[Anonymous]

[Binman62]

I just had to share this.

On Tuesday night I posted from the CCR that I had endured the security check from hell for reasons I simply did not understand. I complained to BAA by email from the lounge, as I was not completing a form that the supervisor would then discard.

The family and I had a pleasant flight, but whilst in transit at HKG my wife was stopped! She, it transpires,had flown from LHR with a Swiss army pen knife in her hand baggage which was missed by the incompetent jobs worths at LHR who were to busy chatting and giving me the once over.

The HKG security staff were by comparison, utterly charming even with my wife who clearly had broken the rules. The offending item was removed and disposed of.

The shopkeepers who run Heathrow still have a very long way to go before becoming professional airport operators

[VintageKrug]

While you have a valid point, I feel some people see a complaint as part of the holiday experience; there ALWAYS seems to be something which goes wrong/warrants a complaint whenever some people travel.

While hyperbole is a useful device, I do think comparing a pat down and questioning at T5 as “hell” does rather over-egg the matter, particularly for those who face genuine oppression from security services.

Maybe posting about how fortunate you were to get your whole family in F on BA to the Far East on Avios during peak summer would warrant a thread?

Did you try the choccy fondant?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41058731@N05/7168748113/

[LuganoPirate]

Was it the big or small penknife Binman? In fairness many European airports, and certainly the Swiss ones, allow you to take onboard the small ones. The big knives not!

PS. By small I mean the 6cm ones.

[Gin&Tonic]

That’s an amazing statement that many European airports allow small knives. I never carry one so cannot speak from personal experience. I believe they shouldn’t allow any, I also don’t think that we should discuss so openly about such security issues or potential exposures on an open forum.

[Bruce98]

G&T

Relax, dude.

The UK authorities publish on their websites that knives not exceeding 6cms are allowed and AFAIK, no-one has ever hijacked an aircraft with a 6cm long knife.

Vintage Krug

Please would you explain why Binman 62 was ‘fortunate’ to be able to book his family in first class? Is there usually a problem with redeeming Avios on BA? Your prior posts suggest this is not the case.

I also do not understand your apparently antagonistic behavior towards Binman62. If the security check was awful and he was motivated to email a complaint to BAA, why should he not mention it in his post? Why does his mentioning it deserve an antagonistic remark from you?

[Gin&Tonic]

Savior Monk, I stand corrected, I still find it a stupid rule

[Bruce98]

Why do you find it stupid?

[Gin&Tonic]

That any such items are allowed.

[Papillion53]

VK @ 7:24

Will you PLEASE stop posting that link to the choccie fondant! 😉

You know I will blame you totally if I can’t indulge in one of these later this year! 😉 🙂

I agree that Binman62 was fortunate to accommodate all his family in F during the school hols – I know when I booked our F trip to SYD, I was on the day, practically by the minute to get flights and even then I only had one choice that suited, so grabbed it – since then, have checked occasionally and nothing available, so yes he was fortunate, as are we or anyone who can book premium cabins with miles. Otherwise we pay the full whack!

[Binman62]

The chocolate fondant was great, the entire experience very good. CX however remains,by some margin, a superior carrier to BA. Their regional business class with cradle seat and looped IFE was accompanied by cabin crew service that outshone the BA First experience.

The BAA were awful however and this was no pat down. The body search was intrusive which I would have ignored. The emptying of my handbag without any suggestion as to what they were looking for was simply unreasonable and excessive. I said nothing whilst others did. I made my point directly to BAA but and this I think is important, the security at HKG showed them up for being the incompetent shopkeepers they are. It was a full sized Swiss army knife that we take away for the corkscrew but not sure how it got into the handbag.
We should all be concerned at the ineptitude as well as their lack of customer focus and that should be the focus, not shooting the messenger.

[Papillion53]

Binman62 – glad you enjoyed it ! 😉 🙂

I just do not like going through or should I say enduring security at LHR, every time there is some numpty who my other half always seems to get and the amount of time I hear the shout go up for “Get me your Manager”!

The gum chewing, lolling backin chairs just sadly seems to be the norm at LHR – and don’t get me started on those stupid conveyor belts that stack all the boxes at the end so they pile up in a mess and then said numpty shouts at said pax, who was trying to disengage them to get things moving – as other numpties just stood and watched – then said pax gets the shout up for the Manager!

Slightly off topic, Last year I had the full body scan thingy at Miami and I felt quite embarrassed as it was a male TSA watching, but I just gritted my teeth and got on with it. You really are very, well I’m not sure what the right word is, but I felt standing there in the “box” with my arms held up above my head, it was quite intrusive. Totally random or is it? Exposed was the word I was looking for! 🙁

[Daytripper]

A friend of mine is a twenty something British male of Pakistani heritage. He regularly travels on his own through Heathrow, as his brother is cabin crew for a major British Airline, and my friend gets very cheap family flights as a result.

He is frequently taken away from the security post to a separate location and given a body scan and intimate search, purely (I would surmise) on the basis of his name, skin colour, and racial origin.

Now that’s what I call obtrusive.

[Bruce98]

++That any such items are allowed.++

Compared to knitting needles, I’d say that 6cm knives and scissors are nothing to worry about.

[VintageKrug]

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that everything one needs to hold up an aircraft is readily available on board.

The confiscation of knives etc. is merely window dressing to appease and calm the ignorant masses. Probably worth doing to stop chancers, but of no real value in stemming the tide of terrorism.

Ugly though it may be/(is) I believe that profiling has to be the way forward. I don’t see that asking certain profiles for extra scanning is anything more than a mild inconvenience. People get far too upset about the somewhat cover-all term “intimate search” – it’s over in a few second and frankly a price worth paying for everyone’s safety.

If you are actually suggesting a cavity search, then that’s a different matter, but it would be interesting to understand better what you mean by “intimate search”. I’d wager it’s no more than a properly carried out pat down with a full bag hand-search. IN which case there can be no objection from any right-minded citizen.

[Author]

Posts