Stansted Security -Plastic Bag "Advisory"
 

I'm all for security and common sense checks - it's accepted as part of flying life.
I now have to travel through Stansted airport every week. Shown below is text relating to how liquids are to be carried on board in hand-luggage. It is copied direct from the Stansted website:

"...They must be carried separately in a single bag which is:
Transparent and resealable
No larger than 20cm x 20cm (8in x 8in)
Able to close properly with all the items inside...."

My plastic bag, which I have used without any problem since these regulations came into force and for the last four months travelling weekly through Stansted, was today held up by a security person and proclaimed "unallowable". The reason? It is zipped shut which apparently, is now "verboten". So p****d- off was I at this latest piece of ignorance and stupidity, which cost me a rather nice xmas pressie smellies bottle from my Mum, I counted to ten and made my way to the control desk. The resident uniformed person gave me an unctuous explanation about how the new test was: "the bag must be able to be pressed together with no air being obviously expelled".
As one can see from the above text, no such test is mentioned on the website.
Will this madness ever stop?

I'd highly recommend writing a letter, the whole idea of the plastic bag is so that the items are visible. You've not detracted from that.
Would be interesting to see what the final answer is about that.

Zip up transparent cases such as pencil cases (which I used for years) have been banned for crews at Gatwick for a few months now.

When I queried this I was told that they would be banned for passengers in the near future

OK, I'll volunteer to ask the dumb question:- If sealing the plastic bag with a zipper (where a ridge is pressed between two others and has been the standard way of sealing plastic bags for two decades or more) HOW do they want the bag sealed?

Since they state "Able to close properly with all the items inside...." are they happy with a twist closure? ANY method of sealing a plastic bag will expel air. Since you are standing over it, any malign substance would affect you as well.

Sheesh.

A perfectly airtight, resealable clear plastic bag...are they having a giraffe? :ugh:

Write them a letter and ask what they actually mean , then let the rest if us know cos I'm sure if STN do it today the other BAA places will be doing it soon and I can't figure what plastic bag would actually fit that description.

Utterly moronic. However the one good thing about BAA and Gatwick is the free bag they hand out before security. I grabbed five ages ago and still use the first.

I've never put my insulin in a plastic bag and nobody has ever said anything - Sweden, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, US, Spain, Canary Islands LHR or LGW or dununda or in Singapore. I will avoid Stansted, Birmingham and Manchester though because of their reputations.

Political Masters
 

I would suggest that an enquiry of the Minister with DIRECT responsibility for said regulations, copied to his/her Opposition counterpart and your local MP and perhaps even the MP for Stansted is called for

If nothing else you may get four pieces of toilet paper in return ;):D

PZULBA - Out of Africa (Retired)

I have written a polite note to Stansted Customer Relations asking why and when this requirement was imposed. In addition, I have asked why the requirement is not specified on their official website

I will post the reply here when I get it ;)

More lunacy from the authorities of 'Monkey Island', as the UK is lovingly known in much of Europe.

The requirement has *always* been there since the liquid ban was introduced.

All liquids to be placed in a resealable bag whose dimesnsions are prescribed and must be of clear plastic. It doesn't matter under the rules that you have one item that is < 100ml as the rules say they must be in the bag above. The facr that some airports are lax on the rules the DFT brought in is also of some minor concern. How hard is it to put your gear into one bag, picked up free from any BAA airport?

Being called "monkey island" from an economic basket case like Portugal isn't quite as clever as you might wish mon ami. Has the IMF pitched up yet?

Um.. you might like to check the veracity of that statement re BAA Stansted...

Well as least we have nice weather :E

Skipness One Echo : Pot ... kettle .... black?

I spend a fair amount of time in Portugal and in most respects it compares more than favourably with the UK. It may not have a great economy but the UK's is not exactly in great shape either.

Service delivery and the infrastructure in Portugal are possibly not as sophisticated as the UK but things work better, people are a damn sight more pleasant and relaxed, there is relatively little crime outside of certain areas which are know to be dodgy, meals in restaurants are good and inexpensive, and generally things work. If I had a free choice between living in GB or Portugal ... it wouldn't be GB!

Just before this gets nasty, the UK is known as 'Monkey Island' by many Europeans, due to many things that appear very strange to outsiders, such as this latest STN action.

Monkey Island was a very popular computer game, where the hero had to work his way though a mysterious environment, to win the heart of his beloved.

So it is not intended to be nasty and my use reflects the trouble Strake encountered in getting a reasonable explanation.

Absolutely right, please accept my apologies, I should know better.
Enough of the monkeying about.....

I haven't flown through STN since October. Have they begun charging?
LGW was free last week, (ex BAA I know), LHR free too.

Skipness

No apology needed, I had assumed that the M.I. joke was common knowledge in the UK, as well, but it obviously is not and could sound rude without context.

I thought your reply was quite funny.

Plastic bags were free at STN last month ..

JdS I've lived in the UK a fair old while and never heard the M.I. ref. When I heard it, I thought of Gibraltar, even though it's not an island, but it has monkeys.

Personally, I think it's very funny to think of Europeans referring to us in that way. We are a nation that is changing fairly rapidly, both over the last 50 years and in the next 50 I'm sure. No nation can back to what it was - although many say they want that perceived security and many politicians say that they will provide it. Naturally, it is impossible and so we get an even stranger mess!

PAXboy.............

They are actually APES (Barbary) on LXGB not monkeys!!:ok:

Got bit by one when posted out there:}

VEEPS