To think airports are so stressful lately?

[Kjones27]

Jesus , I used to like travelling. I just find the airport so stressful now, that I'm utterly exhausted by the time I get anywhere. I have british and irish paaaports. I fly on my irish passport which is supposedly slightly easier to fly to the eu is. In my experience, it is not. I still experience standing around in queues for ages.

I feel like they make it as stressful as possible for everyone.

I recently flew from Dublin to Spain.

I didn't have a bag to check in as that would have taken me even longer. So my first queue was the security queue. I was standing in the long security queue for about 30 mins. Put my carry-on bag through. It set off some alarm. Or maybe they were testing bags randomly. I had to wait for a guy to come over empty my bag , put everything back in. Then I went on.

I sat in the departure lounge for about an hour. Then I went to get on the flight. They let everyone go through the desk, then for some reason they made us all stand on the stairs before rhe flight for another 40 mins. Plane was slightly delayed taking off.

I get to spain. We wete made to stand in another queue to show passports here at the spanish airport. This was an extremely long queue, as there were only about four men dealing with hundreds of people from different flights. I stood in this queue for about an hour. Finally got out. And i was just so tired.

Another thing. The last time that I flew from Spain back to Ireland, a Spanish female security officer asked to pat me down.

I said yes, as I'm sure most people do, as we afraid something worse will happen if we say no.

She then patted me all over. Up and down. She patted me In between my thighs.
She then patted both of my breasts. Which I wasn't expecting. She didnt pay between them or under them. She specifically patted each breast. I would say she slightly cupped them.
I really felt violated. I looked online to see if security officers are allowed to pat you there. And it says airport security officers are allowed to touch you anywhere for security reasons. So you are leaving yourself open to be groped just by taking a flight. I just think some security officers take advantage of their ability to touch others though. There are a lot of stories online of women who say they were molested by female security officers.

All in all, its a very stressful experience.

Pay for fast track and lounges whenever possible. It makes a huge difference.

I travel relatively often and yes airports are the opposite of a good time, really.
I am old enough to remember the times when flying was exciting and glamorous and customers were fussed over. Now it's an endless hassle, quality-wise it's a race to the bottom. And yes not everyone is physically able to stand in crowded queues in unventilated rooms for ages.

I agree with the poster above - avoid Manchester Airport at all costs. It's not only shabby and poorly managed, but also overcrowded to the point of unsafety.

I'm sorry that happened to you. It's a really awful feeling. I really think some of them take advantage of their positions.

Yeah you do, don't you!

I travel and get searched a lot, and I must say I was once searched by a female security officer abroad who I felt was deriving far too much job satisfaction from her task. It's only happened once, but yes, it happens.

Let us hope that the new security systems being rolled out in British airports this summer go at least some way to reducing the stress.

It’s not all bad. Last few weeks I’ve been through 6 airports, including Central America and flew out of Manchester. No issues, no major queues and even in the states where I had a connecting flight it wasn’t too bad (I had to clear security again) I agree that it’s not right having your breasts examined like that!! I wouldn’t have been happy and I’m
sorry to hear it happened to you.

I wonder why some people find it hard to believe that airport security staff might sexually assault people.

Is that because they are in a respected role.

Like police and doctors.

Oh wait police and doctors have raped and sexuallt assaulted people.

I definitely think airport security staff (where you can youch people as part of your job) will attract perverts to the job

Oh what are they rolling out? I hadn't heard about that.

Thank you.

I definitely don't think they're meant to put their hands under your bra. I'm sorry that happened.

Honestly I'd rather take a ferry next time I think.

I’ve recently flown twice, from Gatwick and Heathrow, no long queues and no issues .
Flying back into the UK there were long queues, as we can no longer use the EU passport gates 🥺

It's highly variable. Frankfurt security are very miserable and the "pat down" I had there did make me raise an eyebrow.

When I leave Saudi I just have a wand waved at me. London is usually the body scanner. It's highly variable.

Queues also vary hugely. Last time I landed at Heathrow I didn't have to queue at all and was waiting for my bag within 10 minutes of getting off the plane. Other times I've queued half an hour for the eGate.

Customer service in Spain is horrendous, in general. Usually you can use an eGate with an EU passport. Queued for ages with British one.

I go through the EU gates and there were still massive queues.

Dh is a pilot. For various reasons he's been having a lot flights which don't return to his home base so he has to stay over and then fly back as a regular passenger which means he can't go through staff security for his return flight.

He's missed about 4 flights in recent times due just due to overall busyness and staff that frankly don't give a damn.

