Kilted to Airports

[hospitaller]

I'm sorry, I have a hard time giving some of these M*R*NS a smile and the benefit of the doubt.

Their job is to screen for metallic objects, not to force people to undress and expose themselves whether in front of everyone else or in a secluded room where other 'agents' will laugh outside the door while peeking in (the case of a woman with underbra wires forced to perform a striptease comes to mind).

About time we all demand our 'agents' have a minimum intellect and a minimum of common sense to deal with people and the clothes they are wearing.

geez...

Well, in all fairness, it's not just men in kilts who get that.

I was returning from a faraway land through Chicago a couple of years back when the screeners told the woman in front of me that she had to take off her sweatshirt.

"This is all I have on," she replied.

He insisted, so she said it twice more, loudly, and when he insisted again, she told him to get his supervisor. They let me through while she was waiting, so I did not see the outcome, but the point is, it's not a bias against men in kilts.

What I think it IS, is men and women who were hired to keep us safe, who have to face bureaucracy on the one side and surly travelers on the other side, who understandably have difficulty dealing with out-of-the-ordinary situations. Please give them a smile and a friendly word -- and the benefit of the doubt -- next time you go through the airport.

[O'Callaghan]

I'm sorry, I have a hard time giving some of these M*R*NS a smile and the benefit of the doubt.

Their job is to screen for metallic objects, not to force people to undress and expose themselves whether in front of everyone else or in a secluded room where other 'agents' will laugh outside the door while peeking in (the case of a woman with underbra wires forced to perform a striptease comes to mind).

About time we all demand our 'agents' have a minimum intellect and a minimum of common sense to deal with people and the clothes they are wearing.

geez...

Agreed. Screeners in other countries usually seem to be less officious than the TSA. I don't imagine it's anything to do with their nationality. Probably they work for organisations that have some vested interest in not p*ss*ng off the passengers, for example they may work for the airport itself or even just for an organisation that represents all the airports in that country.

When the US ones used to work for the airlines they were not nearly as bad, for just this reason. Back then only the immigration were surly, and only at JFK! I hope no-one here is an immigration officer at JFK, but it's the truth. The TSA was supposedly created to replace the airline screeners because they lacked training and because a large proportion of them were not US citizens.

I suppose the citizenship thing was some paranoia that they could be a 'fifth column', but it's nonsense because you can be from anywhere in the world and become a US citizen. Do you really suppose that a terrorist would take seriously the promise to renounce all other citizenships?

As for training, what they have gained in training they seem to have lost in IQ, LOL!

[English Bloke]

Back then only the immigration were surly, and only at JFK!

I first went to the States in 1979 via JFK. (Freddie Laker, What a Bloke...) I Was executing a plan of 6 months greyhound travel and had all the requisite visas and other evidence of self sustinence. I was 18 Years old, had hair down to my ****, was dressed in denim and had a back-pack and a tent. It took me 3 hours to clear immigration and a further hour to clear customs. Gruelling to say the least. No particular terrorist threat then, just that's the way it was.

Next visit to US was 1996. Tipped up to the Alberta / Montana Border in a rented RV with two other soldiers on a weeks R&R out of Medicine Hat. Had No2 haircuts, no Visas, just asked if we could pop in for a week with the promise we'd pop back out again to go back to work in Canada when we'd been to Jellystone and the Little Bighorn site. Flashed British Army ID cards with the passports and smiled alot. We got through no bother with a 3 month stamp in the passports.

I suppose since, things have tightened.

NOW. As a frequent air traveller to other places, I think it depends on who you get at the desk and what kind of day they've had as to how you are treated. I try to make sure I have no metal on me (including belts) and I follow the conventions to the letter. I'd never fly in a kilt as it makes you stand out and gives Billy-I've-had-a-*****-shift, the excuse he needs to exercise his "Authority".

I treat airport people and Coppers the same way. They have the authority (like it or not) so try not to rattle their cage.

Anything for an easy life.

[English Bloke]

By the way Scratchy's Lass... stayed in Flagstaff and walked out of the Grand Canyon (river to top) with some lovely people from Pheonix. Ended up crashing at their's for a weekend and have some great memories of Arizona. Good times!

The Grand Canyon is one of those 50 things you need to see...

[Iain Robb]

I'm sorry, I have a hard time giving some of these M*R*NS a smile and the benefit of the doubt.

geez...

Ah, well, to each his own. I find that my life is a whole lot more pleasant when I am pleasant, and when I remember that I tend to remember the bad and forget the good. I won't try to change your mind, but if I can get one person to brighten or lighten someone else's day -- and their own in the process -- it's a win.