Pulaski

Until everyone is forced to fly naked and handcuffed, there is always going to be some risk. Limited resources need to be deployed to maximum effect. Some form of profiling is an entirely appropriate way to focus resources where the risk is greatest while not completely ignoring the lower risk areas.

markonline1

Profiling happens all the time, but you shouldn't be profiling people for less thorough checks. You profile folk for extra checks.... Random bag and body searching.

Pulaski

In some theoretical "perfect world", maybe, but on the real world, when you only have finite resources, "extra" resources in one area are deployed at the expense of other areas where fewer resources are deployed. It's like a seesaw.

The secret to having extra resources to deploy is identifying areas where the risk is low and resources can be reduced without increasing the risk to unacceptable levels. The problem is that even in "high risk" areas, the probability of a genuine problem being identified is still extremely small..... one needle in several dozen haystacks.

Sally Redux

And maybe improve your foreign policy.

markonline1

...... Or the UK

steveq

A miserable experience for most, and even more miserable for others ?

Flabound oneday

hmm I could see quite a demand for that.....now watch O'leary introduce S&M Air as a sub to Ryanair


I bet a lot of the older US cabin crews would qualify as dominatrixes (??plural) easily

Bob

During our flight out of Florida, was chatting to someone who said on their in bound flight from NJ, they were able to pay $40 for a speedy bypass of the checks at the airport, meant they didn't have to take shoes off, go through the scanners or take out their liquids.

Anyone else seen that in their airports, where you pay for it?

Completely bypasses the whole point of security doesn't it? I mean, if a terrorist goes to all the effort of making a bomb, surely he won't be stingy enough to not fork over $40 to get on a plane?

robin1234

That would be slightly weird, unless they provided paper covers for the seats (like in the doctors office.)

robin1234

It's funny, flying out of a Canadian or British airport ... You can always tell the American passengers, they almost always take their shoes off, even though no-one asks them to. They don't seem to notice that other folks are keeping their shoes on.

scrubbedexpat091

every time I have flown from Vancouver cross border they have made me take shoes off before going through security.

I have never flown domestically and this is experience at the cross border terminal when departing to a US destination.

robin1234

I fly out of Ottawa usually, Montreal occasionally, St. John's Newfoundland last year, never had to take my shoes off. But, never flown to the US from Canada (not since 2001, anyway) so I'll bet you're right. My flights are to the UK or other Canadian destinations, maybe if flying to US the security regime is different ...

Sally Redux

Except it's not.
When security meets money-making opportunity, something's gotta give.

markonline1

You're right, it probably is miserable for most people. But it's because UK security is one of the most thorough processes in the world. Unfortunately, thorough also means time consuming. It wasn't uncommon when I worked at terminal 3 for it to take over an hour to get through security in the summer.

scrubbedexpat099

I can confirm that, lost a bottle of HP Sauce.