Darius4

Most likely I'll choose Turkish Airlines with a short layover in Istanbul or British Airways with a connection on Heathrow (though the layover here is a bit longer).

STBCypriot

If you are flying a US carrier you will be asked questions like:

Who packed your bags?
Where did you pack your bags?
When did you pack your bags?
Have your bags been with you since you packed them?
Do you have anything in your bags that could be considered a weapon?
Do you have any electronic devices?
Did anyone give you anything to carry on the plane with you?

Randyk47

Even as a US citizen I'm sometimes surprised at the kind and number of questions you can be asked when entering the US. In late May we returned from a month in Europe via CLT. When we got close to actually dealing with an agent we could hear one agent quite clearly and while I would hesitate to call it a "grilling" he was asking everybody who went to his station things like "where have you been?", "why did you go?", "how long were you gone?", and so on. So we actually talk quietly about our answers thinking this was SOP. We go to the agent next to the one asking all the questions and all we get is "Welcome back. Have a nice day."

exerda

I've been asked those same questions when flying OS and LH as well, FWIW.

makos

Nowadays there is always a minor passport check before you departure to/from US and to/from EU (especially Germany) and this minor passport check usually is at the gate. It is carried out by airline staff and/or a contracted securty firm.
They don't really ask that much questions, just check your passport, etc max ask how long are you planning to stay is it business or pleasure.

The immigration officer at the US border on the other hand will ask you all kinds of questions, and I mean all kinds.

makos

Havent been asked those questions in quite a while now. Most major airports now have an automated (pretty much non manned) check-in/bag drop off counter.

chx1975

In Rejkjavik, this year, trying to remember... anyways past the first crazy queue, I guess that was for security? outgoing border check? can't remember! there were stairs to go down and on top of that there were people with printed lists and they were taking people into a separate room for more questions? security checks? so yeah, this can happen and it causes a huge queue and all.

I have been last questioned throughly very long ago in Amsterdam when going to the USA but no unusual questions. They really just want to know whether you are going to work and perhaps stay illegally. Hotel reservations, flight reservations going out are helping a lot.

All this now is just unpleasant memory, now I'm a Canadian resident w/ an EU passport and also have a NEXUS card now and so all the USA/Canada/EU borders are very easy to cross.

The "Who packed your bags" barrage of questions I am getting on Israel bound flights but anyone boarding an airplane to or from Israel knows to leave three hours *at least* for the batshit insane security these guys have...

Mats

If you are traveling on Turkish Airlines, you will need an interview in Istanbul. But it should be no different that what was described above.

"Who packed your bags?" "When did you pack them?" "Has anyone had access to your bags?" "Do you have any electronic equipment? To whom does it belong? Has anyone else had access to it? Have you had it repaired recently? Do you have anything that could be used as a weapon?"

That's it.

The US carriers have a second set of questions at the gate. "Have you purchased anything from a vendor other than the airport shops?" "Have your bags been with you at all times?" Usually nothing more than that.

At the European airports I know best: Paris/Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, and Geneva, the staff are not intimidating at all. In Paris they are often charming Indian women. I'm easily intimidated by authority figures and those in uniform, but the contract security people are usually very kind.

Random (and not random) body and baggage searches occur at most airports for flights on US carriers on flights from Europe to the US. British Airways has this, and I would imagine that Turkish Airlines does as well. That's usually a matter of luck. On British Airways it is an automatic signal that beeps as you attempt to board the airplane. On the US carriers, the staff pull passenger aside on a continuous basis, or until they've met their requisite number of searches.

chx1975, sorry... I zip through security at Tel Aviv with just three or four questions.

Scrudgy

Sorry if this has already been said, but I find the most important question asked at US immigration desk is

Where will you be staying whilst in the US?

Have your hotel/house name, street address, town, zip code written down so you don't forget it.

A few people I have known in the past have not had this prepared and just saying the Hotel name was not accepted, and these people were "interviewed" in a room for over an hour as a result.

I saw a Norwegian guy at Houston immigration getting a really hard time as he could not provide the correct address for his hotel. He only knew the Hotel name and that he was getting met by a greeter and taken to his hotel. He was collected by security and taken to an interview room.

chx1975

Wow, really?? I never knew that... although in a pinch I can always yank out a tablet with Tripit and look up the address, I guess. I so often travel to a conference, the conference suggests a hotel, I reserve it, add a SuperShuttle reservation and that's it. I absolutely have no idea where the hotel is, the shuttle driver will know and I can't care less, all I have seen is a sliver of a map showing it in relation to the conference venue...

When I was lining up for security screening in Munich about to board a Tel Aviv flight, this jovial older guy in a nice suit comes to me and says in perfect Hungarian he "accidentally" saw my name on the list and thought I am Hungarian and that he left Transylvania decades ago and how is living in Hungary these days and how are the salaries and so on. There were basically no other mobile security guys and noone else got this treatment and the only one doing this is speaking Hungarian? Surely accidental. It was hard to resist not to laugh -- it surely wasn't easy for the Munich security to find a Hungarian speaking guy just to interview me :P . Oh well.

As for getting out of Israel, I was strip searched twice (first in Eilat then in Tel Aviv) the same day. They couldn't figure out what I was doing for two months in Israel and their default is paranoid, so.

TWA884

Don't post this in the Middle East Forum; the resident apologists/deniers will go ballistic.