Easyjet always seems to line everyone up well before the plane is ready so I always make sure I am last to join the queue. Also as the planes fly to several places a day, the later in the day you fly the more likely your plane will have been held up elsewhere and end up delayed. I've been patted down lots of times but never felt like I was groped thankfully.

I have barious medical conditions, and my last flight has made me realise that I never want to fly again.
Normally I've everything planned with military precision, as I have a colostomy plus a pacemaker like device which means that I have to be patted down.
However, on the way from a package holiday, there were about 6 flights taking off at the same time by Thomas Cook so there was an ungodly queue at security. Before anyone comes at me, I realise that what I did was stupid -I wore a maxi dress with no bra. As I got through the endless queue, by bag was getting fuller, and because O was flustered, I put the paperwork justifying my stoma through the x ray machine.
As I was patted down, the security guard could feel my filling pouch. Inbthe back of my mind, I knew I could be asked to be examined in private, but I could hear other the people in the queue discussing if I was a terrorist, so I felt like I had to clear my good name. I calculated that lifting my skirt would be more discreet than pulling my top down, and the Spanish security guards were satisfied. However, their flamboyant, over the top apologies were almost as embarrassing as the suspicion, and the disgusted comments from my fellow travellers, who were also angry at me for holding up the queue have put me off flying again.

I see a lot of women online complaining about being touched in the vagina, on the breasts by airport guards.

Say you're just going on holiday, and a guard touches your vagina on the way out, it's going to cause you a lot of trauma.

We shouldn't have to say through it. But passengers currently have no rights. They're allowed to touch our genitals. How can that be right.

Honestly people need to get over themselves, I'm sure they'll all see a lot more flesh round the pool. And if their issue was that you have a bag then they're really twatish.
If you don't want to fly again because it's too much hassle that's fair enough but don't let those people put you off. Maybe make flashing security guards your thing 😁

Content Warning (added by MNHQ)

I was just reading this account online that a woman wrote about her patdown.

She is in the states,
She wrote about her patdown that she felt sexually assaulted. She wrote this about the encounter:

"Thw guard first used her hands—all 10 fingers—in my crotch, spreading my genitals and wiggling her fingers around for quite a long time. She didn’t seem to be looking for anything.
Then she did the same thing to my buttocks, spreading them with her fingertips, then digging as deep as she could with all of them. Then she ran her hands quickly and hard up the inside of each thigh, ending each time with a kind of karate chop in my crotch.
Finally, she squeezed both of my breasts from behind, using the palms of both hands, for quite a long time. Again, she didn’t seem to be looking for anything.
She didn’t touch any other parts of my body during this “pat-down".

Yes the queues are also really stressful.

If I lived in mainland Europe I would get a long train everywhere. I wouldn't get a flight again.

Wait until these new checks comes into force later this year. Thanks Brexit!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/19/eu-fingerprint-checks-uk-travellers-british-passengers-entry-exit-system-facial-scans

I never agreed to be patted out of fear. I agree to it because I appreciate airport staff keeping passengers safe and I don't want some lunatic bringing over explosives or anthrax in their bra. Interrogation and missing a flight is the last thing on my mind when there have been many cases of explosives being set off at airports. And if they ask you every time they need to pat a new area of the body, it will take even longer. You gave consent to being searched and that's a blanket consent. If you feel inappropriately touched, then I am sure there are complaint procedures in place.
As far as the queues and elderly, you can request assistance at the airport or when booking your flight, you can pay for priority queue or you can request a wheelchair.
Travelling is a privilege and queues are a minor inconvenience. Go through smaller airports and it is not nearly as taxing.
I am sure being worked up over this is not making your trip any more pleasant.

Oh yeah and I heard that starting later this year, if UK people go to spain , they are also going to ask uk people for proof of their address when they're on holiday in Spain.

It's one more small document, but you know how slow they are, it will add another hour of queues. And you'll probably have to show it uk side and spain side.

I fly to Europe most weeks with work, so am a pro at the process. Gatwick is a fantastic airport, basically a factory to process huge numbers of passengers. In comparison most others are shit, and Brexit has made it more painful than ever, and it will get worse - see article above.
Nothing you can do except be prepared to wait and make sure you don’t need the toilet before you get in the passport queue.

I gave agreement to what I thought was happening. I didn't knowingly give agreement to what was going to happen.

I think most women when they agree to a patdown, don't expect to be touched on their breasts or vagina.

I see online that a woman in the USA is suing airport security for sexual assault for touching her vagina and breasts.

She presumably agreed to a patdown , thinking she would be patted on arms and legs aswell.