Why do laptops have to come out of the bags?

That isn't meant to be a smart-a@# question, I really don't know. I'm fairly certain that a laptop inside a carry on still looks like a laptop with the x-ray, so is there another thing that is being looked for?

Because the various components of the laptop (battery, drives, etc) could conceivably hide (if you live in Paranoid Fantasy World, which is the address of the TSA leadership) a prohibited item. Taking them out of their padded, protective case makes it much harder to smuggle that pocketknife aboard the airplane.

But oddly enough, the rest of the world doesn't seem to share this concern.

Until very recently, you're right. But the USA-bred Paranoid Fantasy World Air Security Mechanism has inspired many other locales previously seemingly immune to our collective paranoid fantasies to adopt the "laptops out" rules.

Dunno if the Idiots in Charge of the TSA have browbeaten the security professionals in other countries to do this (under threats of "we won't let your airplanes land in the USA if you don't") or if they decided out of the blue to begin requiring it.

Well, seeing you you have to go through security after clearing customs/immigration if you have a connecting flight, I don't think that would really matter.

It just seems to me to be a pretty big inconvenience to pull the laptop out of the case, put it in a seperate bin, and then try to get it back in the bag after security, while trying to put on your shoes and get out of the way of other passengers trying to do the same thing. Sometime I feel like I need three of four arms at the security checkpoints. I don't ever begrudge the TSA screeners, though. No use in making their lives miserable, and they are merely following instructions. I also act very friendly to the screeners and 19 times out of 20, they respond in favor.

I had to take mine out twice in Australia last week, and I've seen posts that Heathrow now requires them out.

Correct......unfortunately...
Best, Dave

I don't follow this part of your post.

Yes, upon arrival from an international flight, you don't arrive in the sterile area of the domestic airport, but my point is that the US government has exported some of its collective insanity about airport security to foreign governments. And, of course, those foreign governments are always free to adopt, on their own accord, some of the ridiculous dog and pony aspects of our airport security wisdom.

Since I've gotten my zipper fixed, it's easier to take my laptop out.

You have to take laptops out of their cases at any airport I have been through in Canada (YVR, YWG, YUL, YYZ), but they often let you place it into the same bin as your jacket and other items that require removal...

To be honest it makes no sense, but this probably convinces somebody that the
security is "better" now. I dont believe it makes any difference whether
its in the case or out.

its just some people somewhere.. flip a coin and decide which new
security rule to roll out and make things even more difficult in the
name of false security.

Also in http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=471074

And I never got a really good answer either

Unfortunately, aside from the situation pointed out by Bart in that thread (that some laptop bags are just too cluttered to discern all the scary things they hold), there really is no good answer for why my expensive computer cannot pass thru the x-ray machine in its protective padded case. My laptop bag does not contain all the sundry scary things that necessitate it being unprotected as it gets its radiation, but that's not how the brain-trust at the TSA works.

"Laptops Out!" uses the same flawed logic as "Shoes Off!". Unfortunately both are now so ingrained in "security" procedure that neither are likely to go away any time soon. Perception is more important than reality and these measures are perceived as security.

"We have met the enemy and he is us!" - Pogo

All I meant by this was pretty much what you said in your paragraph there. It surprised me coming back from Britain once, where the security was just as extensive (I think) as the US, and then having to re go through security in the US. I would think that it would make sense to let passengers coming in who had connecting flights to catch enter the main terminal directly after clearing customs. I would consider customs a sterile area in just about every airport I've been in.