to feel that airport security is now so excessive -they act like they're doing you a favour letting you travel at all?

[dolally]

I'm only talking about shorthaul, in Europe. It's all becoming so much of a chore nowadays, what with having to drink our bottle of water before security, put my cosmetics in a see-thru plastic bag, put my handbag in my carrier bag of magazines I've just bought, take my shoes off, my belt off, and THEN... the other day, having the ENTIRE contents of my hand luggage emptied at Stansted Airport. They even took my crumpets away to be Xrayed!

I know (in theory) this is to protect us all but...god is there no alternative to this?

Ok guys, jump down my throat.

just returned from 3 weeks trip to SE Asia and quite a few flights with 2 children (not babies) Arrived at H'row T3 just over 3 hrs before departur time and literally spent almost all that time queuing to clear security. It was HORRENDOUS!! Early in the morning all these sleep deprived people who thought they were going to get a decent breakfast before long haul flights going quietly and not so quietly mad in the queue which was indanger of snaking outside the terminal itself!!!
We only just made it onto flight ! They were though constantly taking people whose departure times were in next 1/2 hr out of the queue and fast tracking them.
So..............H'row was by far the worst (best??) We weren't trying to take anything on very much as hand luggage and didn't have any probs anywhere else.
My advice is ARRIVE EARLY at term 3 if you fancy a decent coffee before flying !!!

Your heading certainly applied to the pax at Los Angeles boarding their BA flight to London at the end of last August. This was just after the restrictions on carrying hand luggage to/from the UK had been lifted (thank god.

At the departure gate the 350 of so of us all had gathered. The first thing I noticed that was a bit odd even by US security standards was that all the refuse bins at our gate were removed. The TSA along with the National Guard (men out of camp for the day) proceeded to cordon the gate area off!. We pax were then all requested to leave the gate area with our hand luggage for individual searching - men and boys in one line , women and girls in the other. No exceptions to this was allowed. Some young children did get a bit upset.

Anyway one of the National Guard searched my luggage and asked me if I was carrying any guns!!. Well no actually, I did politely point out that the UK has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. He said OK and left it at that. After that all passengers passports were checked again by bored looking TSA agents.

And the sum total of this pointless exercise in terms of time, money and effort - six small bottles of water.

Even by the TSA's usual standards on such things, the above was excessive methinks.

A postscript - when I got home and emptied my bag I found a snowglobe in it!!.

I don't mind the increased security checks at airport, better that than have a terrorist on you plane.

Quite happy with increased security checks, just a bit fed up of airline staff taking full advantage of how we travel though.

We have seriously considered not buying in France because of all the make money quick schemes by some of the airlines.

It seems that every time you travel the system has changed and you end up coughing up for something or other, because you have to.

I am not against security arrangements per se, its just that some of this is a complete waste of time and effort. What about my example of "security" for six bottles of water?. This is effort that could be better spent into catching the real terrorists in our midst. Overt security that is more style than substance is worrying.

And as for those questions you get asked at check in as if anyone is going to say, "well no I have left my suitcase unattended and have not packed it myself!".

My folks no longer fly long haul out of the US.

They go from Mexico.

When we went to New York in early December, I had specifically gone out and bought some clear plastic sandwich bags to put bottles of liquids in and the like. They made me change it in the queue at Heathrow because, get this, it was too big! It was a clear plastic sandwich bag fgs!

we flew from Gatwick in oct to Menorca. We had remove shoes and belts. They took DS who was in his wheelchair and scanned him with one of those wand things, we had to remove his and Dd1's splints too. My mum's bag was pulled aside and we couldn't work out why as we put all liquids in the suitcases. The woman came up and asked mum if she had any bottles in her bags, she said no. It was DS' lidded cup that was empty, as she had grabbed it in the morning and put it in her bag.

Sorry guys its better to have these minor inconveniences than be dead or maimed...both of which are far more inconveniencing. I would just think "good they are doing their job"

You dont "need" your makeup bag on the plane put it in your case.

Water and magazines can be bought when you have gone through security - if you can afford the flight you can afford to pay for them at the airport!

I have to say bored the guy who wanted your dd out of the wheelchair was a moron.

I did have an issue at work when a colleague had to go to the US, we checked with the airline & airport and got a letter from a Dr to confirm that as she was diabetic she needed to carry syringes for her insulin - US security still pulled her to one side and made a major issue out of it.

Really in the scheme of things the last two are over zealousness - if you really cant travel without your makeup (honestly im sure you are not that hideous) and are too tight to pay airport prices then just go to Butlins.

I'm flying next week and was planning to take only carry-on luggage (as my case'll be virtually empty since I'm going to buy clothes out there and we're flying easyjet which allows bigger hand luggage) but as I'm taking suntan lotion, my face slap etc, it'll have to go on as checked luggage.

I think it's the lack of consistency with security checks and the jobsworths who do them that rile people - not the checks themselves.

FWIW my Dad flew 14 years ago with a walking stick in his possession and not only had it x-rayed both ends (he struggled to walk through his x-ray) but it was also 'confiscated' on the plane until it had landed. Allegedly for H & S reasons. I wouldn't mind but this was a domestic flight to Jersey from Stansted which is very quick as flights go. I guess in that instance they were looking for possible smuggling inside the stick rather than security issues per se.

