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.

I wrote in my detail in my very first post on this thread, that I felt that I had been touched inappropriately.

It was in my very first post.

Is your issue, that it was not at the top of my first post?

That's a bit weird of you, isn't it? Normally people get accused of dripfeeding when they mention something much later in the thread.

You said I didn't talk about it soon enough, even though its in my very first post.

You're a strange one alright.

I was sexually assaulted, OP. I was nine. If I were writing about it on a post on here, I wouldn’t include it at the bottom of a list of stressful but ordinary activities with a title that in no way referred to CSA.

I am not diminishing the seriousness of what happened to you. I am asking you to reconsider your own communication style if you are going to make a complaint about it.

Eek!

That sounds awful.

Well we'll have to agree to disagree then.

I wrote about my experiences in the op as I wanted to. I listed them. I don't see listing something last as least important. I wanted to talk about it in more detail so I left it to last.

And I'm sorry that happened to you.

I'm happy that you had an okay time at the airport!

Thank you,@Kjones27. Good luck with your complaint, if that’s what you decide to do,

Just to say to you, try to be a little bit kinder to people.

I was kind to you. Amd I said I'm sorry that happened to you.

You just gave me a list of everything that I did wrong.

And you told me I that i talked about in the wrong way.

You upset me.

What mentioned your sexual assault which is very sad.

Would you like it if I said to you 'why didn't you bring up your story about sexual assault in earlier. Why did you wait until late in the thread to talk about your sexual assault"

That's not kind is it? That's what you said to me.

And it upset me.
People deal with and talk about sexual assault in lots of different ways. Some people are barely able to speak about what happened to them. Some people are confused.

I wish you well

That last post is at you @LadyNijo

Anyway I won't be back on this thread.

I want to think of other, happier things now.

Me posting on this thread keeps making me think of the experience.

I will complain and see what happens. And i will not let that guard upset me anymore.

I send love to anyone who has been through similar.

Take care

@countvoncount Ah, so those of us who don't like being groped in our private places are "moaning minnies", are we?
Blimey, no wonder victims of sexual assault, CSA and rape are so reluctant to report it and seek any justice when there are attitudes like that still around!

I'm wondering if @countvoncount actually HAS breasts that could be groped, IYSWIM!
Their attitude to your totally understandable reaction to being touched inappropriately is concerning in any case. If @countvoncount is a woman, she's one of the rare, lucky ones who's never endured sexually inappropriate touching, because if she had, she wouldn't be so scornful and dismissive! That's why I question whether @countvoncount might be male!

Can I ask which country that is please?

@Kjones27 It's becoming apparent to me that the posters who are dismissing, minimising and putting you down are being wilfully obtuse, because your posts are quite clear, and your distress and anger at being groped like that are justified. You don't have to be a professor of English to comprehend what was done to you from your posts, so they're just goading you!
I'd say just ignore the nastiness now, don't bother defending yourself to them, that sort just want to kick someone when they're down, it makes them feel superior!
P.S. I'll only bother with ferries from now on too! Happy sailing OP!

@Blubbled I assure you I do indeed have breasts.

@LadyNijo for what it’s worth, others could see that you were trying very patiently and kindly to help the OP.

This is totally rediculous.
Im sorry you feel ‘violated’ but airport security is absolutely 100% the priority here.

There are endless ways terrorists will try to bring aircraft down and hiding items in underwear is a common occurrence.
I work at the airport with a full airside Id and I still get searched if I set the alarms off even if it’s a random activation.