Originally Posted by
FriendlySkies
For an unknown reason, I got SSSS'd on MUC-DEN yesterday evening. The flight wasn't very full, so I had nobody ahead of me when I went through the mini checkpoint they had setup at the gate. Had to take off my shoes and belt and they tried to send me through the "scanner"
. but I was easily able to opt-out (Thank you, EU). Friendly staff who were professional, unlike our US counterparts. It cost me five or six minutes of lounge time, but not too terrible..
Good for you. I was not as fortunate at MUC this afternoon.Today, I received the dreaded ‘SSSS’ on my LH F MUC-BOS boarding pass. No big deal; just go to the gate a bit early. The last I recollect having ‘SSSS’, many years ago, it was a couple of questions and a swab for explosives. Today, I got to the secondary security area – it looks like an X-ray and a body scan. Again, no big deal.
I grabbed a tray and I started to get my liquids and my notebook out. I was told to stop and wait for the passenger in front of me to finish getting his items through X-ray. OK, now proceed. I am not going into the two way conversation with the agent, because she was doing her job, and was pleasant, but I was clearly irritated as you'll see. An older gentlemen sitting in the corner kept shaking his head at me - I suppose I was not supposed to be irritated. Long story short, I ended up with six trays. My entire carry on, including all items in my zipper bags, were emptied into the trays. The cover had to be removed from my Kindle. My liquids, that were in the transparent bag, had to be removed and spread out. My workpapers – about an inch thick, had to be removed from the backpack and separated into ¼" piles. The chocolate Easter bunnies I purchased from the Lindt factory had to be placed flat in a tray. Surprising no explosive swabs. My shoes had to be placed exactly on the shoe prints in the very specific shoe tray. (I can’t recall the last time I had to remove my shoes anywhere including my travels through 6 SE Asian and Middle East countries in the past 4 weeks.)
I thought at first that maybe it was just me, but it seemed to be just as thorough with everybody going through (except others had explosive swabs performed). (I watched because it took me 10 minutes to repack everything). This certainly isn’t the efficiency the Germans are known for. Is the detection equipment used by the Munich airport that old in that it is unreliable? Or are the Germans just that difficult? Or is this the standard ‘SSSS’ experience throughout the world now?
Finished my rant…