Stansted Airport's 1 Pound Plastic Bag Rip-Off

MarkBargain

My fianc!e took some liquids through Stansted Airport security today, just five little bottles of normal cosmetics all under 100ml. She put them in a little plastic bag and they were fed into the x-ray machine fine.

At the other end, a Stansted employee took the little bottles out of the bag and told my fianc!e she would have to pay a pound to buy a little 20cm x 20cm plastic resealable bag, otherwise the cosmetics would not be returned. The lady could see they were normal cosmetics, they had already been x-rayed, but because we hadn't paid Stansted Airport a pound she would not let them through.

Has this happened to anyone else? It seems outrageous to me. They used to give plastic bags away, but imagine now how much they are making. A pound buys four plastic bags, it is not possible to buy one. I expect they cost about a penny to produce, or less than that.

scope

more like 30 bags for a pound if its the standard resealable bags everybody use in the kitchen they used to hand out before. Never seen this before, and it that story is true its outrageous.

flashg67

The bag has to be clear & within size limits I think - is it possible the bag you originally used was the wrong size/type?

tanith

The bag has to be resealable maybe that was the problem..

2sides2everystory

scope wrote: »

more like 30 bags for a pound if its the standard resealable bags everybody use in the kitchen they used to hand out before. Never seen this before, and it that story is true its outrageous.

The story is true. I use Stansted a lot. I took great satisfaction in interjecting on a very similar conversation a couple of months ago and magicking a spare from my own bag to give the poor unfortunates who were being picked upon.

Some of the security people at Stansted have serious personality defects.

They also have a nasty habit of ushering you through the scanner hoop before your valuables have even started to feed into the machine.

I always make a point of holding back to surveil my valuables until they enter the machine before I heed any request to come forward.

When security is busy I have seen people dodging about every which way with extra polythene bags - even with the new plastic bins they use, security are usually too dumb to match the polythene bags of 100ml containers to particular passengers so it is quite possible to put more than one per person through especially if there is the distraction of more than one person in your party (but not necessarily so).

So, the chances that "Security" would notice any landside passenger nicking small valuables from the passenger in front by transferring it I would say are pretty slim. "We watch everything they say - its all on camera", to which I say, "All very well, but I don't have the time or inclination to lose something here and then wait for you guys to pull the tapes find the culprit and track them down to a flight to Vilnius or wherever. I'll watch my own stuff thanks."

As an earlier poster said, these bags were handed out free landside until perhaps a year ago. Now the security peeps are loooking for worn out bags with holes in them which they say is no good for when they stick their explosives probes into them - new bags please - over there - in the bubble gum type machine - four bags a pound in a little round plastic ball thing. And yes, they are on the look out for the wrong sort of bag. They need to be no more than 1 litre resealable. Usually that means the bags are roughly square. Many kitchen bags are a bit bigger than that and reveal themselves by being 5 cm longer on one side. Expect to get pulled with those.

I got my current batch of bags free from London City airport.

busiscoming2

I flew in and out of Stansted a couple of weeks ago and was fine with my resealable freezer bag. It has the white lines across it to write on and has been accepted for the past couple of years.

MarkBargain

Thanks for the responses. It's true that the bag my fianc!e used was a bit bigger than 20cmx20cm and was not "resealable", but I cannot see that it caused any security problem because the items had been x-rayed successfully and everyone could see what they were. Forcing her to pay a pound was clearly a money-making rather than a security exercise. Effectively they would steal her cosmetics if she refused to pay the one pound fee, which they had set to maximise their own profits rather than being anything to do with security.

I know it's only a quid, but it never feels nice to be ripped off and gets your holiday off to a bad start.

balmk

There are specific security regulations which MUST be adhered to.

One of these is that the bag which cosmetics are put in must be resealable.

This is not the security guards being picky, or trying to annoy - it is a regulation which they must follow.

These regulations are there for your protection, not to extort money. If they didn't have plastic bags available for you to buy, they would be required to dispose of your cosmetics.

jayok

balmk wrote: »

There are specific security regulations which MUST be adhered to.

One of these is that the bag which cosmetics are put in must be resealable.

This is not the security guards being picky, or trying to annoy - it is a regulation which they must follow.

These regulations are there for your protection, not to extort money. If they didn't have plastic bags available for you to buy, they would be required to dispose of your cosmetics.

Why does it have to be resealable and how does this protect me?

Sooki

There doesn't seem to be any consistency at any uk airport I've used. I've got a small but strong see through zip up bag with handles (i hate those flimsy ziplock bags) and on many occassions to my embarrassment it has been held up and exhibited to the queue behind by a smiling security person as an example of what they would like to see coming through the scanner, on the same note I have been badly chastised for using the very same bag and forced to procure the £1.00 bag. I have no issue complying with security requirements but I see this £1.00 a bag thing as a scam. I even carry a couple of spare of these bags in case of this issue but when they are charging they only want you to use theirs, funny how at airports who issue free bags don't seem to be as pushy!

Norman_Castle

^^ and why do they cost £1