Airport Security

PharCyDe · Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 64 Location: Tennessee, USA

I know alot of people have been saying how bad it is going through security now. From my most recent flight though it wsnt that bad. Not enough to complain about really. I think people are just being picky. Although it may be that the airports I went to arent as popular as others. Has anyone experienced a HUGE difference in the security time?

cocodrilo · Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 494 Location: Western Japan

PharCyDe wrote: I know alot of people have been saying how bad it is going through security now. From my most recent flight though it wsnt that bad. Not enough to complain about really. I think people are just being picky. Although it may be that the airports I went to arent as popular as others. Has anyone experienced a HUGE difference in the security time?
Yes. When you are required to remove your shoes and wait till they are screened before you can pass. Yes. When the people at securtiy confiscate your wine opener NOT for the dangerous-looking corkscrew, but for the teensy-weensy foil cutter on the other end(I was told this was OK. When I gave it up as I figured what the heck, I can buy one there, it took 4 days of serious searching to find one! "Why?" You ask? I travel with wine!!! I was in Taipei, by the way...).

Jonathan · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 185

Me too. The majority of my travel over the past couple of years has been related to my research on the culture and community of ballroom and dancesport. As such I tend to travel with a lot of camera equipment and let me tell you, the security folk typically have a field day with my roll on bag... that thing is packed with photo equipment. In general I don't mind, and even leave myself a bit of extra time for them to hunt through everything, but at times they take it a bit far or become difficult when I request hand checks of some of the equipment as, supposedly, I am allowed to do.

Laura · Joined: 16 May 2004 Posts: 446 Location: San Francisco

I always wear slip-on shoes when I fly, and as I'm approaching security I take off all my metal objects (sports watch, eyeglasses) and toss them in my purse until I come out the other side.

It's funny, I used to wear bras with metal underwires and every once in a while the metal detector would be cranked up so high that those would set it off! It was amusing to have them 'wand' me and find the only metal in my chest. My current bras have plastic underwires -- I think many manufacturers are switching to them because they're so much more comfortable.

cocodrilo · Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 494 Location: Western Japan

I've never had a bra that "went off" but I think it's because they're now using plastic, as you mentioned, Laura. I am always heavy on the jewelry, but it hardly ever makes the buzzers go off. I, too, wear slip-on shoes as some airports require a shoe-screening. I always wear "seta" Japanese "flip-flops" with tatami grass, as one's feet tend to swell on long-haul flights.
Saw something rather embarrassing happen when I was somewhere in the Baltic states(can't quite remember which country it was!). An elderly woman was detained as she kept buzzing going through the security at the gate that entered the departure gate lounge. I heard her finally explain that she had a metal pin in her leg. The unforgiving security people then whisked her away to a back room to have a look!!!! (At what, her scars?!)

I have a friend who was once shot and still has remnants of the bullet in her back. The doctors didn't want to remove it as it was too close to the spine. She has a special ID card with an x-ray of that bullet lodged in her body which she presents before entering a security area where she will be screened. (She never fails to set off the buzzers!)

Virgilio · Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 2

Jonathan wrote: Me too. The majority of my travel over the past couple of years has been related to my research on the culture and community of ballroom and dancesport. As such I tend to travel with a lot of camera equipment and let me tell you, the security folk typically have a field day with my roll on bag... that thing is packed with photo equipment. In general I don't mind, and even leave myself a bit of extra time for them to hunt through everything, but at times they take it a bit far or become difficult when I request hand checks of some of the equipment as, supposedly, I am allowed to do.

Yes you can ask for hand checks, and I had that done for all high speed film that I had with me. Very convoluted and time-consuming procedure to check just one roll!! :)