Hi Mike, I had no difficulties arriving in the UK on September 27. I carried a CompuTrekker AW with laptop, all my photo gear, a new hard drive and RAM for my friend on the IoM, and picked up my checked rollaway carrying clothes and portfolios of photographs, etc. I didn't carry liquids or pastes onto the plane. Customs guided me past the inspection point.
The only thing that cheesed me off was the British Air flight from Luton to Douglas. I'd called ahead and had been told in no uncertain terms that I would only be allowed one carryon of the specified size, nothing strapped to the outside, which effectively made it impossible to carry my tripod. At Luton, as I'm queuing for the gate, I see someone on the line in front of me with his huge rollaway getting on board along with five clothing bags. I mentioned it to the gate personnel ... "Oh, we'd let you through with your tripod strapped to the carryon bag, that's all right." Grr. Just shows that enforcement of these "security" measures is haphazard at best. Godfrey On Oct 25, 2006, at 1:14 AM, mike wilson wrote: > Hi, > > It appears that security at airports for flights coming into the UK > (and, presumably, the US) has been tightened even further. There > is now an extra level of securuty search at the gate and it is > exceedingly thorough. All pockets emptied, everything examined > minutely, all electronic equipment made to function, batteries > removed and inspected, lenses looked through. (Might be an > opportunity for a resurgence of film, there, as the border guard > was very meticulous in looking at both DSLRs and Dcompacts. Film > cameras can be opened completely.) > > In addition, you are not allowed to take any liquid or semi liquid > on board in hand baggage. Even stuff you have just purchased in > duty free. That caused a few tantrums. > > I was lucky. My flight was early, transport to the airport > dictated that I arrived at the beginning of checkin and was able to > talk to the guy in the dutyfree shop and discover that I would lose > anything I purchased. (This is not as unfair as it sounds; there > were continual tannoy announcements that I would be unable to take > liquids on board and it was when I queried if this included duty > free that I found out that it does.) As there was nothing to do I > went straight to the gate, where I met the search team. Of the 170 > + who were supposed to be on my flight, 90 made it through the gate > before it closed. And we had to battle through people who had > missed previous flights. > > mike -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
