Just got in from HKG on CX830. We got in early and beat the BA flight in, so CBP was almost empty. I was second off the plane and got through the winding corridor in about 2 mins.

Once I got to an agent, it took longer to get through then it took to walk from the gate. They asked all the ‘standard’ questions, but she couldn’t seem to understand why I was taking [another] round the world trip on my own or how I could afford it. She asked me 3 times how long I was going to be in the US. I showed her my itinerary and eticket receipt for the ticket that has me enter/leave the US. Then she couldn’t understand why that ticket was charged in Yen ("What's this?" pointing to the 6 digit number. "It was billed in yen...").

Got through after 5ish minutes of questions, waited another 10 mins for my bag and went to customs. I had marked on my card that I had food (chocolate bisects). The person checking the customs cards seemed confused that I didn’t have anything else (like alcohol or cigarettes – given that I don’t drink or smoke, why would I?) I got waved through and headed off to T8. AA wouldn’t let me use the elite lane (as OW Sapphire).

There were 2 barkers. One near the TDCs telling everyone to have ID etc out, another near the checkpoints demanding everyone take out liquids and take off shoes.

I pull out my laptop, put it in a tray and put my bags on the belt. Push them into the machine then move to the WTMD. They tell me to take my shoes off, I refuse for medical reasons. At the time, there was someone in the ‘box’ getting a patdown, so I get told to wait. Once the box is free, they have me go through the MD and sit down in the box. Another TSO gets called over and picks up a hand wand, asking the first if I alarmed. “They didn’t, it’s the shoes.” I get asked to take them off, I say “can’t, medical reasons”. He disappears out of the box and finds a 2 strip to ask what to do. She comes in and asks the same thing. She gets the same reply. They grab my things from the belt and take them to the ETD machine then a number of TSO’s have a huddle to decide what to do. By this point it’s now the ‘assist’ TSO, the 2 stripe, a 3 stripe and the FSD.

They then go ahead with a full secondary screening, starting with a full pat down and grope. After the pat down, he disappears again to get the swab and swabs my shoes. Tests that, comes back to swab my hands. Both come back clear, and they go back into their huddle. Then the FSD comes in and starts with the ‘dy..ft’ if I don’t take my shoes off for xray.

I take them off while making a point not to put my feet on the floor and rubbing my buggered knee. They take my shoes, put them in a tray and run them through the xray. Comes back clean, they have me put them back on then go to the ETD where another TSO (that’s 4 TSOs and the FSD now) starts going through my bags. Emptying one section at a time and swabbing everything. He finds my wallet and passes it to me to hold open while he looks inside without touching it.

He repacks my bags and I’m free to go. Took about 20 minutes.

While I was waiting in the box, there was a young girl, about 8, who had a soft toy and was about to go through the WTMD. She gets yelled at to put it on the belt. She does then comes back, where she gets told to go put it on the belt again (not sure how she could when she already did).

While at the ETD, they call a bag check and find a half empty water bottle in the bag. Their bag gets a swabbing while the water bottle got put into a little box next to the ETD machine. About 30 seconds later the bottle was taken out and handed back to the passenger.