Entry into USA

[icemann]

I don't know how others have found it, but I have the following common findings from my trips to the USA :-

After 9-11, entering the USA is now like trying to enter a fortress. If you hadn't had enough at (in)security, get ready to get searched at the gate too. Even flying DOM is a pain. I hope oz never ever ends up like this. oz security is FAR more civilised (and efficient) than this.

You get 'wanded' (metal detector) after walking through the stand up one, be ready to remove your shoes and get your feet wanded. If the TSA go and search your bag (you'll know if you're lucky, because you'll get SSSS on your boarding pass), leave it unlocked and DON'T go touching it, they get rather upset Mine asked me what a copy of Pl@yboy was doing there, so I told her it was the inflight magazine

Leave the checked baggage unlocked so the TSA can go and check that you're not carrying any naughty things in it Or you'll end up with broken samsonite combination locks.

Be ready to show the US immigration a return or onward plane ticket, and state why you're there. They seem to be paranoid that you'll stay there as an illegal immigrant.

AA lounges are good, but IMHO, QF lounges have the edge. But AA lounges have cocktails. The showers are o.k. too, but in LAX DOM, it took 1 hour at 1200 to get 15 minutes. So pass the cocktails.

And don't expect the priority baggage handling to have any effect. According to my last flight, it was supposed to come in on number 5, but the priority was mixed with the normal luggage and EVERYTHING went everywhere, and DIDN'T come off first.

[redrat]

Jeez Icemann I thought all the talk on FT was a little overdone about the luggage locks having to be left unlocked and was for airports other than LAX.
Are we to believe that our luggage is now safe from pilferers because of the security checks the TSA has on its own members for employment?
I think the smartly packed carry-on(s) has to be the best way to travel through the USA now. That is unless your checked luggage is packed with the uninteresting so that no-one wants to steal it.
Unfortunately for me, I usually pack all the spare heavy stuff into the checked luggage.

[icemann]

Hi Redrat,

Well, I didn't seem to have any problem when I went MEL-LAX (and actually locked my bags with Samsonite combination locks). They didn't break them, but I wonder how they managed to guess the combination from 9999 possible ones ?

You also get a little flyer inside it (I still have mine as a souvenir) from the TSA, and it says "As part of this process (baggage inspection) some bags are opened and physically inspected. Your bag was among those selected for physical inspection"

Lucky me. It was probably all the boxes containing my tie clips / belts / ties that they looked at. The x-ray machines are probably fitted with Hugo Boss detectors

"During the inspection, your bag and it's contents may have been searched for prohibited items. At the completion of the inspection, the contents were returned to your bag, which was then resealed."

Yes. It was. With CABLE TIES ! :roll:

"If the TSA screener was unable to open your bag for inspection because it was locked, the screener may have been forced to break the locks on your bag. TSA sincerely regrets having to do this, and has taken care to reseal your bag upon completion of inspection. However, TSA is not liable for damage to your locks resulting from this necessary security precaution." (verbatim from the flyer that I got from LAX-CHI-ALB)

www.TSATravelTips.us

I'm not being pessimistic, but I'm not sure if we can trust the TSA not to go and steal things. I mean, a tie clip, a money clip, something small is easy to secrete in your pockets.

I agree in that the smartly packed (and make it easily accessible, in case you get the fateful SSSS on your boarding pass) carry on is the best way to go. I got SSSS on my boarding pass, and had to be wanded down (even though I'm Caucasian, white and blonde haired). Virtually anyone who resembled Middle-Eastern or Indian appearance was pulled in straight away into the same line.

Anything REMOTELY valuable goes into the carry on. I try not to put expensive things in the check-in, unless it is absolutely necessary.

[dajop]

Hi Redrat,
Anything REMOTELY valuable goes into the carry on. I try not to put expensive things in the check-in, unless it is absolutely necessary.

Nothing new about that. Every bit of advice I've ever read suggest the same thing, and that well and truly pre-dates the current increased security

[Rossmurdoch]

Last time I was in the US (Feb 03) I found the security far more thorough (read paranoid) in LAX than JFK

[Gary Steiger]

The TSA web site is at http://www.tsa.gov/public/ . It provides good advice on how to speed up the process.

Re, shoes: Lately its a good idea to just take them off and put them through the x-ray. Could save you a full body search. I heard a TSA guy actually thank a patron for doing this.

Re: luggage locks. Don't use them. They might get cut off. Most are useless to prevent theft, anyway. Any 8 year old could pick them. Instead, to keep your luggage from opening inadvertently, use those plastic security ties that don't come off without cutting them. Then be sure you have the means of cutting them when you arrive. (And don't carry those means on your carry on, of course. Cutty things are a no no. Put them in the one pocket on your checked luggage that isn't secured by one of the ties.)

Of course you should not check valuables. Yes, there has been some theft by TSA employees, and the TSA is concerned and increasing security observation of TSA people handling checked luggage. But the theft risk by security employees or the airlines exists in any airport in the world. So protect yourself by not checking valuables.

Yes, we Americans are paranoid about people hijacking airplanes. We had a few people killed about two years ago by planes flying into buildings, remember? Hopefully you can keep your government from pissing people off so much that they would do such a thing to you.

[redrat]

...Yes, we Americans are paranoid about people hijacking airplanes. We had a few people killed about two years ago by planes flying into buildings, remember? Hopefully you can keep your government from pissing people off so much that they would do such a thing to you.

Gary, we as the flying public have no trouble with our memory. It's just that the USA went from the "security joke" to the "security nightmare". Other countries already had a semblance of security that tended to reassure most of us in the industry. However, travelling the US by air was a joke pre-911.
Everywhere around here flying internationally has only had to make a few changes when not travelling to the US but when you see the big screens and barricades and extra x-ray machines, you don't have to look at the gate to know it's a flight to the USA. :cry:

[straitman]

Re, shoes: Lately its a good idea to just take them off and put them through the x-ray. Could save you a full body search. I heard a TSA guy actually thank a patron for doing this.

Like everywhere else, if you treat the security staff like people and not just idiots you'll do alright. I have one pair of shoes that always sets off the scanners. Obvious answer -- don't wear them or take them off prior to going through security.

Remember the security people are doing the maximum job for minimum pay and with minimum training and are expected to appease all types of people including those who have been travelling for quite a while and are tired and grumpy. Largely they do a GREAT job

Let's all be friendly and co operative for them. It will, and does make a difference

[thadocta]

I sort of agree and disagree - when I am wearing my Yakka! boots (steel capped) I always take them off before going through security, as I *know* it will set off the alarm. Things like this are sensible, it pre-empts what will happen.

I won't take off kmy joggers though unless told to, and it hasn't happened yet.

As far as the situation goes in the US, I would have to agree that the situation prior to 11/9 was an absolute joke - people were able to get things onto aircraft which they never would have been able to do in Australia, most Asian cities or in Europe. The result was what we saw on 11/9.

The reaction of the US though was to go extremely overboard.

All they had to do was to drag their security arrangements up to what the rest of the world as already doing, and the situation would have been sweet.

But they chose not to do this, they went overbopard and created a situation which causes the maximum amount of inconvenience for the minimum gain.

I can understand how they could be paranoid, but they really should have looked at "Worlds Best Practice" and merely copied it. The situation in the US at the moment is far short of it.

Dave

[straitman]

I can understand how they could be paranoid, but they really should have looked at "Worlds Best Practice" and merely copied it. The situation in the US at the moment is far short of it.

As was demonstrated in the last week (or so) where someone managed to not only get on the wrong flight BUT the wrong flight AND the wrong airline. -- QANTAS instead of CATHAY I believe