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Can we use this as a place to tell stories about how travel was better ‘back in the day’? Here’s mine. Back in the late 90s/early 00s I worked for the British

Can we use this as a place to tell stories about how travel was better ‘back in the day’? Here’s mine. Back in the late 90s/early 00s I worked for the British Council. I travelled the world with a pack of Windows NT 4.0 CDs upgrading their servers. I was in my early 20s. They flew us Business. It was quite a thing. I’ll never stop appreciating how lucky I was, it was the time of my life. This was pre-9/11, so security was … lax? I remember there being two lines at Heathrow: British, and not. (There were probably three: British, EU, other. Anyway.) So you’d fly in from some really random place – I mean Kosovo, Ukraine, Nigeria, Colombia – and you’d walk through the ‘British’ line. You’d get to the guy checking passports and, I shit you not, he’d have his feet up on the desk and he’d be reading The Sun. (Terrible tabloid newspaper.) Scores of British people would walk down that corridor holding their passports up, photo page presented, three abreast, and the guy would occasionally look up from the paper to check nothing too untoward was going on. Good times.

brotheradam 5y ago
Had similar experiences back then. I once flew from San Francisco to Frankfurt, and we were stopped by security because my brother had handcuffs in his baggage. (toys from Alcatraz sold as Souvenirs, but they were made of metal and looked quite real). Can you imagine what would happen today if security found handcuffs in your bags at the air port? Back then, they smiled and put them back after my brother explained they were just toys. Unbelievable today.
- hulitu 5y ago
  > Can you imagine what would happen today if security found handcuffs in your bags at the air port? Back then, they smiled and put them back after my brother explained they were just toys. Unbelievable today. So you are trying to tell us not to take our sex toys to the airport. The world just got thougher.
- irrational 5y ago
  I’d just say I’m going to visit my girlfriend and she is going to use them on me. [Wink]
midasuni 5y ago
That’s not security, that’s immigration I went on a school trip from Manchester to Austria in 1995 and set of the metal detector with my tin foil wrapped sandwiches. Very little difference between that security and the process I had at Heathrow earlier this month. About 10 years ago was good in the U.K., arrive at heathrow, walk through Iris, job done. Now there’s no fast track arrivals for frequent flyers, and while someone travelling once a year doesn’t mind waiting at immigration for half an hour, when you doing it every week being able to whiz through is very beneficial. Hot tip: Never fly into Dulles, immigration can take upto 2 hours (pre covid). Fly into and out of BWI instead. IAD has better facilities on the way out, but takes longer to get through the airport.
andruby 5y ago
Relatable story here about security. My dad is a pilot, and pre 9/11, I would sometimes join him as a kid on flights from Europe to the US. I still vividly remember walking with a backpack behind my dad in pilot uniform trough all the US airport "security" without them checking anything. Fast forward several months after 9/11: even the pilot had to take off his shoes and get them checked. Flying really was amazing and luxurious in the 90'ies. On the other hand: the price has gone down a lot making flying a lot more accessible.

brotheradam 5y ago

Had similar experiences back then. I once flew from San Francisco to Frankfurt, and we were stopped by security because my brother had handcuffs in his baggage. (toys from Alcatraz sold as Souvenirs, but they were made of metal and looked quite real). Can you imagine what would happen today if security found handcuffs in your bags at the air port? Back then, they smiled and put them back after my brother explained they were just toys. Unbelievable today.

hulitu 5y ago
> Can you imagine what would happen today if security found handcuffs in your bags at the air port? Back then, they smiled and put them back after my brother explained they were just toys. Unbelievable today. So you are trying to tell us not to take our sex toys to the airport. The world just got thougher.
irrational 5y ago
I’d just say I’m going to visit my girlfriend and she is going to use them on me. [Wink]

midasuni 5y ago

That’s not security, that’s immigration I went on a school trip from Manchester to Austria in 1995 and set of the metal detector with my tin foil wrapped sandwiches. Very little difference between that security and the process I had at Heathrow earlier this month. About 10 years ago was good in the U.K., arrive at heathrow, walk through Iris, job done. Now there’s no fast track arrivals for frequent flyers, and while someone travelling once a year doesn’t mind waiting at immigration for half an hour, when you doing it every week being able to whiz through is very beneficial. Hot tip: Never fly into Dulles, immigration can take upto 2 hours (pre covid). Fly into and out of BWI instead. IAD has better facilities on the way out, but takes longer to get through the airport.

andruby 5y ago

Relatable story here about security. My dad is a pilot, and pre 9/11, I would sometimes join him as a kid on flights from Europe to the US. I still vividly remember walking with a backpack behind my dad in pilot uniform trough all the US airport "security" without them checking anything. Fast forward several months after 9/11: even the pilot had to take off his shoes and get them checked. Flying really was amazing and luxurious in the 90'ies. On the other hand: the price has gone down a lot making flying a lot more accessible.