L' Aviateur,
I understand your point of view and I sympathise with what you are saying, but after a number of years in the business, believe me, I can tell a disoriented passenger from a frequent traveller bloke who just wants to make a point. The main difference is that disoriented and unfamiliar passengers usually are confused about the rules and comply with them as soon as you tell them politely, no problems at all.
I can see that, obviously, the pax is just a childishly proud person who just wants to make clear that he wants me to consider him special and treat him as if he was a 'regular' celebrity. But, what if he was a DFT secret shopper testing my response to a breach of security regulations? I would have had my ID and my right to work at the airport removed. Rules are there to comply with them, even when we think of them as disproportionate. To be honest, I was concerned that it could have been a trial, as when the DFT tries to smuggle weapons through security, to check the quality of security procedures, but, nevertheless, a passenger who, despite reminding him of the regulations, INSISTS in leaving his bag unnatended at all costs (in an airport, of all places, a security sensitive building and also one infested by thiefs), is what, in the security training courses, is described as evident suspicious behaviour, and as such, even if I'm sure he is just being pedantic, my duty is to inform security.
It's like being between a rock and a hard place. Your company may have a go at you for delaying flights, but you could wind up in a much more serious situation for ignoring it, just because another know-all frequent traveller had to make a point and make clear that he is above the law. He carried the damned thing from home, and he is all inconvenienced by having to drag it twenty yards to the shop?
