Ba ruh - lhr

Old May 15, 2017, 9:14 am
  #1  
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Join Date: Mar 2014
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Ba ruh - lhr

Does anyone have any advice as to the process being used to comply with the handluggage laptop ban if one is travelling with hand luggage only?

Travelling tonight...
Bluebrummie2000 is offline  
Old May 15, 2017, 10:19 am
  #2  
 
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I don't know for sure or for this route specifically, but I read this essentially means you can no longer travel HBO if you are carrying a laptop/tablet - these have to be checked in, which means your bag goes in the hold and not carry-on
ratypus is offline  
Old May 15, 2017, 10:46 am
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Have you flown this route before? I'll see if I can remember and document the entire process but some of it may be things you already know and I might be mistaken.

I have flown from Riyadh once since the new rules came in, about 2 days after they were enacted.

At check in you were informed of the rules and asked to confirm you had nothing that breached them in your hand baggage. The exit passport and security checks were no different to usual.

At the gate the queuing is as bad as ever with poor management of the status queues (particularly as First is often next to WT/WTP and the opposite side of the gate to Club and the staff attempts to improve flows always seem to make it worse).

Once through the boarding pass (and ID) check, there is the usual "random" selection of people for swabbing of bags and shoes but you then progress down the jetway where the streams are divided into female (door 1) and male (door 2)

On the jetway were two people doing a bag search and holding up any devices (mobile phones etc) to a template printed out and pinned to the wall so it can be clearly seen that it passes or not.

Following the bag check was a frisk search to identify any other devices in your pockets etc - anything suspicious had to be removed and examined, and any electronics held up to one of the templates again.

As you can imagine this took absolutely ages - the gate opened 45 mins before scheduled takeoff and doors ended up closed almost an hour after (this was a Thursday evening flight which is generally the busiest).

The flight crew were clearly unhappy with the whole thing and apologised but said they wouldn't say anything more (fundamentally as there was nothing they could say).

They may have improved the process since, but realistically there is no place in the departure area to add in the process so it can only really be done on the jetway and then there are obvious further size and throughput restrictions.
waldorfmuppet is offline  
Old May 15, 2017, 12:48 pm
  #4  
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Thx so much for the comments. Got to the s]airport early so used electronic Boarding card to get through passport and security. Am in the lounge, at the moment. I have all the usual business stuff, iPad, laptop and iPhone. Am guessing I will be stopped at the gate and asked to drop devices into my bag and then let the bag in the hold.
@Walldorf muppet, by any chance do you work for a German company with a blue and white badge based in the Walldorf area?
Bluebrummie2000 is offline  

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