airports

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What is the security really like? Is it as bad/invasive as people say? Has anyone been through it recently?

I've been through it several times in the past several months (for domestic USA flights), but haven't been through the "nude" scanner yet. I don't care if they want to do that, but I know that it's a sensitive issue for many people. You wait in line, take your shoes off (and smell other peoples' feet ), and being an Aspie, we're much more likely to be tagged as nervous and suspicious; meaning that we will often face an additional battery of weird questions. Otherwise, not a big deal, as long as you have all your papers in order (ticket, boarding pass, letter from doctor if you have meds on you, drivers license or ID, and passport if you're going outside the US). Also you need to be prepared to answer questions about why you're going to wherever is your destination, and to answer questions about where you live (the weather yesterday, who's the mayor of your city, etc). That's how they try to catch you in a lie. If you say you're from a certain city and you don't know whether it was snowing yesterday, or who the mayor is, you might be a terrorist lying about where you live.

I do hate the feeling of loss of freedom and even imprisonment to some degree, which is part of air travel. Once you cross through that checkpoint, you're basically US Government property, and you no longer have your constitutional rights! Knowing and accepting that is important to prevent panic, I guess. I'm not afraid of bombings or terrorists, and personally I think the whole TSA thing is a public ruse to get tax money and to make the people think (falsely) that they're protected.

My answer to airplane security: ALLOW ALL licensed gun owners to carry loaded onto planes. I personally guarantee that nobody will try anything! You think that an Arab with a box cutter is any match for a Texan with a Colt .45?

Charles

Goodness, I don't even know who the mayor is in my city, someon call for backup

Be honest... Just say something like you aren't into local politics, and don't know. In my case, there is no mayor, since I live in unincorporated County territory and not within a city. Whatever you do, don't make up an answer.

Charles

I went to the bank this week, and have not been inside for a couple of years because I can do almost everything online.

They have installed "air-lock" type double security doors, in and out. You have to press an enter button, walk through and close the first door, then press the enter button for the second door. The second door can't open until the first one has locked, so there is no way to run in or out. I think it must be part of a plan to make face-to-face banking as unpleasant as possible, to drive all the stragglers onto online banking.

Urk! I HATE airports. I do not mind flying, as in: I do not fear a crash or something like that. But the process of being scanned and questioned and sometimes patted down and having to take off your shoes and having people look through your luggage...

BAH! URK! EEW! YIKES!

I should have asked for train/ferry tickets to Ireland instead.

Ive been on several trips lately and am visiting another city at the moment. So far I havent seen any changes. You take off your shoes, belt, etc. Place them in bins, walk through the usual detector, etc.

I havent been given a pat down yet.

But you need to make sure you have valid ID. It used to be that you didnt need it but you do today. By ~2015 (?) you'll need to have one of the new secure IDs to get by airport security or to enter a federal building. That's a driver's license or state ID card where you re-provided your social security card and birth certificate.

I believe that nearly all the Class B (major hubs) and Class C airports (most other airports that have significant passenger activity) have the "nude scanners", but TSA wants to roll them out to all airports that have security screening. Currently, they do not scan everyone, but if the lines are short, they are more than likely to use the scanners instead of the old fashioned metal detectors and perform the "invasive" pat-downs for those who opt out. From experience, if the airport does not yet have the scanners, everyone will go through the metal detectors as before (but I'm guessing that those tagged for secondary screening, coded as "SSSS" on the boarding pass, will go through some kind of pat-down.)

Well, they DO want to see, or feel, your groin. HECK, one guy was asked what his penis was! And I COULD sneek box cutters past the nude scanners! If you're a woman, they want to see or feel your breasts. One woman was asked to show a fake breast.

I think the security measures are useless and ret*d. It's really only encouraging people to be more creative with the weapons and stuff they come up with. I recently heard that they want to genetically engineer plants to detect bombs. Messing with nature is so wrong, too.

I had hoped it wasn't as bad as peope say but I guess it is. Judging from what I've read here and heard other places, it's like inviting them to rape you. I will have to just not travel if I can't find other ways to travel since there is no way I can handle that. I wonder if it will ever end.

I haven't had to use the "nude" scanner, but I have traveled a lot. It was after 9/11 so having to take the shoes off, high security, etc.

As an ASD I thought I would have all kinds of problems, but I Love to fly.

I suggest you try it once....you might be pleasantly surprised. There's nothing like that wonderful feeling when the plane takes off, and the joy of a window seat.

The worst for me was dealing with crowded airports, because I am prone to panic attacks. I learned to get through the worst ones, alone, and loved them.

Try it!

I've developed a fear os airports over the past 10 years.

not since 2003, but airplanes frighten me so badly that i need lots of ativan or valium just to get me on a plane. this, of course, limits my travel options greatly. But I accept this. So, oh well... Flying nowadays means limited baggage weights, limited everything... If I have any option whatsoever... I'll drive, take a bus or a train.

I flew last month. I refused to put my body through that scanner so was subjected to a pat-down. The lady that did it was very nice and told me everything she would be doing along the way. I didn't find it invasive at all, just a bit tickly.

Like those ultra-sharp ceramic blades in kitchen mandolins, which would probably be invisible if they were taped into a suitable body-crease. Or the online instructions for squeezing a tube of instant metal repair (from a car spares shop) onto shiny cardboard, and folding it over ordinary the handle of a piece of airline cutlery to provide a sharp enough weapon once the stuff sets hard. Or your keys / spare change / phone in a sock to make a cosh. Or a couple of Alka-Seltzer in a bottle of Coke to cause a mass-stampede (or even the smoke from burning the plastic airline cutlery). It is even possible to make a scary bomb from just cornflour in a heated container, or sticking various amusing objects in the onboard microwave ovens.

What really takes the biscuit is something like Steven Greenoe boarding a domestic US flight with dismantled, fully-functional 9mm pistols and transferring to an international flight, and being allowed to continue his flight after describing the weaponry as "engineering samples" ... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ds-newsxml