Airport Security Question. I'm confused.

[goofieslonglostsis]

You'ld better start throwing in some good chocolate or do some major ducking, Bavaria. Something tells me your opinion might not be 'loved' by all.

 

[crashbb]

You'ld better start throwing in some good chocolate or do some major ducking, Bavaria. Something tells me your opinion might not be 'loved' by all.

I am afraid that, owing to new security regulations, all chocolate entering the US from International destinations must be sent via Canada to be tested by crashbb (newly appointment chocolate sampler). And you know, to be absolutely certain that the chocolate is safe, I feel it prudent to sample the entirety.

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

I am afraid that, owing to new security regulations, all chocolate entering the US from International destinations must be sent via Canada to be tested by crashbb (newly appointment chocolate sampler). And you, to be absolutely certain that the chocolate is safe, I feel it prudent to sample the entirety.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I agree that security has been tighter in Europe than the USA for decades. I still remember the intense questioning and individual hand searches (taking EVERY item out of the bags) of carry ons to leave Spain in 1989. I recall being surprised but impressed by the much more intense than in the USA security. Even way back then only ticketed passengers were allowed at the gates.

Our experience travelling Frankfort to Amesterdam to Orlando and back earlier in the month was that security was still much higher in Europe than in the USA. We did go through passport control and a second security screening when changing planes in Amsterdam (both directions).

 

[bavaria]

You'ld better start throwing in some good chocolate or do some major ducking, Bavaria. Something tells me your opinion might not be 'loved' by all.

Ah my friend, in case it was not clear, I do not concern myself with opinions here except those of the ones I respect.

I don't expect everyone to agree on every subject but I do think that rational argument and discussion is far more productive then tossing about inane stereotypes and baseless accusation!

crashbb, you are more than welcome to the box of Asbach Uralt purchased at the ever declining supermarket at FRA the first week of December - the sugar has already risen and the alcohol solidified. If we are to criticize our foreigner airports then I will readily agree that the Tegut at FRA is shameful (although our MUC has two Edeka markets and my beloved Turkish takeaway )

 

[NHdisneylover]

Ah my friend, in case it was not clear, I do not concern myself with opinions here except those of the ones I respect.

I don't expect everyone to agree on every subject but I do think that rational argument and discussion is far more productive then tossing about inane stereotypes and baseless accusation!

crashbb, you are more than welcome to the box of Asbach Uralt purchased at the ever declining supermarket at FRA the first week of December - the sugar has already risen and the alcohol solidified. If we are to criticize our foreigner airports then I will readily agree that the Tegut at FRA is shameful (although our MUC has two Edeka markets and my beloved Turkish takeaway )

Hmmm-we are going to the Ritter Sport factory next week. Who needs me to send chocolate where? I am mailing out about a dozen Kinder eggs sometime soon. We took a fw to DDs best friend last month and she is in love
Hey Bavaria , since you appear to be online now I am briefly taking this thread off track to tell you I still get this message when I try to pm you
bavaria has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space

 

[bavaria]

Ja, ja, crashbb already told me that I need to clean house again!

And gentle reader, my box is not filled with nastygrams this month, instead it keeps being filled with messages of agreement and support, believe it or not!!!

(Oh, and 'Mom', our esteemed moderator, also PMd me an article in German to translate, and the headline was ironically enough 'Christmas is Better in Germany'. I do think that Mom has a sense of humour, or an appreciation for irony)

 

[NHdisneylover]

Ja, ja, crashbb already told me that I need to clean house again!

And gentle reader, my box is not filled with nastygrams this month, instead it keeps being filled with messages of agreement and support, believe it or not!!!

(Oh, and 'Mom', our esteemed moderator, also PMd me an article in German to translate, and the headline was ironically enough 'Christmas is Better in Germany'. I do think that Mom has a sense of humour, or an appreciation for irony)

Is your box usually full of nasty grams I figured it would be pleas for chocolate

I have not decided if Christmas is better in Germany (we are stuck in the warm and rainy part of Germany and missing our mounds of New Hampshire snow) or not. It is certainly longer, and there are Christmas Markets with warm crepes and gluwein Okay, maybe it IS better

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

And gentle reader, my box is not filled with nastygrams this month, instead it keeps being filled with messages of agreement and support, believe it or not!!!

Spooky. Isn't it normal tendency that the more you post the truth imho, the more feathers you ruffle on here? Could it be the time of year?


