Years before 9/11 I tried to accompany my 8 yr. old son through the then less restrictive pax security at Terminal 3 - he was flying with me. The Jobsworth refused my entry, telling me that I had to use a distant crew gate where all I needed was an ID pass, no crew invasive search in those days.
I watched my son go through, then shouted to him to remain where he was, and ultimately rejoined him on the other side. I then went back to the passenger jobsworth and told him that I could have gone down to the ground, walked across to my aircraft, climbed the stairs and walked back through the passenger channels and .... hit him from the other side.
A Colleague took his wife in a crew car which went through the staff tunnel on the other, cargo, side of Heathrow, and she was denied passage by another jobsworth, no amount of explanation, or sight of her ticket and passport satisfied this clown, and eventually he complained that the crew car was blocking the coach from Woking station, which operated a rail/air link in those days. He then said that the wife had to get out of the car, into the bus, go through the tunnel, then get out of the bus and back into the car ! This is what she had to do.
Had I still been flying I would have been in Guantanamo Bay in an orange jump suit years ago, I couldn't have put up with all this nonsense that crew have to put up with, who are then given a multi-million pound flying bomb to do what they like with - Germanair, anyone ?
I wouldn't mind if it was all doing some good, but we all know that the Bad Boys will do precisely what they want to do, precisely when they want to do it.
Best of Luck, World's Gone Mad.
I then called from home twice - one yes, one no
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Standard practice, ask two people and get four answers. Those Of A Certain Age need no longer remove shoes departing USA airports now. Recently at LAX an over large, female, African American - that'll upset the sexist, racist, fatty fluffy-huggers, but is a statement of fact - ordered me to remove my shoes, I refused on the grounds that I was over 75, as per the large, posted, notice - can't she read ? No, she said, that's for Domestic flights, you're International, get 'em off. I chose not to say, Ah ! the notice doesn't say that, so it's OK for geriatrics to shoe-bomb Domestic flights but not International ones, then ? ( see my remarks about G/Bay ! ) I subsequently sought out her supervisor who agreed with me that she was wrong - but no apology.