[LuganoPirate]

Good point Becky. I wanted to know as well, and Alex McWhirter took up the baton for me, even writing I believe to the Secretary of Transport. The answer: “we do not comment on security matters!”

[RichHI1]

Becky I am sure no one benefits from these items and they are disposed of in a legitimate way. (I also believe Theresa May is competent, in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus…)

[newbay415]

security abysmal at Abu Dhabi for a BA flight recently – no attention to detail, the guy supposed to check the screen was fiddling with the x-ray machine and transport mechanism.

But the worst is how poor the physical set up is so many years after 9/11, mainly in US airports – rickety tables, not enough space to open and unload bags into trays, no mechanism for tray-return, no place to put bags back together after the x-ray machine.

London T5 is an example of how things can be done well.

[chaplainedward]

The absolute worst airport security is TSA at the airport in Jackson Mississippi!!! They felt up an Indian government official, Ambassador Meera Shankar and would not listen to local officials warning them to take it easy. The second worst is the TSA at the Killeen TX airport. I had a thumb drive that clearly met TSA rules but the official could not read his own rulebook and would not let it pass. Fortunately I faked him off, I made like I threw it in the trash can but dropped it in my shirt pocket instead and walked on through.

[salguod]

The best security experience – Changi. The staff are professional and courteous. The checks carried out if the detector goes off are measured and not uncomfortable.

Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Munich are also comfortable without being unpleasant.

The worst experience I have had was in T3 Heathrow in the fast track lane. I forgot to remove my cell phone from my pocket and was given a rather unpleasant and invasive pat down. People after me committing the same transgression were simply asked to remove the offending item and walk through the scanner again. I certainly felt that I was singled out because I am Chinese…..

[Saffjoyfox3]

More surprising than awful, on a recent trip out of Dar es Salaam (which is a relaltively small airport) I noticed that they had changed security so that you enter the airport with full scan of luggage, belts and shoes off, etc, check in, clear immigration and then literally immediately thereafter at the top of the stairs after immigration have another security check with, belts and shoes off, etc.

Best has been the IAM Centre in Barbados. Private security and immigration desk away from the main terminal, everything done in a jiffy, and then taken by car to the awaiting BA 777.

[CXDiamond]

The best: SIN & HKG

Fair: SYD, BNE, MUC, MCT.

Poor: BKK, SGN, AMS, FRA

The worst: Anything at LHR

[BusinessTraveller]

Hi Becky Boop – we tweeted the question of what happens to confiscated liquids at airports, and Heathrow Airport confirmed that “As we do not own the property, we destroy any abandoned items”.

https://twitter.com/HeathrowAirport

[BeckyBoop]

Thank you for that BT xx

Guys i came across this today on the LHR website, i never new they had won so many awards inc best airport also check out the service performance stats not sure if this inc security but still worth a look xx

http://www.heathrowairport.com/about-us/facts-and-figures/our-performance/customer-service

[TerryMcManus24]

The CAA have also included a bonus scheme to further encourage high performance to the benefit of passengers.

The maximum additional revenue achievable via bonuses at Heathrow is approximately £22 million….

For the BENEFIT of PASSENGERS

Just like a certain BANK that has been in the news all this week.

We must be the only place that awards for FAILOUR….

22 million Pounds …..BONUS…maybe it s just me…?..yes…. its the tablets…must keep taking them…

[BeckyBoop]

Terry sweet not sure where you are coming from but if you read some of those CSP report you will see there actuals are nearly all 99% or thereabouts and above the target set, and they won 3 awards incuding “Best Airport Operator of the Year” so surely the bonus is well deserved xxx

[Tete_de_cuvee]

Given there is a plethora of awarding bodies including – British Travel Awards; London Transport Awards; Business Traveler Magazine; Travel Marketing Awards; Frontier awards; Food and Beverage Awards; Travel Agents Choice Awards; SkyTrax Awards etc – each awarding a large range of accolades, 3 awards (out of nearly 100) for Europe’s busiest airport is actually derisory.

As to hitting targets, I recall several rail companies paying stiff fines for missing targets. Instead of improving the service to hit the target they merely changed the target and/or changed the definition.

A 40 minute journey was rescheduled to take 45 minutes; the definition of late was moved from being over 3 minutes overdue to over 5 minutes overdue. Getting a 95% on-time service suddenly became so much easier. Cancelled train were no longer counted – this encouraged trains to be cancelled as opposed to running late. BA used a ploy in the IA, by merging or cancelling a flight well in advance enabled it to avoid being counted in on the day cancellations.

SWT for example, are now reporting success by hitting their (easier) targets but journey times have actually grown and many services are running slower than 10 years ago.

So from a travelling public standpoint those awards and targets are relatively meaningless. The customer experience has seldom improved, rather a case of lies, damned lies and statistics.

As with most corporates, set the bonus bar so low and it is virtually impossible to miss. WW being a classic, some shareholders having lost over 70% of their value with one tiny dividend in 5 years yet tens of millions in bonus during his tenure!

[BeckyBoop]

Interesting, espcially SWT and you are so right about that. Dont forget LHR are not the only airport in the world, but are at least consistant in wining awards and probably shortlisted very often. Not going to get involved with WW here, leave that for another thread. I was talking about the customer service performance stats on the lhr website the target benchmark is set very high.. so not sure what you mean? x

[ChrisBuda82]

My airport security horror story is at Gatwick. About a year ago I was going though security was wearing jeans, before going through the scanner taken belt off and shoes and etc.

As going though the scanner it goes off so got called to one side as one does when this happens. So the guy scanned me with the hand scanner a couple of times that was going off. Was standing there for couple of mins getting fed up, as the guy was scanning me to fast so every time he hit my belt it would go off but not as it would go off at my knees.

I told the guy sorry to say this your scanning me to fast and pointed to him that he was picking up my metal on the up part of my jeans and zip. I was told off like a little baby! Then he said that if did not shout up that he would make me under go full body search, but did not understand most of what he said has he had very bad english. So as the people where getting annoyed behind me, said to him that was not telling how he was doing his job but to just slow down.

In the end the woman security came over to tell the guy to slow down, he did not seem to want to hear her. In the end the guy let me go felt he picked me out for some reason.

I seem to run in to this security guy couple of this at Gatwick and has done the same to me again, but lucky dont need to use Gatwick that much any more.

My mate get body searched all the time every time he goes from Inverness, think that is the worst I can think that couple!

[Gin&Tonic]

T1 Lhr! Gave my BMI boarding card to the young (new we will assume) security guard. “Passport” he asks no thanks I say. You must have a passport; I do have a passport but don’t need it today. Every passenger needs a passport. No they don’t I am on a domestic flight to Manchester. You still need a passport the airline will ask you for photo ID at the gate. No BMI don’t and even if they did I can show them other photo ID but they don’t ask. Yes they do. When was the last time you flew BMI to Manchester son? Never. Well I fly every week and have done for many years so who do you think may know better. Passport please! Get me your Manager.

Manager do you have a passport, yes I do it’s in my case but I don’t need one, why don’t you just show the lad you have one and then we can all get on. BECAUSE I DON’T NEED ONE!! But if you have it just show it, but he doesn’t need it at this stage of the process even if I were an international traveller. OK sir we will make a note of your lack of co-operation on this occasion but let you pass.

At which point I just accepted my warning, as I was in desperate need of a large one!

[Author]

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