2007-Dec-20 - Welcome to Fortress America
After having spent time in several airport, train, ferry and bus departure lounges over the last few months, I didnt think boarding for Toronto in Frankfurt would be all that differnt ... how wrong I was. This flight was going to Toronto via Chicago and I had presumed that it would be a mere hop off in to the transit lounge in Chicago, a bit of a wait, and then back on to the connecting flight to Toronto ... how wrong I was again. The first flight terminated in the USA so it was the full security thing at both ends before getting into Canada.
In Frankfurt the ticket said to allow 90 min for security etc but it took just on 2 hrs!! If it had been a renactment of Rigar I would have been well out of luck. Before you can get a boarding pass for American Airlines you are subjected to a "stern" scrutiny with a pre-booking check. Here I was quizzed about the usual things like, did you pack your bags, are you carrying anything for someone else etc; then a level up, with questions such as how did you get to the airport, can you prove that, did you let anyone carry your bags in the airport and so on; till the next level of questions - where have you been in the last six months, CAN YOU PROVE THAT, why did you visit those PARTICULAR country's, how can you afford to do that, why do you not have an itinery (ahhh I booked it my self - "Really??") - and this is only the precheck!! Before I was allowed to the ticket desk I had to show some proof of BEING in those other country's. Jokingly I said I have a "scrapbook" - that tomb of papers Ive been carting around and now weighing in at 5kgs lol - and she said "Yes that would be appropriate!". So I had to open up my nicely packed backpack and get the thing out, which she took into a back office and showed to her supervisor. What a process. Im not sure what would have happened if I had no proof of where Id been. And this is the process the 300 odd people boarding go thru.
Getting the ticket was fine and then it was off to the "security" check and x-rays. This, and the friendliness of it, has varied from airport to airport with the time taken from a couple of minutes through to nearly a quarter of an hour - some make you remove your boots and belt, others dont, some have picked up my asthma puffer with the metal detector, some havent, most want the laptop screened seperatley but some havent even appeared to notice it, some subject you to a patting down while others just get you to walk through the metal detector, however ALL have picked up my souviner solid brass buddah (meaning that I have to empty my day pack out each time and repack it!) BUT NONE have picked up the metal "flash drives" I keep around my neck. Hmmm is this a concern or not lol.
Arrival in most of the European ports was generally a quick glance at you and the passport and then sometimes a stamp, although in Portugal and returning to Germany, there were no boarder controls at all. Fortress USA is different however. Reasonably quick admittedly but they now have my digital photo and index finger prints on file! All for a 2 hour stop over. Here though, in the Chicago Airport, was the most meticulous security check to catch the local flight to Toronto!! Once again they had a pre-check before the security check, with a wait of 20 min, although there were few questions this time. The guy in front of me ( an American teenager) had an expired ID card and was therefore subjected to an "extensive" security check which appeared to be everything but an internal search. Im sure he didnt look all that different from the pic on his "old" student card ending last month.
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