Airport security

[jcarter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL1_EjPVM4o...ture=channel%3E

[dolphin]

Fantastic time saver!  I hate the shoe removal part of getting to your loading gate.

[Xairbusdriver]

The only thing worse than the security check is the actual flying part.

[jwboyd]

What if your shoes have built-in steel arch supports?

They won't let me walk through the arch because I have a cardiac pacemaker (even though my cardiologist says it's okay), so I get a manual pat-down. Coming out of Lihue HI I told the screener, "Some places you'd have to pay o get a  massage that good." He didn't laugh.

[Highmac]

It's a good idea to wear slip-on or Velcro-strapped shoes when flying... as mentioned in Dick's recommendations in the "Travelling" sticky
Still a good idea because there's rarely room between seat rows to undo laces for comfort on the journey.

When we flew to NY in 2003, we were checked twice - once by Heathrow security, then by American Airlines security. One fellow passenger (a Brit) was moaning about the inconvenience but shut up when another Brit, tired of her whingeing, just said: "I'd rather be checked twice than die once..."

[Xairbusdriver]

I thought most 'implant' carriers were given a card explaining the 'observations/reports' of different types of search equipment. Perhaps a note about you 'hardware' could be tattooed on your forehead, along with a doctors signature. At least you'd never have to worry about the signature becoming unreadable as you wrinkle, who could tell the sig had changed!?

[jwboyd]

I do carry a pacemaker card, but they usually don't want to take time to read it. They simply say, "Come around this way and have a seat over there." Then they call someone over from another lane to do the pat-down.

I wonder if their training and their procedures manual tell them not to accept the card. One screener said, "We prefer to err on the side of caution."

They have their job to do, and it's really nothing more than a minor inconvenience to me.

I love Highmac's story. Puts things into proper perspective.

[krissel]

My sister recently visited a friend in Maine and flew back to NJ. When she got home and took off her jacket she realized she still had a few 10 penny nails in a pocket from when she was helping repair her friend's barn.

She had passed though the security checkpoints with nary a blink from those on duty.  

[jcarter]

Once when coming into St. Thomas, I was singled out of the line, and the gal had one of those wands which she passed over my whole body, then emptied out my little duffle bag.  Guess what tripped it, my squished last morsel of pb+j sandwich!    I ate the morsel that was in the bottom of the little zip loc.  We all had a great laugh over that.

Then coming into Belize once, I had some heavy duty truck shocks in my dive bag, and they found them.  I sure had to pay for those!  But our friends reimbursed me.  We had lots of food in our checked bags and some coolers full of stuff too, that was OK.

Crime doesnt pay, whether its an uneaten sandwich or shock absorbers and spark plugs.
Jane

[Mrious_be]

I know people often don't think too far ahead (and yes, males probably even less than females) but when I saw this guy who obviously HAD to empty his carry on bag, taking out full equipment to mow and cut hedges, that kinda did it for me.
Several blades and replacement blades, and all sorts of gardening equipment came out
I don't even want to know how much money that guy had to leave behind but he was obviously mis-informed on what could be taken aboard and what not.
This is not really Airport Security, but happened on the EuroStar Terminal in London, still I wish I knew what would had happened when this guy was trying to board a plane

[jcarter]

They let me keep the shocks and spark plugs, as our friends couldnt buy GMC parts in Belize at that time.  But I had to pay the hefty duty fee on them.  They didnt bother with our boxes of American groceries.  Things are different now, much more restrictive.

The 'best' one I ever saw, was coming into Miami from Honduras. The gal in front of me in the customs line had a baby in the baggage carriage.  The drug sniffing dog pointed at the baby's butt, and the agents grabbed the mom by the arm and dragged her out of the line, she was not very happy.  The drugs were in the kid's  bulging diaper!
Jane

[jwboyd]

Coming through JFK from London, a customs agent asked if I had any milk products. I had a small half-eaten package of cookies ("biscuits" to you Brits), so I checked the list of ingredients and found that they did indeed contain "milk solids." He said he could not allow them through, so I asked if I couldn't just eat them there. He said "no," and tossed my cookies into his trash bin. Bummer!

[jcarter]

Gee, thats mean, no sense of humor, like the gals in the Caribbean have.

I would have stuffed them into my mouth so fast that they would have to reach in to get them out!  Risking a bite.
Jane

[Xairbusdriver]

Similar 'food' problem occurred to me on a trip to Hawaii. There was an apple in our company provided 'food,' which I had decided to take to the hotel for later snacking. While there is no Customs clearance required from one State to another, agriculture agents still meet some transportation between certain areas or States. Sure enough, the guy asked if any of us had any fresh fruit. I said I still had my uneaten apple. Give it to me was the response. And I did, as soon as I took  large bite of it. I figured if he really wanted it, he could cut around where I'd bitten in to it...

I'd probably have done something similar before giving up my 'biscuits!' Strangely, I've brought back 'biscuits,' chocolate and other milk containing foods from many parts of Europe without any problems, whatsoever, both as a passenger and as a crewmember! I always brought back Leonidas chocolates from Brussels, not because they were particularly good (anything chocolate is great, as far as Judy is concerned!), but because my wife's grandfather's name was "Leonidas." The fact is, being in a rather rural area and not attending too high a grade in what were called schools 100 years ago, he actually never knew how to spell his name until he was nearly 75! He'd always though he had two names, "Lee" and "Onidas!" He always used "L.O." as his initials! He certainly didn't suffer from lack of formal education and was a fine business man and grandfather!

[Mrious_be]

Which reminds me...
When flying back from Copenhagen to London, we were given a good deal if we volunteered flying through Oslo, so we did.
We had bought two bottles of still water in Copenhagen (after security check) so we had those with us.
Plane lands in Oslo, goes around for a bit and comes to a halt on a small terminal (Oslo is not that big anyway).
We got out and were thinking we had to go to transfers.

As it happened... the pilot had to park the plane on a spot where we were not able to simply walk to transfers so we had to pass security again and yup... we couldn't take the water that we already bought when passing security in Copenhagen.
We tried explaining the security officers but obviously, and as they said the pilot should have been given a parking spot somewhere else so we didn't had to go through security again.

Smiley herself offered to drink both bottles though, which put me, and the security officers in a small shock since that was 1.5 L just gulping down since we had to catch a plane (which after that got held off for another half an hour).

We did get a good deal though (150 Euro vouchers which doubled in price if we traded them in for other SAS tickets)

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My second time flying to Boston was actually funny upon arrival at the security desk.
Sure enough they took me apart (as they did first time) and I had to open my suitecase, the officer did the rest.
Now you have to know that I have some stuffies who always travel with and sure thing....
First thing the officer took out, so the entire hall could see, was my Garfield... 'I'm really sorry mister but you can't import kitties like this'...
Next thing, my small Piglet (who Smiley gave to me) and.... 'OMG... a pig? you can't import pigs in to the US'.
When he asked why I came to the US and I said to see girlfriend, he replied 'So you came all the way from Belgium to the US for your girlfriend and all you brought were stuffed animals, not even Belgian chocolate?'

Although I was fairly embarrassed at them seeing a 35 old person carrying stuffies, it was really funny
I guess not all security officers look like they had surgery to remove their smiles