Comments on: Back from Seattle

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 01:48:48 +0000

Our country is getting far too foolishly conservative when it comes to airline travel. It’s no secret that they profile travellers, and any foreigner is automatically suspicious and much more likely to be selected for special screening. And by “much more likely” I mean “100% more likely”.

By: Ignas Mikalajūnas

Ignas Mikalajūnas — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:45:00 +0000

Most of the time it's not the passport - it's the ticket, airlines do at least a big part in the screening selection process (they are the ones who have all your ticket data after all). And the best way to get yourself extra checked is to book a one way flight with 6-7 friends :D

a nice article about how things work

By: Tom Higgins

Tom Higgins — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:27:00 +0000

I (an American) was lucky enough to get that extra special treatment when departing the US once. They gave all my electronic stuff (iPod, laptop, digital camera) a good going through, swiping it with some wad of fabric to check for explosives. They asked loads of questions about where I was going and why, double-checking my passport, etc.

That having been said, the vast majority of those that get the special treatment seem to be foreigners on the way out of the US, so I’d say it’s 80% “you look strange or your passport looks strange” and 20% “let’s check this random sucker”.

By: NeARAZ

NeARAZ — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:54:00 +0000

It was pretty good. I did not have much stuff, but they looked through all of it, opened the camera and laptop, checked with some sort of devices etc.

The question for me is whether the criteria for screening is random, or “we’ll just check everyone with strange passport or whatever”.

By: nerius

nerius — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:26:00 +0000

The big question is… how throughout was the “additional screening”? ;)