I fly quite often with DD and although I had my new Clarins handcream and lipstick confiscated once (serves me right for being always so disorganised) and it is a bit of a palaver, I don't think it is too much of a big deal, at least for european flights: water and formula packs can be both after check-in and I suppose one can stay without reapplying make up for two hours.

mind you we managed to get from Italy to England with a 2 litre bottle of evian which we had forgotten under the pram! they'd checked everything else but no one noticed it!

if no measures were taken I bet we'd be here complaining about how useless the gov is etc

Interestingly, the security man in the US allowed me through with DD2's bottle of apple juice. He was really pleasant and gave me a " well, you shouldn't really, but it's only apple juice and I daren't take it off her!" (she was drinking it).

However, travelling from Dublin to UK last month, the security guard took out every item from our clear plastic bag and checked the capacity on each container. Needless to say, the queues at security in Dublin could easily take an hour to go through. I just don't think we are well-equipped enough for this additional security. In Miami you pass through a fairly scary cubicle that blasts you with air from all sides and apparently is for the detection of harmful substances. Takes 2 seconds and no demeaning (and time consuming) removal of clothing etc. All in all, though, I am happier knowing everybody on my flight has been thoroughly checked over, especially as the majority of my travelling is done between the UK and US

And theres the rub...if a plane goes down tomorrow because a terrorist gets on a doctored bottle of "evian" there will be a thread on here saying "what are the airports doing to ensure this never happens again" etc etc

I would think a terrorist is more likely to put explosives in the cargo hold that use a supposedly explosive bottle of evian water.

Personally speaking I would like to see greater checks made on cargo rather than just pax alone. Not all such cargo is carefully screened or even x-rayed.

One of our friends worked for the dept who deals with organised groups - terrorists/fathers for justice etc

He was investigating the liquid bombings and went on holiday just after the raids and subsequent arrests took place. He was in the long, long queues following this and suffered the effect of his teams hard work!

Even at a tiny French airport we had to all remove shoes, they went through my bag whilst I was still being rescanned as my belt triggered it, took our water bottles (had forgotten one in bottom of rucksack) off us - there was nowhere to buy more afterwards either and almost a riot on the palne when the kids weren't going to be offered a free drink - scrutinised toiletries etc. Another family had to argue over their dc's prescription Piriton because they didn't have a repeat prescription with them. Last week in Switzerland dh nearly had a tube of Voltaren taken off him for not putting it in a plastic bag(it was tucked into a zip pocket at the front and he had n't been aware it was still there).

NQC it wasn't so much the security I was bothered about on the ferry, more the passport control.

We lost two members of our tour who missed the ferry back from Morocco. Two young men, an Australian and an American. They would have been left in Morocco with no immigration paperwork and no boarding pass for the ferry (since the guide had kept these). Their exit cards had presumably been handed in with everyone else's.

I agree with you, Contentiouscat, it's better to be safe than sorry. But we can still have a moan about it, hehe! UK airports now seem to have plastic bags dotted around the place so just pick up a handful when you go through. You can take make up as long as it's small amounts and in a clear bag. I forgot to get a bag recently and just put the bottles in a tray and it got through ok.

The shoe check is odd. Some airports do it, others don't and I've been through security where some people have to take off their shoes while others keep theirs on.

Heyho, I'm supposed to be packing to leave here tomorrow so must get off MN and do something!

I found on my last trip it was much more pleasant to come back through the Spanish airport than out through the British. At the Spanish airport I was taken aside and asked by a man at security:-

"Is this your bag?", me remembering that I had a lip gloss in my bag, "Yes, do you need me to open it?", him, "No, no [he then points to a female member of staff], she really likes your bag", me "Thank you, are you sure you don't need me to open it?".

Are you allowed to take ipod and headphones does anyone know? DH is getting huffy coz I said he might not be allowed to take his big boise headphones that cut out engine noise.

I went through Stansted last autumn, and was the only one in my queue who didn't have a body search or even have my shoes checked -which is odd, as I was the only asian woman there - almost wanted to say, 'what about me? Why don't I get one? . I was only carrying hand luggage, so made sure I took stick deodorant etc (but one of the bag searchers actually had to ask a colleague whether it was allowed!)

My sister had the opposite experience coming back from Italy. She and her dh had bought water after security, but as they were about to board, her water was confiscated - whilst he was allowed to get on with 3 bottles of water for him and the kids. She was furious as it seemed obvious they (the Italians) picked on her because of her skin colour - her dh is blonde & blue eyed. So much for Italian gallantry to ladies - I hasten to add, I have nothing against Italians - just the security guys!

Apart from all the anomalies and confusions and occasional obvious insanities though, I'm happy to put up with security - better than being blown up or driven into a tall building.

Ipods etc definately allowed. Laptops allowed (although they must go through the xray scanner alone, not in a bag).

haven't read whole thread but I did read somewhere that this is considered to be a good way to stop people flying as much as they do. There's currently a lot of pressure on to try to stop people making so many flights due to global warming, and it's been said that by increasing security like this, it will put a lot of people off -- result for them then.

Maybe the politicians should stop jetting around the world on so-called 'fact-finding' missions before lecturing us about our two weeks in the sun or whatever . When they stop flying so will I.

One thing that has improved flying is BA's only-one-cabin-bag rule. It's now so much easier to get boarded and it's stopped people having turf wars about the overhead lockers and getting up and down constantly during the flight. It also provides entertainment at boarding when people try to sneak an extra bag on and a big stooshie breaks out!