Nope. I’m with you, and I fly more often. While I agree that the TSA regulations (not to mention staff) are not especially helpful and are annoying, they aren’t THAT tough to master.
All that tells me is you are still a perv. 
No doubt – cites provided upon request.
You and me both. 'cept I have little to choice when traveling out of the Dom Rep.
Amen. Don’t forget we also have to sign a form in which we say we give up all rights s afforded us by out own Governments. :rolleyes:
Bad as I am, I would have loved to see them try that on my brother (whom you met). Right-wing EU diplomat fuck that he is, he gets the red carpet treatment all the time. Fuckerrrrrr…
Apparently that he is also a Spaniard is no big deal.
You’re right. And so far I’ve kept my head about me – but yeah, I am also pissed off at Americans let it get this way.
Good to have you back, brainiac. More than likely we’ll be strolling up Joaquin Costa in December…with you teaching me about…well, everything.
But seriously, can we skip Cuatro Caminos’ bodegas this time around? Promise you I won’t invite you to the Bernabeu in return.
My worst was when we were flying with our then 2 year old daughter from Boston Logan to France. My wife gets picked out for extra screening at an alarming rate every time we fly. She is half Italian with olive skin, dark hair, petite, and always well-dressed. This translates to terrorist to elementary school drop-outs for some reason. Once again, she got picked out for special screening. Right as she was done, my two year old daughter ran right through the detectors yelling “Mommy, Mommy!” and hugging her. Uh, oh. Time to break out the gloves. They both got pulled into the extra special screening area for that indiscretion.
I’d love to see some.
I don’t know why some people seem to lose their luggage. I’ve taken over a hundred flights in the last two years and only lost three pieces of luggage (and two were on one trip and that was on a tight layover).
I agree. In June 2008, at least, you had about a .515% of your baggage being mishandled (which could mean anything from a broken handle to a one hour delay to a multi-day delay to outright lost), yet it seems to have happened to just about everyone on the SDMB. Funny, that.
Worldwide tourism and travel have been booming in the last few years but America’s tourist industry has not recovered since 9/11 and that is in spite of the falling value of the dollar.
I don’t know what you mean by “lose your luggage” but I think I am on a track for a record. Mine have been lost permanently 7 times in the past 16 years and temporally about 10 times (about 30 if you count all family members and bags involved). The only pattern I can discern is that we often run for flights way faster than the bags can make it. I often book complicated itineraries between multiple airlines as well. Virtually every time we fly time the Virgin Islands, some bags are lost. We have received partial baggage by courier 80 miles away on Christmas day three years in a row. They have also lost all of our Christmas presents coming back home on two separate occasions. I know the claim forms like the back of my hand and how to get actual money back from such a claim.
If the airlines ran wet dreams then we would all get hit all the back of the head hard right before the finale.
You think having your luggage lost is a big deal? A few years ago my luggage was lost when I arrived in Hong Kong AND the next day all my money, credit cards, everything was stolen AND it was Chinese new year and there was no way to get replacements for about ten days. That was something I hope never happens to me again.
My only consolation is that it was Alitalia and I have been continuously watching them on the brink of bankruptcy and now finally it looks like they’re going over the edge. Good riddance to one of the worst airlines I have ever flown.
But wait, there’s more:
No problem. Note, however, that my offer for a cite wasn’t about lost luggage but rather about the whole tourist business:
Entry to U.S. scares away tourism, business
Plenty more I can offer if that one isn’t up to your standards.
You want to talk about extra screening?? Have Arabic on your passport!:eek:
Misplaced luggage, pfft!.. an airline sent me to the wrong country once.
No, really, they did.
Can’t you connect through Canada, Cuba or Mexico?
