YVR and checkpoint friendly bags
 

I was told they don't recognize them up there. Huh?

In my experience, they don't allow them in Europe either. All laptops out.

The whole point of the bag is to not block the x-ray image, what do they gain with requiring the laptops out??

I have asked at the checkpoint, so it's not an assumption on my part. The Euro rules say "laptops out" with no explicit exemption so I don't argue. This has been true for flights entirely within Europe, so it's not a USA-imposed requirement either.

Maybe it depends on the particular checkpoint/country.

Because most bags aren't x-ray friendly, and they want to avoid having to rescan bags just because people don't know what they're doing.

The whole "checkpoint friendly bags" thing is a TSA specific phenomenon. Security agencies in other countries have their own standards and do not care about what the TSA accepts (and some would argue that's for good reason).

https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/20...bag-procedures

In general I would agree that they shouldn't listen to the TSA. However, the checkpoint friendly bags do address the issue--for X-ray purposes the laptop is out. Mine at least says "checkpoint friendly" in the laptop side of it, there's no question what it is.