Hadley; Ritter, Kinder, I'll have our american friends have their pick with them. We can get enough of them around here. Now Haribo on the other hand? That is one of the I splurge on about once a year and get myself a nice supply thanks to some online German candy shops. Have fun at the factory!

 

[meloneyb21]

LOL...ok. I definitely get it now.

 

[uva185]

I haven't bothered to read most of the threads here this week because the few times I did look I was frankly sickened, and it reinforced what I have said for the past year or so here.

THANK YOU to my fellow posters for posting what you did, although I suspect that many will not read it or will now accuse of being 'anti-something'. There was similar thread on the CB which deteriorated into how 'poor' our security is, which is simply not the case.

After PA103 a lot of measures were put into place for US bound flights, such as the interview questions. Positive bag match was something we did for years long before it was done in America. US airports allowed non-passengers into the gate area before 9/11. We have to provide API and ESTA information. The list goes on and on and on.

And as you have stated, we had to contend with IRA, ETA, Rote Armee Fraktion, and any number of other groups for many decades.

The vast majority of short term changes implemented this week impacted us (how many readers here had to change their holiday plans this week, for instance? how many had their carry ons limited? how many had no IFE? how many had to stay seated?) It wasn't the US domestic flights - it was uswho had to do so and some of us in the end never got to our final destination.

The reality is that we have long had tighter security in place (coming from someone who travels regularly between US destinations, the developing world, and the major European airports).

The impact will be an economic one as well, as many people do choose to vacation elsewhere.

Couldn't agree more. TSA provides faux security with silly and meaningless screening...it's not real security.

I don't care who screened the terrorist. I fault the US government for multiple failures in security measures even before this guy showed up at the airport in Lagos. We have not improved our security at all since 9/11.

The US Embassy was warned by this guy's father he would try to attack us, yet we did not cancel his visa.
He was on the terrorist watch list yet the APIS did not flag him as a threat.

Pathetic on ALL counts. The US government should be embarrassed and the American people should stand up and actually demand real security instead of going along with the faux security the TSA provides. It sickened me to hear the interviews on CNN that people do not mind the additional hassle because they are "safer". You are NOT safer with all these silly TSA security measures like the liquid ban and shoe removal rule!!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Hadley; Ritter, Kinder, I'll have our american friends have their pick with them. We can get enough of them around here. Now Haribo on the other hand? That is one of the I splurge on about once a year and get myself a nice supply thanks to some online German candy shops. Have fun at the factory!

DH and the kids DO love Haribos. I have never been fond of any gummy candy, but I guess they are as good as gummy candy gets. We did take a bunch of Haribos to the USA with us too to share (whole bags of a variety of German candies for everyone).

Does every thread on this board eventually deteriorate into a discussion of chocolate/candy?

 

[Flossbolna]

Does every thread on this board eventually deteriorate into a discussion of chocolate/candy?

I was wondering about that as well...

Bavaria, I am glad that you returned to post on this topic! This article about Christmas being better in Germany sounds intriguing - why would it be so? NHdisneylover, I am sorry that you are in the warm part of Germany. In Heidelberg you are really quite out of luck for having snow for Christmas...

I am amazed that there isn't any Haribo in the Netherlands! I thought they were selling it all over Europe now! I am a huge Haribo fan and think this is one of the things that it is one of the best features of the Geman pavillion in Epcot that they sell Haribo there!

And to stay on topic: I am really surprised why this guy was flying on a one-way-ticket without luggage. This should normally have triggered special security questioning from all what we have heard in recent years (it appears that it did not). And I have allways been wondering about the sense of this idea: wouldn't it be easy to avoid special screening by buying a return ticket (in Economy it is often cheaper anyway than a one way ticket) and packing a mock suitcase??? Perhaps this guy wanted to be found out????

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Does every thread on this board eventually deteriorate into a discussion of chocolate/candy?

Depending on the persons involved; of course it does.

I am amazed that there isn't any Haribo in the Netherlands! I thought they were selling it all over Europe now! I am a huge Haribo fan and think this is one of the things that it is one of the best features of the Geman pavillion in Epcot that they sell Haribo there!

We've got Haribo, just not the wide variety range Germany has. Agree on the for Haribo being at Epcot. I always bring home a couple of bags, thankfully they've got some options we don't have at home.

