for?
- I've got some 25 stones from different countries, in different colours and shapes. This is just another one from a new country I visited. I put them on the floor in my bathroom, together with sea shells. They make up a nice decoration.
- Do you know that it can be used in a dangerous way? (he swayed the plastic bag containing the stone, towards his head).
- No, I didn't think that.
- Now you do. Good bye.

I was too suprised. I thought, I could ask him "what if that plastic bag contained a camera, or a bottle of whisky from duty free". But, he was already gone, and the stone too.

quote:

Originally posted by moniak:
But, he was already gone, and the stone too.

Must have been a really nice stone

I collect sand from wherever in the world. Usually, for transport, my new sand is in used water .5l plastic water bottle. Generally, I check the sand as I don't want people freaking out on it. (Sand is technically dirt, and one is usually not supposed to transport that internationally without clearance.)

So, while being screened on the second and last leg in Frankfurt from my return journey from Morocco last June, the screener stopped my bag in the machine and asked "Is that sand in your bad?" Somewhat shocked and impressed, I hesitantly replied "yea". He nodded his head and let me through. Cool.

Last night I was detained for secondary search. No, I was told, I did not set off the metal detector. I was given the extra search because my pants are "baggy".

Now they're the Fashion Police too!

quote:

Originally posted by static:
Last night I was detained for secondary search. No, I was told, I did not set off the metal detector. I was given the extra search because my pants are "baggy".

Now they're the Fashion Police too!

Is that a bomb in your pocket or are you just happy to see the TSA?

quote:

I was given the extra search because my pants are "baggy".

Did you offer to wear a skin-tight jumpsuit next time?

Or maybe some short shorts and a mini-t. I'm sure they'd appreciate you making their job that much easier.

So coming out of Portland airport recently I was in front of this woman who was just a little too fidgting...she was a bit loud, restless and just too eager to go through the security check. I was still wearing my jacket and my backpack and she had already put all her things in a tray..impatient. She looks at me and says "do you know you have to put your jacket in the security". It was more like hey you FOB you are in the US now. So I glared back and said YES I KNOW. The security officer saw this and said to me "maam I can help you here and asked me to walk through some human scanner while he took my bags and jacket". Also said hold you shirt as the air inside sometimes can make your shirt fly!

Nobody else from what i could see where asked to go through the human scanner.

I guess I was special.

From slashdot, the shocking news that the Apple marketing machine has yet to reach the staff of the TSA:

MacBook Air Confuses Airport Security

Traveler says she was forced to remove nipple ring: A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.
...
Hamlin, 37, said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on February 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.

Ok,I really gotta say that I hate that some of these no commom sense having low grade rent-a-cops can get away with this. Utterly rediculous.