Barnaby100

I assume this is a joke. I went through fast track. Got to 2nd in the queue. The 1st person pointed out they were fast track. The security person objected to this and said something along the lines of you will go forward when I say you go forward and if I say wait you wait. So we both had to wait whilst the whole of the non fast track went through.

So never inform them that you are fast track!

I wasn't surprised. Typical Manchester security attitude in my experience.

tuonopepper

Well there were no sign of roadworks this morning, guess they will appear soon enough. I hit security about 8.20 and it was remarkably quiet, was into Fastrack and straight to the loading position.

I would say there was a 50% secondary search rate and that's with Fastrack scanner not being used by the none Fastrack Lane. On pat downs that was 2 out of every 3 which again seems high, staff were as miserable and curt as ever though but all in all a rare but decent experience, let's hope it becomes the norm (well I can dream).

tuonopepper

Sounds like the same guy I had for the pat down this morning pretty sure it was rudeness and a couldn't give a .... attitude rather than warm Manc humour sadly.... That or some kind of authoritarian power trip.

Barnaby100

They are bullies- they pick on people and verbally assault them. I always imagine they have some sort of tally chart out the back.

I have said this many times but the security scanning at Manchester is culturally broken. The attitudes are so ingrained that short of replacing them all I don't know what can be done.

DYKWIA

Strange... I have never see any of these "bullies" in the hundreds of times I've been through MAN security.

tuonopepper

I wouldn't say I felt bullied per say, however a please or a thank you and maybe a happier demeanor would help. Just dont assume ever passenger is a moron that needs instructions barking at them.

I had more pleasantries from a couple of armed officers I passed on the stairs from the lounge. It wouldn't kill the security staff to be nice when passengers are nice to them.

DYKWIA

They need to shout instructions due to the number of idiots that *still* don't realise you have to remove liquids etc. from bags.

Some time last year, I was at the FastTrack at T1. An older gentleman had full sized bottles of booze in his hand luggage. The conversation went something like :-

Security - "Sorry, you can't take these on board. You'll have to go back and check in your luggage, or leave the bottles here."

Bloke - "Sorry??"

Security - "You're not allowed to take liquids on board, so you'll have to go back and check in your luggage, or leave the bottles here."

Bloke - "OK, I'll leave them here"

Security - "Thank you"

Bloke - "When do I get them back?"

This carried on a couple of minutes, with security repeating themselves, and the bloke wondering when he'd get his booze back.

In the meantime, I went through, got my stuff and sorted myself out. I looked back and he was still in the same position, with his bag open and talking to the (very patient) security guard.

Barnaby100

Are you female?

I have noticed that they pick on middle aged and older women more than men.

I have seen them reduce people to tears- twice
I have seen them stand and openly laugh at an elderly woman who couldn't lift her suitcase (that wasn't security that was onto the belt after check in- checked luggage) as they stood and watched. As I went to help her they laughed at us both (I was recovering from surgery- I did post about it at the time)
I have heard them say that if anyone questions an instruction with them they will pull their bag over and it will take 40 minutes.
I have seen them stop the fast track as someone dared to point out that it was meant to be fast track.

I have twice personally received rude and unnecessary comments from them. That is with keeping my head down and saying nothing to try and avoid their verbal abuse.

I avoid flying from there now purely because of the security.

DYKWIA

No, but I've still never seen this happen. If I had seen it, I would call for a supervisor.

Then that would have been BA contractors (assuming this was at BA check-in), not MAN staff.

Barnaby100

Tt was AA and they had Manchester Airport badges. You had to check in and then take your bag round the back yourself to a raised belt?

Barnaby100

3 examples from a short time period . the 2nd one was not rude but explains the 3rd. I have all of my stuff that needs scanning in 1 grab bag and I am very quick going through scanning usually.

Grab bag and unload stuff. Move my hair straighteners at the top of my my bag out of the way. "Hair straighteners- in tray' shouted at me. I put them in the tray. I then ask in a quiet polite voice, do the items that need to be out of the bag vary by airport? (never had to take them out before). He replies- you have to take out what I say you have to take out.

2nd incident. Unload grab bag. Kindle is in there and I put in back. Security person shouts at me that my kindle needs to be in the tray. I ask if rules have changed recently. He replied that kindles have to be removed at every airport in the world and always have been and quotes some legislation. I smile and say thanks. 2 hours later scan in at Heathrow- no need to remove kindle I tell them what Manchester said and they say there is no such legislation. I have no idea who was right.

3rd incident shortly after. Get by bag out and put my kindle in the tray. "why are you putting your kindle in the tray"- shouted of course. They don't need to be scanned- you should know that by now. Then shouts another command at me to put it back in my bag.

They also told be that I couldn't fly with an empty chilly water bottle last summer.

cosmo74

Went through T2 a couple of weeks ago at 6am. It was all relatively quick, Fasttrack was completely separate, unlike T3, and having removed most of the contents of my bag to avoid secondary search no issues there. The pat down after the body scanner was completely over the top though and thorough to the point that I felt like asking her if she wanted to get a room. Have to say everyone was pretty polite, but I've had other experiences where that's not been the case and overall the airport is a complete hole and one to be avoided.

Krisz

No surprise, that's Manchester Airport security generally for you. They have their own rules based on however is scanning, etc. The shouting and rudeness is the norm there. I try to avoid it as much as I can and if you are lucky as I'm, use just Leeds. It's not perfect and in some way not as good as Manchester, but security is usually polite and fast.

Barnaby100

I almost always fly from Leeds- where i have had 1 rude person in the past 5 years and his colleague apologised for him.

Since last July I refuse to fly out of Manchester and now just occasionally land there.

xenole

It's health & safety.
Staff are not supposed to lift customers bags in case they cause an injury to themselves.

Yes, a frail old lady struggling with her case isn't generally a good thing, but if you pick that case up and pull a muscle or something, then you're not able to work and various handling agencies tend to put the onus on you for doing something you were told not to ever do, and you end up the loser in the situation.

Security wise, I've always found LHR worse than MAN. I try and avoid transfers whenever possible in T5 as there are some right *&!&*@'s there, the complete opposite being in the first wing.
Only had one partial run-in at MAN and not had secondary there for 2-3 years now. Know fine not to cut things too close as a lot of people do there at peak times , and always give myself an extremely generous buffer should any misfortune occur.