wind-blownmind

It's been well over a year since I last flew out of MAN - can anyone advise whether club passengers still receive Fast Track security passes? The last time I had to ask, and the desk staff had to scrounge around to find one. Alternatively can anyone advise whether the carcinogenic nude-o-scope has been removed from front-line use on the main security queue?

Thanks.

KARFA

You do get fastrack. You don't need a separate sticker or pass, just show your bp.

The body scanner is still there.

tomparskate

Yes you do. Just as prior warning I was flying through Manchester back in May and security was dreadful. My bag got stopped and took 30 minutes to be checked! And I thought EDI security was bad

corporate-wage-slave

Yes I can. In line with European Union legislation all back scatter scanners have been removed from the EU, EEA, Switzerland and Nordic as of 2011, the small risk of cancer being one of the factors behind that. So they are now all millimetre wave scanners, based on radio waves rather than radiation. The law says that "security scanners shall not store, retain, copy, print or retrieve images". All UK scanners don't make images either, not even transiently, it stays as a digital datastream. However you can request an "enhanced manual search" if you prefer.

That said, for many FTers, the MAN security experience is the worst of any UK airport, but very little of that is to do with Fast Track or scanners.

LBA_flyer

Fast track at MAN was a shambles last time I went through (last month), The staff manning the conveyor seemed to be just making up rules about which way your bag must face on the belt and disputing whether a Molten Brown liquids bag conformed due to it having an actual zip amongst other random 'rules'?? all the while shouting that they are just trying to help speed up the process. Fast track was by far and away the longest queue.

Worcester

If your main concern is radiation exposure you might want to check your lifestyle, even from the backscatter x ray machines you would receive a far higher dose of radiation from flying during the day than from the x ray machines which operated using about 1/1000th of the energy of a chest x ray.

madfish

DYKWIA

I must live on another planet to everybody else. It's never taken me more than about 10 minutes to get through T3 fast-track security at MAN. I'm always pretty prepared though - all electrics out, as you never know what will trigger a secondary search*. I'll be trying it on Friday again...

They must know who I am before I get there!

*My collar stiffeners caused a secondary search once in T1... To be fair, they did look like bullets on the x-ray when the security guard was asking me what they were!

wind-blownmind

Thanks everyone. I too have had appalling experiences with security at MAN, including random items confiscated and denied boarding for refusing to go through the scanner. I don't care whether it scans me with ionizing radiation, or RF, or spectalyzes my chakras, or sniffs me with a trained chicken named Eric - that thing is a human rights violation of the type this country used to proudly stand against. Whether the data stream it produces is rendered into an image or not is splitting hairs, it should never be collected in the first place.

I realise I'm in the minority in this opinion.

mjh0

Top tips for dealing MAN T3 "Fast Track":

1) Get the train to London and fly out of LHR, unless you absolutely have to fly out of MAN.
2) Avoid Monday mornings entirely.
3) Be ready to have to deal with a large number of people who simply don't know how to use airports.
- fast track just gets you to the front of the queue, where you are then mixed back in with the clueless and oblivious on the same screening line.
4) Prepare to be lectured about the dangers of having irons, kettles and toasters in your carry-on luggage (see point 3 above) by droning PA announcements and hectoring security staff
5) Don't be afraid to use extra trays to make your bag as easy to screen as possible
- the threshold that triggers a reject to a hand-search of a bag is incredibly low at MAN.
- a reject to hand-search triggers a full hand re-screen of the bag, not just checking the item or area of the bag which triggered the reject.
- so don't just take out your laptop, take out the charger and cables too, to further declutter the bag and reduce the chance of a reject.

Globaliser

I take it that you're not a human rights lawyer then.

Are you saying that when you asked to be patted down/felt up* instead (*delete according to preference), you were refused that option?

Crofton138

I have the misfortune of going through MAN T3 security most weeks. It's completely dependent on the time of day as to whether you'll breeze through or have a rather unpleasant experience. Any time before 8.30am and you're queuing for sure. It's not helped by the fact that the fast track belt has 5 places but only 3 are used for the fast track queue, the other 2 are used by the general queue.

wind-blownmind

Yes. When I went through about 2-3 years ago, the queue was split 50/50 through the scanner and a conventional metal detector arch. It so happened that the person ahead of me went to the metal detector, which means I should have gone to the scanner but instead I stepped into the queue for the arch too. That got me shouted at. When I stated, politely, that I object to the scanner but I'll happily go through the metal detector I was told "you don't get to choose" so I enquired about a pat down instead and was told "this isn't the bl**** TSA you go through the machine or you don't fly". I asked for a supervisor, who confirmed my options were the scanner or go home. Given it was a cheap flight and not anywhere I needed to be for several days I had the luxury of sticking to my principles, but not before they took copies of all my ID "for the police to investigate" because lord knows the only reason anyone would refuse the machine is because they're a terrorist. That was the last I heard of it, and it doesn't seem to have had any impact on the work I do for the government, if you see what I mean.

Capt Hammond

wind-blownmind

I agree with all of that except Fast Track feeding back into the main queue. In my experience at all but the lightest times Fast Track has its own metal detector in operation, hence my query. It does rather show up the security theatre for what it is that "the terrorists" can evade the supersecure body scanner simply by purchasing a Fast Track pass.