Airport security

[EternalOptimist]

To get through security with minimum fuss, just keep quiet and do what you're told. As soon as you stand out from the crowd, that's when you'll be picked on.

They have all the power, so what's the point in picking a fight.

I fly regularly and have never had any trouble.

One big life skill you learn in the military is how to be 'processed'

you get a real lesson in how to be a unit that has to be inducted, kitted out, fed, watered and moved through the sausage machine. The missus is always impressed by the way I switch off when we get to the airport, then spark up again a day later and say 'ok look, its australia' whilst she has the most agonising and boring and stressful experience

[Robinho]

The rudest i've witnessed is at Miami airport.

[Moscow Mule]

I find the fast track to be a bit better.

[vetran]

hey when security reach for a forty five then that's stressful, until then I chill and think 'I take home more in a quarter than you earn in a year' If I were still a contractor then it would be a I take home more a month!

Minimum wage minimum brains.

[Sysman]

One big life skill you learn in the military is how to be 'processed'

you get a real lesson in how to be a unit that has to be inducted, kitted out, fed, watered and moved through the sausage machine. The missus is always impressed by the way I switch off when we get to the airport, then spark up again a day later and say 'ok look, its australia' whilst she has the most agonising and boring and stressful experience

WHS. Long before 9/11 switching off was the only way to survive third world airports.

Switching off also comes in when starting a new contract with no desk, no computer, no access...

[hyperD]

To be fair if anyone had to deal with the utter morons that go through airport security all day you would get a bit pissed off. I don't know what it is about airport security that turns your average traveller in to a brain dead idiot. You can stand in queue for 20 mins with signs around and a advice coming through the speakers about taking belts off, laptops out, change out of pockets but there will be endless numbers of people that then have to be told by the guy what to take off and to come back and drop his change off he forgot to take out of his pocket.

I travelled a lot in the last 2 years and it is beyond comprehension how idiotic some people can be, the restriction on liquids thing as well. The number of people that just don't get it is unbelievable.

Not a job I would do for all the tea in China.

Well, to be fair, it is the most unnatural thing in the world to do when you arrive at airport security. Belt, bottles, shoes, matches, aerosols and the numerous other things you need to cross off the two page checklist.

Whereas relatively intelligent people such as you and I (ok, maybe not me, I failed) may comprehend the messages, as George Carlin said: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

That's the problem. The whole ridiculous charade of airport security is too far fetched for most people.

To be honest, I reckon in a few years when we wake up to go on holidays, we'll just ditch the clothes, turn up to the airport naked clutching our Thomson Holiday's vouchers to buy our clothes, toothpaste and shampoo when we arrive at our destination.

[Incognito]

Airport Security is there for a reason and thats as much as a deterrent as well as a psychological comfort blanket. The staff may not be rocket scientists, but for what they're being paid are you surprised?

If you're flying through Luton / Gatwick / Stansted then spare a thought for those staff as they're constantly having to deal with the dregs of British culture going on their cheap package holiday to Benidorm or what not.

As EO said, there's a methodology to get through it, don't resist, have you stuff separated ready to get through and hey ho it's a doddle. I fly every week and you really don't know how frustrating it is to be stood behind some tw@t getting a right arse on because he has to throw away a half used bottle of shower gel. It's not like they introduced this weeks ago. It's only been 6 years.

[BrilloPad]

Airport Security is there for a reason and thats as much as a deterrent as well as a psychological comfort blanket. The staff may not be rocket scientists, but for what they're being paid are you surprised?

If you're flying through Luton / Gatwick / Stansted then spare a thought for those staff as they're constantly having to deal with the dregs of British culture going on their cheap package holiday to Benidorm or what not.

In other countries the staff are much friendlier.

And remember that while half the passengers they deal with are chavs, the other half are nice foreigners. The staff should be ambassadors for their country. They don't have to hand out ferrero roche - just not treat everyone like scum.

[Mich the Tester]

In other countries the staff are much friendlier.

And remember that while half the passengers they deal with are chavs, the other half are nice foreigners. The staff should be ambassadors for their country. They don't have to hand out ferrero roche - just not treat everyone like scum.

WHS

[speling bee]

Birmingham is the worst IMO. They made us empty my one year old's milk bottle because it had a toddler teat and not a baby teat.

I politely asked them if next time I should put a baby's teat on and then swap it afterwards and they said that would be OK.

But... I guess they need to work to a protocol without deviation from it. They are however a particulary rude bunch at Brum.