My Security experiences on round the world trip
 

So I've just got back from a 19 flight RTW trip and I feel like a winner.

SYD-LAX-SFO-SEA-SFO-LAX-PHX-DEN-DAY-ORD-LAX-MUN-HAM-FRA-EDI-LHR-FRA-TYO-HKG-SYD

In all of this, I had no patdowns, and I only went through the WTMD machines at every airport. There was only one minor issue on my last transit through LAX. I performed the same routine that I did on every other flight, laptop in the bin, shoes in the bin, in flight bag on the belt, and then a small bagthat carried the laptop only and is now empty, jacket, belt in a last bin. I'm standing waiting for my stuff to get sucked in before I go through the WTMD and the TSA person comes up and starts rearranging all my stuff. I tell her to stop and that if she wants to touch my stuff she needs to ask. Her response was "I'm in charge here". After a short discussion she caved and left my stuff as it was.

Now for a good security experience. Let me tell you, the TSA should send people over to Japan to see how they handle security. The security personnel are very polite, and they have enough scanners running so that there was no queue. I sat watching the checkpoint for a couple of hours because I had a long layover and as soon as there were more than a couple of people waiting they opened up another scanner.

LAX
 

If you would please expound on LAX and what was said.:)

Can you elaborate alittle more - for all the airports that had full body scanners were you able to self pick lines to avoid them or just got lucky?

Wow, interesting mileage run!


In my travels last year, LHR and SYD had the most professional screeners that I have ever seen. No barkers, shoes could stay on. In SYD, the screener even helped a lady consolidate her liquids into a smaller container, after she brought a bottle through that was too big ^

In LAX she wanted my shoes out of the bin. I explained politely that they are allowed to be in the bins according to the TSA and pointed out every other person with their shoes in the bin. I also made a comment about how useless taking the shoes off is and compared to the rest of the world. She didn't agree with me about the requirement to take the shoes off but allowed them to stay in the bin.

She also wanted my laptop bag in a separate bin. I explained and pointed out that it was an empty bag now that the laptop was out of it. I had all the cables in my in flight bag. She then agreed that it could stay in the same bin as my jacket.

It's getting so that every single piece of item you have needs to be in a separate bin. It's no wonder that when I was going through the checkpoint at DEN the queue was about 20-30 minutes long before you even got to the ID checkers.

I was firm but polite and explained that asking for permission to touch people's possessions would make for a less antagonistic experience.

For the full body scanners I self selected lines that led to WTMD machines. A few times I had a helpful TSA person point out to me that the other line was shorter. I smiled and politely declined popping over to the other queue. It was interesting watching the queues, it seemed that experienced travellers picked the longer line that led to the WTMD and inexperienced travellers went to the body scanner line.

But although the body scanner line was shorter, it actually took longer to process each individual person, so the longer WTMD line ended up with a shorter wait.

We're pretty good here in Australia, and you don't even need a boarding pass to get to the gate, so you can say goodbye to your loved ones, or meet your arriving friends. The only stupidity down here is the worldwide liquid paranoia.

I thought that only applied to international flights?

yes, there are no restrictions domestically.