9 ms·

The US is the only place I think I've had to remove shoes for flight security in years. But in Europe taking off a belt is often required while in the US it is

• j16sdiz 5y ago
  Taking belt off because it trip off the metal detector.
• 101008 5y ago
  I always though taking off a belt it was bcause if not the metal sensor would trigger, so to avoid it, they just ask to remove your belt in case it contains metal?
  • NikolaNovak 5y ago
    In Canada that's the case. But small belts can go through. So it depends on the security guard what exactly they ask you to do. I had purposefully bought a small belt that would not trigger alarm when I flew weekly pre-covid for years. No joy : Half the security guards told me to take it off as a precaution when I tried to go through, half would get upset I'm taking my small belt and delaying everyone - sometimes there's no winning, just say "yes sir/ma'am" to whatever they ask that particular day :-/
  • Tenoke 5y ago
    It is. I don't take off my belts with no metal parts in Europe and it's been fine. Once they even asked me and I said 'no metal' so they didn't press.
• NikolaNovak 5y ago
  "My biggest challenge over the years was remembering what to do in each place as the security people at the airports had a tendency to get upset if you didn't do it their preferred way." It can differ from airport to airport. I traveled from Ottawa to Toronto often enough for it to be mindless but differences between two national airports in same province of same country on same airline still caught me if I went too much on autopilot. And then I'd fly to Halifax and all my instincts went out the window :). Sometimes it'd differ shift to shift. Agents would get mad at me for taking or not taking tablet from my bag. Mentioning "your colleague instructed me otherwise, can you kindly confirm the rule so I can comply in future" only gets you marked as belligerent - the power trip is definitely there :-/
  • fouc 5y ago
    I'd stick with the more conservative measure, taking the tablet out all the time, even if it might not have been required. Also I wouldn't bother verbally responding if they ask me to do something, I'd just do it and keep my lips sealed.
    • gregmac 5y ago
      I've been yelled at for taking out things besides a laptop, including a tablet with a keyboard case. I'm not even clear what the issue was; it was just a general "don't take your tablet out!!" as if it was an obvious rule that anyone with common-sense would understand, and clearly I was a fool the agent had no time for.
    • lexapro 5y ago
      A simple "okay" followed by compliance also works.
    • NikolaNovak 5y ago
      Oh I would agree; if being conservative always worked - but my point is I've frequently been berated for taking a tablet out as well as for keeping it on at the same airport. I kind of understand overall - At a busy airport, being overly conservative (taking out tablets, shoes, belts, coins etc when not needed) can be seen as "wasting people's time". It's the inconsistency of rules and their application that sometimes bugs me - There's no 100% winning strategy.
  • anchpop 5y ago
    When I was flying back from Tampa, a TSA agent told me I had to take out my phone and put it through the scanner. I kept telling him I didn't have a phone on me, but he didn't believe me and asked me the same question about three more times. I was surprised he didn't search me haha. Not a big deal or anything, just thought it was funny
  • 908B64B197 5y ago
    Just ask in French. Then they'll most likely bring you to the only employee that's not a contractor.
• fma 5y ago
  Sometimes I get the magic "Pre-check" and I'd forget I don't need to take the laptop off, for example. I just try to look ahead and see what others are doing.
  • ctrlp 5y ago
    Pre-check screening is the EZPass of the security state. Exchange your privacy for convenience. Submit to a background probe and permanent residence in a government database (and god knows what other consents are required) and you, too, can join the upper tier of society. Leave the filthy plebes and their shoeless drudgery and pat-downs behind you as you ascend into the clear air of the Verified(TM) elite. You pose no threat, quite the opposite! You support and serve the power structure. Welcome aboard!
    • jdavis703 5y ago
      Aside from the interview, the government already has all the background check data in their databases already. It’s not like you’re applying for a security clearance where agents go around your friends, family and neighbors digging up undocumented dirt.
      • ctrlp 5y ago
        Do you know for a fact that your background screening does not now or will not ever include calling out to a social media extremist detection service? I'm not so confident.
        • jdavis703 5y ago
          I’m also not confident in that. But again, if someone has put me in an “extremist detection” database I’m already in the database and the government could already query it.
          • ctrlp 5y ago
            Would you like to be subject to Twitter's or Facebook's interpretation of extremist?
• angott 5y ago
  In Europe you're not required to take off your belt because of an arbitrary rule like shoes in the US. They just tell you to take it off because most belts have metal parts so they will likely trigger the metal detector.
  • dsauerbrun 5y ago
    I thought the shoes being taken off wasn't arbitrary. I thought it was because of the shoe bomber(Richard Reed)
    • curryst 5y ago
      It's arbitrary because all they do is X-ray them. X-rays can't tell you whether there are explosives in the shoe, all you can do is look for signs the shoe has been altered. I don't think that requirement would have stopped Richard Reid. Maybe someone notices that his shoes look a little odd under the X-ray, but with sports shoes coming with weird air pockets and Heelys existing, it's not that odd. It also slows down people moving through, making the security line a bigger target, and forces people to sit down just past security to put their shoes back on. Again, making the security line a much larger target. We'd be better off just forcing everyone to do the hand swabs. One airport I went through had some kind of machine that purportedly could detect trace explosives coming off your clothing or skin. Those would be way better, if they work.
      • lexapro 5y ago
        >We'd be better off just forcing everyone to do the hand swabs. That or detection dogs.
