<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Dromomaniac:
On paper, shoe removal may be optional.
In practice, if I don't take off my shoes at SFO, I will be escorted to secondary, where I will have to take off my shoes.
Are those rubber mats any cleaner than the carpet floor?</font>
I certainly wasn't going to find out.
After refusing to remove my shoes in SFO a few weeks ago (and I DID NOT beep), I was sent to the secondary screening area. When I took off my shoes to have them checked, the screener asked me to stand on the mat with my feet in the footprints. I told him that I would not do that until my shoes were returned. He said that it would delay me a little more, but that he would do that if I so desired.
This whole shoe thing is ridiculous.