QRC3288

I am actually American. But living abroad. And the US deserves all the criticism it gets about this situation. "My country" is indeed the USA.

To fully describe what happened is mind-boggling (and quite sad, to this American who loves his country), but I am not saying this just out of thin air. I had a front row seat to some of this in action; two companies I am very closely aligned with are suffice to say "very interested parties" in this legislation. To sum up a long story, your inability to use the Airport Express flying to the USA on Cathay but not other carriers is a 3 degree removed byproduct of the decision to impose the laptop-in-cabin-compartment ban on ME Airlines last year. Many of you will recall how laptops and large electronic devices were forced into the cargo hold on certain airlines. Against vehement (and accurate) industry claims that lithium batteries were a huge risk in the cargo hold, this policy was mind-bogglingly still implemented. I am still in shock they proceeded with that given how that decision demonstrably made flights less safe. It then became obvious the FAA was going to contradict the administration and recommend no laptops in the cargo hold, so some face saving was needed. Foreign carriers were rounded up arbitrarily and told to implement these new procedures - dreamt up I kid you not in less than 24 hours - which include your "interview" at the airport. I fly to the US at least 6, as many as 12 times a year. I've done this interview a number of times now. This "interview" you'll have at the airport as mandated by the TSA is pure security theater. Not to mention a waste of money and time. Compare it to Israel, where I also fly once in a while. Now that's a real interview over there, and real security. It can take a helluva of a long time but I indeed feel like they're accomplishing the goals of security. This thing at CX in Hong Kong mandated by the TSA is pretty much the polar opposite of substance.

It was supposed to be implemented on all airlines. Some airlines signed up. But now, it appears actually it's just going to be randomly implemented to some airlines and not others. None of the US carriers have it (....subsidies come in all forms, and the hypocrisy of US big 3 airlines is hilarious), Cathay does, and some but not all foreign carriers do. It's a mess. And it's embarrassing.

Anyway, I realize my curt few lines didn't summarize that. But I saw the policy get made. It was madness and very third-world. I agree there is a positive purpose to FT, but FT is also about being a frequent flier and difficulties. I flew to the US last year 13 times. Implementing this policy genuinely has a small but real impact on me. It's a shame when something wastes your time, there's no way to get out of it, you know it's a sham, you know the lack of thinking behind the implementation, but you still have to do it. Aka "it was better before".