Security
Have just completed a trip around the world as SLF with She Who Must Be Obeyed. Hand luggage included a back pack with two camera bodies, assorted lenses, batteries, memory cards, chargers and leads. This pack regularly travels with me long and short haul.
SWMBO is an attractive middle aged woman. Her hand baggage, as usual, contained liquids properly packed and sized as per the rules, a Kindle an Android tablet and an i-Pad. She also wears ear rings in pierced ears, a watch with metal wristband and a bracelet, the last two go in the x- ray tray.
This is how we fared:
Shannon: polite staff, no queries re camera gear, no problems. Standard for Shannon, sometimes get comments on my 500mm lens from screeners interested in photography. No problem for SWMBO
Heathrow T3: Rudely told by male security while in the line that my back pack looked heavy and it must be unpacked for x-ray. When I pointed out it weighed just 7 kg to meet cabin baggage limits for some of the airlines we would be travelling on and it was camera gear, was told all items needed individual x-ray as lenses often don't show up if packed together. This is a new one on me. Regularly transit T5 and T1 with little bother other than brusque or rude staff. Result, a long delay as I had to unpack, causing the line to be held up plus delay and annoyance due to repacking. Wife singled out for thorough explosive sniffer test.
There were three staff with clip boards overseeing this machine and the one adjacent. A case of cause and effect?
Hong Kong: Polite but wife's small ear rings set off arch alarm. Subjected to wand check by a male. No pat down as no female staff close by.
Singapore: No problems. Polite and efficient
Melbourne: No problems.
Alice Springs: No problems.
Cairns: Wife given wand check even though arch did not sound alert. Male staff and very chatty.
Sydney: No problems.
Australian airports generally seemed alert, friendly and efficient. Guess the guy at Cairns was bored.
Auckland: No problems on two trips through security. Wife left Kindle in bag in error on one trip. Not queried.
Rarotonga: Extremely slow due to only one machine for a full B777. Had to open camera bag after x-ray but didn't have to unload.
Orlando: No problems other than slow lines.
Regularly use US airports and the much maligned TSA seem to be getting more polite. IAH is particularly pleasant when boarding for London.
Having spent much of the 1990s organising and running aviation security conferences sponsored by governments, the equipment manufacturers and the airline industry, I find the attitude of the security staff at UK airports generally rates from poor to appalling. If you ask a question, query a decision or are overheard commenting to a fellow traveller about your experience, you are immediately treated with suspicion and singled out for special treatment. It seems to me that some staff make things up as they go along knowing that they have the whip hand.