At least until your forum reply is indexed on Google.
Eh, it’s no big deal, really. I travel internationally a lot, and I doubt you’ll see much if anything different as you come through here. In fact, compared to many nations where you routinely see military in full battle dress carrying automatic weapons out and ready to use, you may wonder what all the fuss online was about. Certainly not like, say, India, where security is manned by soldiers and you get a full body patdown by a soldier while another is covering him with a rifle. The odds are good that you won’t even have anyone look at your bags at all when you go through customs.
We do have to take our shoes off when we go through security, which I haven’t had to do in Europe or Asia. But I doubt you’ll feel that the security procedures here are any different at all.
I used to work at a Dutch investment bank, one of the senior execs had a laptop confiscated and they had to introduce a new policy on traveling with laptops to the US. Flying in on first class, with an itinerary of meetings that day on Wall St, accompanying colleagues, plenty of proof you are a bank executive and being easily confirmed as bank exec on google wasn’t enough apparently.
Wow. I think he was extremely unlucky; I travel internationally a lot, for business, and work with colleagues who are from other countries (Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Italy, South Africa, India, Israel, UK, Columbia, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, China, Taiwan) and I travel to them, and they travel over here a lot, and I have never heard a single story from any of them about any issues coming in or leaving here. And we LOVE to gripe and bitch about travel to each other! ;)
That’s just the thing.
You always think “oh, this won’t happen to me” or “I haven’t heard of this happen yet”.
But it does happen. It’s never pleasant. It happens enough. Just that it happens at all is infuriating. And one day, it can happen to you. And there won’t be a thing you can do about it or even seek compensation for it.
That’s where I think that it becomes clear that the government doesn’t really give much of a damn about its citizens or tourists.
Ha, now to that I’m accustomed to. When travelling, I normally wear hiking or even climbing boots (because they are sooo good) and often I had to take them off at security. For example, when I was travelling to Scotland three years ago.
Those shoe bombs must be a real danger.
I just don’t know that the U.S. is worse than most other places. I had some security people in Japan take a big bottle of Fiorinal with Codeine from my bathroom bag, even though it was in the prescription bottle, I showed my passport, AND I even had the prescription with me (for just such occasions.) I think they were just stealing the codeine. I tried to get a supervisor, and they suddenly, in that infuriating polite passive aggressive mode, couldn’t speak English. So I kept asking and would not “move on” and finally got someone, and he explained that “we need to investigate” and they would send them to my hotel later (which of course the never did.)
I had my work notebook taken away in Germany about 3 years ago because they wanted me to start it up for them, and the battery was dead, and I left my charger at home (last minute trip, left in a hurry and forgot it.) I was never able to get it back.
I think everyone has some stories of every country if they travel enough. I just don’t think the U.S. is worse than most places. Heck, I got randomly pulled out of line in Chicago to get the “hand swab test” and set off the alarm - on Sunday, 9/11, 10th anniversary of the day! Chicago has some of the rudest security I’ve experienced, but they were very professional, and politely but professionally took me to a private room, patted me down, hand checked my bags, did the wand thing, thanked me and sent me on my way, the whole thing only took about 15 minutes. (Trust me, I had visions of parts of my body being inspected in ways I don’t even like a doctor inspecting after setting off a hand explosives trace alarm on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, in Chicago! ;) )
Eh, what you’re saying about other countries having, eg, scarier looking/more heavily armed security is certainly true, Jeff, but US travel security has gotten pretty legendary since 9/11. Partly it’s just the sheer quantity of horror stories and partly it’s the untrammelled (and exercised) authority to delay and search.
As much as the experience in Japan was bullshit, fiorinal+codeine is the sort of medication where I could imagine officious security people anywhere confiscating it, particularly with a language difference involved; either “codeine” or “butalbital” could set off their “OMFG TEH DRUGS” alarms.
I can’t really say I’m an expert in International Travel, but from my experience, it’s always other countries security that’s scarier. Getting back into your own country is considerably less scary than getting into a foreign one.
Just my anecdotal experiences, but the handful of times I’ve been to Germany now, only once did the passport control officer even speak to me, and then that was just to ask what my final destination was. Going into the US though, I always get what feels like a full interrogation about where I’m going, where I’m staying at night, who are the people I’m meeting, how did I first meet them, what’s my return itinerary, can I prove I already have a stable job within Canada…
Everyone that complains about airport security should try flying with El Al.
Oh, there’s someone worse? Cool, everything is great again!
Well sure, I mean, they actually generally catch the terrorists rather than it being security theatre.
Heck, terrorists have several times become so frustrated with ElAl security they’ve gone on shooting rampages at ElAl ticket counters.
Arise!
Now, die!
Glimmers of hope in a hopeless time.