Say what? Are you serious? How could that be even enforceable? I mean, I could see the customs and immigration authorities of one country preventing access by another country’s consular staff, but I don’t think it’s considered binding to give up a right under duress, even if you sign something to that effect. :eek:
sigh
After all the hassle my friends have had at the border these past few years, I generally do not recommend connecting through the States. Problem is, there aren’t that many ways to go from Canada to Australia without going through Hawaii… unless you want to go the long way through Europe and Asia.
Here’s a good shirt for the whole process. http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/item/kip-hawley-is-an-idiot-ringer-t/78129971
I’m a pilot for an airline, and I’m a bit miffed that TSA employees don’t have to go through screening, while pilots still do. Last month, while passing through security on the way to the airplane I was due to fly, a screener was giving one of my bags extra-close scrutiny. Back and forth through the xray machine it went, her eyes narrowing in concentration. I watched for a moment, then feeling a little snarky, I smiled and said “well, if it helps, I do intend to get done here and go take control of an aircraft”
She still pulled my bag out and investigated my mini-stapler, for what it’s worth. heh.
It really is security theater. I really don’t think you’re significantly more secure due to TSA’s efforts than we were years ago. Without going into specifics, I can tell you that at least at the very large airport I work from, it would be child’s play for a dishonest employee to bring bad things onto the property and into contact with aircraft. There are just too many weak spots in the system.
-A-
While I’m not belittling what you went through, and yes there are plenty of power-tripping a**holes in Israeli security too, I think you’re seeing *American *security the way I am seeing *Israeli *-- through the eyes of a Citizen. Read several posts upthread by non-Americans (RedFury’s posts come to mind, but others’ as well) and you will notice they have the same (valid) complaints against TSA as you (validly) have against Israeli security.
I guess xenophobia isn’t limited to any particular nationality… :rolleyes: 
What I still am saying, however, is that Israeli security, while it may sometimes be invasive towards certain individuals or even certain classes of people (just as the TSA is,) doesn’t engage, in addition, in the empty yet disruptinve theater antics TSA pulls on everyone flying within and out of the US.
Thanks man. It’s good to be back. I thought nobody had noticed me.
Yeah, in Bilbao you can go in with your Cocacola bottle (unopened, as checked by the cop - who is an actual cop and not a rentacop), a homemade sandwhich of buttered baguette and salami wrapped in aluminum foil… guess the Guardia Civil and your own folks don’t know enough about security 
On the other hand, don’t try the above in Atocha for long distance trains. You can go on the short-distance trains with anything that doesn’t try to walk away on its own, but don’t try it on the long distance trains. The people manning the security arches in Atocha are not Guardia Civil and do not like aluminum-wrapped sandwiches.
I feel your pain. On my arrival in the U.S. I went through this shit. Along with every guy travelling alone on the flight. After all, I’d flown in from that well-known terrorist hotspot – Australia. I won’t fly in the U.S. Period. I take the time to drive instead. I can carry what I want, dress how I please and even take my own water!
If the T.S.A. arseholes are allowed to continue much longer you’ll need to fly naked, with no carry-on or checked luggage (which will be priced out of reach anyway). Any body cavities will need to be permanently spread wide open so they can check to see you’re not smuggling water onboard.
[quote=“TroubleAgain, post:57, topic:464671”]
[li]Laptop out of case, and in a tub on its own[/li][/QUOTE]
I’ve been ordered to put the laptop back in its carrier (which takes about one minute) because “nobody has told you to take it out!”
Under current rules, an US Customs Officer can put a foreigner into a plane back to point of origin without any calls to anybody, no explanation except “you’re not acceptable.” And that famous line of “I won’t commit any crime” in the form you have to fill in has gotten people expelled for things like being in the same car where an US citizen had a beer (the guy expelled was 17yo and didn’t even know it was illegal for the 20yo to have a beer). Power trips in both cases, but hot damn.
Not really; these threads are a classic self-selecting sample. It’s entirely normal that precisely those people who have lost baggage will be the ones contributing to threads about shitty travel experiences.
I’ve never had anything go missing either, but it doesn’t mean those complaining have made it up.