First off, I'm surprised that the flight originated from Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. I've flown through that airport many times and I've always been impressed by the security procedures. Rather than having huge security lineups at the terminal entrances, the main security checks are done at the gates. Before going through the metal detectors and carry-on baggage scanners, passengers are treated to a short interview with a professional and polite passenger screener. They ask basic questions about where you've been and where you're going and why. I've never been asked more than the basics, but I assume that if the answers don't make sense or you appear nervous or distracted, more questions are asked. It's always seemed to me to be a good system that I wish would be instituted in the US.
I also wonder what it takes to be deemed to be a terrorist threat. If you make a dumb joke about bombs at an airline checkpoint you won't get on the plane, but if you're own father suspects you're a terrorist and warns the authorities; you buy a one-way ticket with cash and don't check any bags for a trans-Atlantic flight; and you spend time in al Qaeda-infested Yemen, you're good to go. Apparently this guy's name was added to the terrorist watch list, but there are already 500,000 names on that list and the airlines don't have access to it anyway. So go figure.
So what should we do? Invade Yemen? That would help about as much as our ongoing war in Afghanistan.
In any case, I braved the new and makeshift international flight security procedures yesterday at the Edmonton International airport so I could fly back home to Seattle. Normally international passengers are supposed to be at the airport at least two hours before flight time, but I couldn't find any information on the new procedures, so we arrived about 2-1/2 hours before flight time. We were greeted by a packed terminal with indeterminate lines. After standing in two of the wrong lines for a while, we were directed to the proper line by a sweet older woman who an airport hospitality volunteer. (Why anyone would volunteer to be yelled at by irate and harried passengers at an airport is beyond me!) Once in the proper line, we discovered that it wasn't moving at all because no one was at the Alaska/Horizon desk. So much for arriving early!
But arriving early did have its benefits. We were fairly close to the front of the line, so when it did start moving, we got through fairly quickly. I would normally have carried on my bag, but no carry-ons were allowed at all, so I had to check it. At least I didn't get hit with the $15 checked bag fee, but I found out later that I should have been charged. (Now it's all making sense. This is an al Qaeda plot to increase airline revenues!) Once past the ticket counter, it was on to security. Every pocket was emptied, every shoe was examined, and everyone was frisked. Oddly enough, my crotch wasn't frisked even though I've read that the Nigerian wannabe bomber had the explosives sewn into his underwear. Then it was on to immigration pre-clearance. (For all you American potatoes who've never left your couches, on flights from Canada to the USA, American agents pre-clear passengers in Canada so they don't have to clear customs at the US airport) There was nothing special there at all there. No additional questions, no piercing looks in the eye. The US immigration agents were as bored and disengaged as ever.
And then we were in the departure lounge, and the plane was more or less on time! I had been mentally prepared to stifle a crappy mood for hours, but in the end, those mental gymnastics weren't necessary. All things considered, the return trip home wasn't really too bad at all.
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