Sopwith

We've all heard the joke about morons and light bulbs, but seriously, is there any possible rational explanation of why they need to check your boarding pass three or four times in the space of ten yards as you go through the security check?

oboshoe

Have fun with it. Print off about 5 of them.

When they hand it back, tell'm "keep it, I have plenty"

nufcrule3

Then you can say the same about your passport.

alanR

Try India - 7 checks of boarding pass plus 3 (or was it 4) rummages through hand luggage

FriendlySkies

How else would they justify the additional screens that they have hired over the years?

waywardmars

For what it's worth, on my 1/13 and 1/17 flights, they only checked once (pre-WMDT/AIT). So someone's come to the conclusion that it's "once" but maybe they'll change their minds next week. :P

kevinsac

The most I ever have experienced in US, Australia and Europe is two. Also one time as passing thru security. At some airports, there is a previous (but very rudimentary) check to make sure you are holding a boarding pass to be allowed into the security line.

SJCFlyerLG

Currently, the most checks I have seen are three: one to see if you can be in the Elite lane, one by the TSO checker-in-charge, and one at the WTMD, if the airport doesn't have a segregated moat for hand-screening.

The stupidest examples I remember were at LAX shortly after 9/11; after the security checks, I had to show ID at the entrance to the jetway and again upon boarding the aircraft - and this was a domestic flight. The other idiotic experience was at SAN: a check upon entering the security area, another one at the entrance to the WTMD, and another one at the exit of the WTMD. All three checks occurred within 15 feet - this was in 2004. I guess they were afraid that some pax would morph into tewwowists if they didn't check carefully.

coachrowsey

Bingo.

bluenotesro

I imagine they're trying to find a TSO who can actually read the boarding pass.

ESpen36

Wirelessly posted (Apple iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Haha, try departing Venezuela on flights to the USA. I counted 12 different checks, some civilian, some military, some airline, and some contractor agents.

Outrageous!

FLgrr

To protect you from the harm you will do to yourself by wanting to fly.

ilmi9

depends on them

Sopwith

In Canada the process usually goes like this: first check is by the Lead Greeter, whose job appears to be to direct you to the Priority Cattle or Normal Cattle line. Second check is by the Second Greeter, whose job appears to be to make sure that during the preceeding three yard walk you actually arrived at the correct line. The third check is by the Stuffer, whose job is to stuff your stuff into the x-ray machine. The Peeper doesn't usually need to check the BP, but if s/he spots something that requires a sniff, the Sniffer carries out the fourth BP check and retains the BP while s/he does the swab 'n sniff. So in the normal course of events I think that adds up to four checks in about 7 or 8 yards.

I've sometimes seen one or two additional extraneous people involved in the process. On one occasion I asked why the CATSA people outnumbered the passengers, and after receiving a sneer that said, "Why would you ask such a dumb, none-of-your-business question, I got a one-word answer: "Training".

FriendlySkies

Flying out of YEG last week, I only had my BP checked by one person.. The lady at the entry to the transborder area said "Hello, Bonjer (not Bonjour), checked it, and then let me go through screening..