Oddities of transatlantic air travel
November 30, 2007
I’ve just flown back to Pennsylvania from England and I must tell you about a couple of curious things about the trip.
First, there’s frankly bizarre regulations which allow anyone flying from the USA to the UK to take a laptop on the plane along with a carry-on bag – yet when you fly back home from the UK to the USA the same hand baggage will not be allowed on the plane! You’ll have to get the laptop inside the carrt-on bag – and throw something away to make it fit if necessary. In fact if you want to take a plastic bag with a book in it on to the plane they won’t let you take anything else. Just one bag of any kind. Stuff the book inside your shirt and nobody cares. [I should say that this rule is supposed to be changed from January 2008 - we shall see...]
Even more bizarre… Try to take a knife through the security check and on to the plane and the alarm bells ring. But along with my lunch I was handed a stainless steel knife, fork and spoon.
We all appreciate the need for security, but can’t it at least be consistent?
And... I almost forgot this one. I put three bars of the new British dark chocolate Kit-Kats (delicious!) in one of the suitcases for my wife and friend to try. When I unpacked, one of the cases had been very obviously gone through and two of the Kit-Kats had gone!