      • vkou 5y ago
        > We'd be better off just forcing everyone to do the hand swabs. One airport I went through had some kind of machine that purportedly could detect trace explosives coming off your clothing or skin. Those would be way better, if they work. I've gone through that machine six times, in one trip. Something in my backpack set it off, so they kept running swabs over and over again until the light went green. It was an utter waste of time for everyone involved. The fools patted me down five times, looked through all my things, ran them through the x-ray machines, and can clearly see that all I have is the clothes on my back, a laptop, and two changes of clothes. But they won't let me through the security line until their magical explosive scanning oracle shows a green light. As if anything about the risk I pose to a flight fundamentally changed between the first swab and search, and the sixth. The best part is they were asking me what is causing it to go off. Why are you asking me? I don't know a god-damned thing about your magical black box.
• dsomers 5y ago
  Counterpoint, I was once asked to take off my shoes in Germany. I can’t remember if it was Frankfurt or Munich — probably Frankfurt. That was just because I was randomly selected for more screening. All of the other times flying through those airports shoes were left on :-)
• gruturo 5y ago
  The belt thing is supposedly because metal buckles will trigger the metal detector... but they insist I take off mine even though I bought one with a plastic buckle on purpose. So yeah, it now became "a rule" which is followed without much reasoning.
  • PartiallyTyped 5y ago
    Same reason we take our shoes off in Europe, plastic shoes? no problem, but god forbid boots with metallic straps for the laces.
  • ziml77 5y ago
    It's a rule because it makes it easier to keep things flowing. You don't have to trust that the person is right about their belt not being able to set off the metal detector.
• xur17 5y ago
  > My biggest challenge over the years was remembering what to do in each place as the security people at the airports had a tendency to get upset if you didn't do it their preferred way. Exactly this. I'm sure to the security people, it feels obvious since it's what they do every day for hours consistently, but I agree that the inconsistency is very frustrating.
  • C19is20 5y ago
    Hands behind your back Hands up Keep your hands where i can see them .....etc
• Scoundreller 5y ago
  Then there’s remembering airports (and flight patterns) that do “one-stop-security” and which don’t. London Heathrow doesn’t. They re-screen all incoming international passengers, so that 500mL bottle of contact lens solution that the ultra-paranoid Americans allow me to carry-on gets seized by Heathrow when transiting there. I’d think if the UK disagrees with another country’s rules, they should just ban flights from there. If it’s safe enough for me to fly in with, it should be safe enough for me to fly out with.
  • AniseAbyss 5y ago
    The airport staff must be making millions from all the leftover deodorant alone. I just take it all in stride and try to remain Zen when I'm flying thinking about a hot shower and a beer at the hotel.
• mekoka 5y ago
  I've had to take my shoes off in a few other places, including in Ethiopia and a few places in S.E. Asia. But I confirm that the US takes things to a level beyond anything anywhere I've been, with some airports being worst than others. Nowadays when I buy plane tickets, I usually try to avoid any transit through LGA or JFK.
• hermannj314 5y ago
  There is an impatience mismatch between the average traveler and airport security. Flying out of Philly Airport, the TSA yelled at everyone to take off their belt and shoes, shaking their head in disbelief at people that didn't know the rules, wasting everyone's time. A few months later, same airport, new rules, now the TSA yelled at people taking off their belts and shoes because that's not a rule, shaking their head at people wasting everyone's time. When you work at any job you tend toward assuming all people are as knowledgeable about the 'obvious' things, it is a tough skill to remain empathetic. I fly maybe 3 times a year. A security agent will process a few thousand people a shift. We are each bringing a different patience threshold to the interaction.
  • chucksta 5y ago
    The Philly airport employees are some of the least hospitable I've encountered traveling, especially their TSA. They come off as actively hostile about everything
    • svachalek 5y ago
      Interesting, I have not spent a whole lot of time in Philadelphia but that describes my experience everywhere there, seemed like everyone is always angry and impatient with me before I even start to interact. (Kind of like the NYC stereotype, which I encounter only rarely when I visit NYC.) But TSA in general is tough to deal with, I fly once sometimes twice in a year and the rules are different every time but they're shocked and appalled I'm not up to date.
    • zactato 5y ago
      Yeah I think this is more of a Philly thing than a TSA thing.
      • chucksta 5y ago
        Agreed. I was going to add that,but didn't want to be flippant. Although I still think the airport is particularly bad
    • 5y ago
• belkinpower 5y ago
  > My biggest challenge over the years was remembering what to do in each place as the security people at the airports had a tendency to get upset if you didn't do it their preferred way. For as much as I complain about security theater and think they’re mostly useless, this is genuinely my biggest issue with TSA. It’s wildly inconsistent, there’s insufficient signage, and they act like you’re an idiot if you haven’t correctly guessed what today’s rules are.
  • heleninboodler 5y ago
    Two weeks ago in San Diego, the security line forked into two conveyor belt lines. I walked past the first option (the second had a shorter line), and as I did, the guy stationed there was loudly shouting to the whole line that all electronic devices bigger than a cell phone must be removed from bags. I proceeded to the second line, where I got scolded for taking my laptop out of my bag. I gestured to the other guy and said "he told us all electronic items bigger than a cell phone should be removed." The response? "That's that line, this is this line." This is my biggest complaint too. The entire idiotic process would be a lot more efficient if they just had consistent expectations and a consistent process so we could all just comply without having to clarify things or being told we're doing it wrong. Also, could they please give us a reasonable place to move our stuff to while we put our shoes on so we're not holding up the line?
• scanny 5y ago
  Had to do it (removing shoes) yesterday going from Amsterdam to Edinburgh. Seems less common but it happens still.