They may be friendlier, but the level of stupidity up there is unmatched by the TSA. They take the most odd objects and stare at them like they're holding a real atomic bomb right in their hands.

Key fobs, dry makeup kits, remote controls, key rings, etc.

Does CATSA even permit the 'checkpoint approved bags' which TSA ok'd a few years ago? (And I read here that TSA often doesn't accept those) CATSA does accept my laptops in a sleeve. (And one of those is also a ThinkPad T)

http://www.catsa-acsta.gc.ca/page.as...ticles&lang=en
There are also different rules outside of the US for thing such as scissors; I see FTers complaining about non-TSA screeners denying items which are in fact not permitted at various checkpoints around the world.

what is the nature of the patdown if you are coming into the US from Canada and opt out? Can you be as detailed as possible?

Never had a problem with a sleeve.

The pat down is like the old, not illegal in every state, TSA pat down plus a quick, much less obtrusive waist band ring around. That you can opt out is told to you when they are pointing you to the machine.

'Do you have any sensitive areas?' followed by an actual response and acknowledgement by the screener.

Pat down done as in other countries ie thorough but professional, with a light back of the hand on the buttock but no hands touching the top of the inner thigh, labia (or I assume) penis. Quick back of the hands around breasts. No hands up skirts, no pulling down or out of underwear, no peering into clothing.

Just a quick, professional pat down without commentary or remarks.

I haven't had the Canada->US pat down yet so I can't comment at all.

I now need to retract this. I just went through YHZ domestic security and had a different experience. Unlike any other airport that I've been through in Canada, there actually is a CASTA person manually checking boarding passes before you get in line the preliminary screening line. Think like the TSA person with the top secret pen light but at the entrance to the line up, except armed with a yellow hilighter. This is the way YHZ works all the time. Today instead of "Hello, Bonjour, your boarding pass please?" I got the standard maritimer greeting of "Howsitgoin?" The only thing that would have made it better was if he'd thrown the ubiquitous "boy" at the end of it.

Having had the male version, I can confirm no touching of the penis.

I made a comment to CATSA about this. At YYZ at least, they have one person scan the BP with a hand scanner (like a scanning gun they use for wedding registry) just before the arrow, then one at the front of the x-ray. The distance between these checks is MAYBE 10 feet. The reason given is actually that it allows them to locate where you were and who was working in the case of complaints.

I forgot about the scanners in YYZ. I can see that reasoning actually holding some water. In YHZ though...."Hey Gwenneth? does that look like how you highlight the date, departure city, arrival city and boarding time?"

thanks exbayern and N1120A.

I have some relatives up in BC who might come down this way and wanted to know that as a possible option for them. I take it that it is same sex patdowns, which is important to the females....

Yes. Same sex and done by someone who is specifically trained to do pat downs. They are also usually bilingual.

The reason I was given for the two scans is so that CATSA can monitor wait times.

That doesn't really make sense, because the bottle necks usually happen after the WTMD, not before.

In any case, the dual scans aren't doing very well. As I said before, CATSA is SLOW

A Canadian government official's response to the 1,500+ complaints received about security screening was that the number was trivial. I don't know if they planned to do anything about it. I'm not sure if they'll revise their views on the triviality of the complaints after the incident with the elderly woman.

CATSA may be slightly better than TSA overall--as others have mentioned, no yelling or that sort of thing--but travelers are still dealing with the same pool (mostly stagnant) of talent when it comes to hiring.

I opted out of a random (non-backscatter) scan yesterday during screening for a domestic flight. The CATSA employee was cheerful but told me not to believe the hype about the machine--the process is safe and quick. That's fine, but I think I'd feel like a bit of a tool standing in that machine.

Anyway, the patdown was also very quick, back of the hand only on potentially sensitive areas (ie, thighs), no fondling.

In my experience, CATSA people seem to be slightly older and more often from immigrant communities that generally have more respect for someone's sense of modesty.

I was going to say that in my experience there is a far broader range of cultural diversity and language skills amongst CATSA than amongst TSA.