Alcohol
 

Why is alcohol (or the lack of it's availability) such a big thing? Is it necessary, or even desirable, to drink whilst flying (as a passenger!)? A dry flight, with no a@ses getting ratted may be a blessing!

As regards headscarves, when you look at TV news footage of Tehran streets, what passes for a headscarf seems to be observed pretty liberally in many cases, especially amongst younger women.

I have two passports, and there is no way the Yank's are going to check everywhere I'm going to. They can imagine they are at the centre of the world, but they aren't - it would be time for them to acnowledge reality.
My country is not going to communicate to anybody all my passports details, and if things are properly segregated, all will be fine. I always show certain passport for certain countries, and when going to US I always show the "clean" one, with a beautiful US visa in the middle of a lot of virgin pages.
At worst they will ban me from their country - and so what ? I have been there sufficiently enough, the rest of the world is big enough for me.
And if they qustion me too hard, I will show them the pictures of me flying and getting qualified on the F16 in the USAF, or pictures of PSAB in the 90s...
Long life to A380 in Iran Air livery.
I'm just writing this from cold Moscow, as an example.

No, what you mean is being called "western values" :}

Contributing further to the thread drift. Where does the assumption that Iran Air has to be dry come from?

The other 3 ME carriers all serve alcohol, on board and in lounges, including during Ramadan. Although the carrier who shall not be named on this site removes alcohol from display in lounges during daylight hours.
The law in Iran permits non-Muslims from importing and drinking alcohol.

Quote:
Not that Christians can ever be accused of hypocrisy, right?

Pretty naive comment.

Of course Christians are capable of hypocrisy but they don't practice it on a global scale under government supervision!

I can sit here and give examples of hypocrisy I encountered during 40 years of travelling around the world and in particular to Muslim countries.

The people who keep the casinos in business in London are the same ones who ban gambling in their own country. And I mean the rulers.

Saudis who complain if the champagne is no chilled enough or the lack of Black label Scotch:ok:

It doesn't have to be dry but it is dry and given the current government it will remain dry in the foreseeable future. You are right in saying that Christians for example can drink in Iran and I know from first hand knowledge that there is a thriving black market in imported booze as well as a lot of underground home made alcohol.

Alcohol isn't the be all and end all of travel but its availability sends a message to the travelling world which improves its attractiveness. Personally I don't drink when I fly but I do buy duty free for gifts and personal use. The duty free shopping in Iran's international airports is somewhat limited and pales into insignificance in comparison to Dubai or Turkey. That difference will act as a disincentive to travel via Iran as much as anything else.

Please tell me your tongue is firmly in your cheek?

Shall we speak of our relationship with the Saudis? The Iraq war? What of our support of democracy in selected countries, except when, for example, the Muslim Brotherhood is elected?

We in the west, sir, are every bit as hypocritical as everyone else! :} and it's definitely on a global scale under government supervision.

Alcohol availability:

I have seriously decrease its consumption to a drink or two on a three hour flight and if I had a drink on the airport I stick to the tomato juice that I think it is a fabulous drink to have while flying. However if the drinks were not available I would avoid flying in that airline - usually a second time the first would be out of curiosity.

The NSA knows where everyone is, just ask Eric Snowden as you are both enjoying Moscow together.

We are the center (fixed spelling for you) of the world, it is time you acknowledged that!

PS All in good fun :O

Is it possible that US spies pay off immigration officials in Khartoum/Tehran/Havana etc to supply them with a regular list of names of US citizens and foreigners who visit those countries ?

With today technology you do not need to do that. Every time your passport is scanned by immigration, your data goes into a data base and checked against various things Accessing this data base by the US can be voluntary ( Agreement between foreign services), or non-voluntary ( e.g scandal in Germany 2 years ago) .
When you board an Iran air flight today from Europe-Shengen ( or any other flight going to Iran, Syria or Iraq,) your get a separate immigration pre-boarding check which includes pass port scan. Same when you come back.
I would not bet much on believing this info stays firmly in the departure airport in the Country of boarding/arrival.

I am not at all a fan of this US anti-terrorist paranoia , but hey, in the end, if you want (or need) to go to the US you follow their rules or you stay home .

Agreed about the A380 in Iran Air livery. However I think your pics on F16 and USAF the US authorities would get super-excited and not in a good way.

There was an Iran Air A340 on a remote stand at LGW last week, brand new paint job.

ATC Watcher, the PNR message sent by the airlines don't reflect passenger transit airports, only departure and destination. There is no requirement for transit passengers to pass immigration control and have the passport inspected, hence they won't be logged. So, for example, a flight was routing SYD-DUB-LHR with pax A going SYD-DUB and pax B going SYD-LHR; the message to Dubai would only contain pax A and to the USA only pax B. Pax B as a transit pax would not go through passport control at DUB and their passport would not be scanned, hence no record.

The only way of the USA knowing would be to have access to hack access to all encrypted databases world-wide to see who was on all flights, be aware of the routes and transit points of all such flights and interpolate to infer who had transited through where.

"The only way of the USA knowing would be to have access to hack access to all encrypted databases world-wide to see who was on all flights, be aware of the routes and transit points of all such flights and interpolate to infer who had transmitted through where."

Which is the sort of thing the NSA does.

At the behest of my employer I submitted my USA crew visa renewal application a couple of months ago. In an effort to avoid being approved I named every ****ty tinpot totalitarian wartorn ISIS-loving Bin Laden-cheering country (plus Iran) I could think of as having been recently visited on work trips.

End result - I'm now the proud holder of a USA crew visa and will be rostered accordingly. They don't care.

Having been there it's not such a bad place and the people are generally pretty nice when they're not raving. They just need to get over this thing with alcohol.

From what I understand, its about 1% of the population are lunatics and the rest wish to be more western than those of us in the west. The general population are certainly far more cultured and well educated than our oiks in the UK or rednecks in the USA.