And to stay on topic: I am really surprised why this guy was flying on a one-way-ticket without luggage. This should normally have triggered special security questioning from all what we have heard in recent years (it appears that it did not). And I have allways been wondering about the sense of this idea: wouldn't it be easy to avoid special screening by buying a return ticket (in Economy it is often cheaper anyway than a one way ticket) and packing a mock suitcase??? Perhaps this guy wanted to be found out????

Who knows what makes a brain of this guy tick? I do know that persons only travelling with a carry on (which apparently he did?) isn't that uncommon at AMS. Personally I would find that somewhat surprising when we're talking about a trip to the US for instance. But apparently, they see it happening more than once at AMS. Same is being said for the one-way, which I personally find pretty amazing when the end destination is the US and it concearns somebody without a proper visum to stay. Or better said; this is according to the official info our gouvernment and national security and anti-terrorist department hands out. We all know by now they only tell us what they want us to know.

 

[bavaria]

After 9/11 the American system became crazy for 'one way tickets'. (And I did read that he bought a return ticket, so don't know which is the truth)

Anyone with a one way ticket had SSSS marked on their boarding pass and had to have secondary screening. So what is a would be trouble maker to do? Duh! Buy a return ticket! That is why profiling based on past events makes little sense.

I buy almost ALL one way tickets. And the cash purchase wasn't a big deal; in many developing countries one cannot buy with a foreign credit card and many people still deal with cash. Remember, not long ago we too had to go to the airline city ticket office to buy a ticket, or to a travel agency. I often cannot buy one unless I am in person at the airport or the city ticket office myself, even holding credit cards and cash from various countries.

And if the next 'security' measure is to investigate 'throw away returns' ie people who buy round trip and don't use the return, LH would turn me in.

Each item alone may not have set off a flag, but in combination there was room for concern. My greatest concern however is the visa issue, as most of us posting here know that we have to jump through hoops and sell our great grandmothers when it comes to US visas.

 

[bavaria]

NHDisneylover, did you not read the terms of service when you signed on to this website???

• Every thread on the Transportation Board longer than 2 pages must evolve into a comparative discussion about chocolate (accompanied by some random begging from those in the chocolate deprived parts of the world). If the thread has whingers complaining about evil poopyheads before the end of page 1, chocolate discussion may begin immediately
• Every seventh thread on the Community Board (along with every thread started by LaraK) must eventually turn to a discussion about poop
• Every twelfth thread on the Budget Board must become a full assessment of the OP's finances, including a 15 year analysis of every word they ever wrote on the internet on any website (no wonder Duds is scared of those ladies!)

And don't get me started on the terms regarding the Resorts and the Theme Parks boards, because those are the really scary ones!

 

[DVCconvert]

bavaria said:

And so I would turn the original question on its head and ask the OP why airport security in the US is so lax in comparison to 'international' airports.

Well....it's proably either that we're optimists...or idiots!

I have to say...that ever since my first flight on El Al, I've thought that secuirty on most airlines had "room for improvement" !!

And, I'm sure Bavaria, your pm box IS full......but mostly likely of THIS!>......

 

[bavaria]

Argh to begin the year with a moral quandary - a poster whose opinion I respect, but whose post I must bypass to avoid my former temptations. I have managed to break that addiction thanks to the rising cost of dental work!

And besides, I just celebrated the new year with Krapfen, the traditional sweet of the holiday - so no room for anything else at the moment, not even that dangerous treat!

 

[kerstfan1]

To give you a 'nice' idea of how tight security can be at AMS; one very specific route that has a drug trafficing problem comes with a very high risk of not leaving AMS before you get "invited" for a nice "intimate" check. Yep.....................

And if we watch FOX, we all know how much drug-heaven our lovely corner of the world is.

ams is my home airpot too but the drug line u metion has hardly anny drugs on it now a days because of tight controlsthey try other routes now

 

[bavaria]

Interesting article on how political correctness and a cry for personal rights influences security at US airports.

Most travelers at U.S. airports never get a pat-down when they pass through security. A metal detector must be set off first and then screeners would need to find out what triggered the alarm. That often amounts to screeners just lightly tapping on a passenger's arms, legs and clothes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100101/ap_on_bi_ge/us_anatomy_of_a_pat_down

Yet as many of us know, a physical inspection (NOT a 'pat down') is required for all passengers on many flights in international airports, and for all passengers for all flights in other international airports.