Praise Canadian Airports

oscarward

Hi


Thought I would inform people of my recent experience of coming back from Calgary to the UK.


We had bought a pen knife for our son which my wife had mistakenly packed in our hand luggage with our other gifts. This was detected by the scanners and we were pulled to one side. I was expecting all sorts of trouble but was completely amazed by their security agent.


We were given 4 options,
1. Surrender the knife and it would be put in a bin.
2. Go back through security, if we had someone or something (parked car) to take possession of the knife we could do that.
3. If we were coming back to Calgary within 30 days they would hold the knife at the security office.
4. Or put it in a bag with credit card details and address and UPS would send it anywhere in the world for a fee.


As it was a personalised gift we opted for 4 and lo and behold it turned up in the post 2 weeks later.


Ok the shipping costs were twice the purchase price but it was worth it.:T


Now compare that to what would happen at a british airport....

agrinnall

oscarward wrote: »

Ok the shipping costs were twice the purchase price but it was worth it.:T

Not sure how you work that out, had you left the knife behind you could have bought 2 more when you got home for what you paid to ship it. Hardly seems a MSE solution.

sheramber

We were travelling to USA through Heathrow,( before terrorist days) My son had small fruit knife in his hand luggage. We were taken aside and told we could not take it on board but they would pack it and give it to the captain and we would get it at the other end. When the captain handed the package over to us he was amused to find out what it was.

More amusing was the fact that m son had brought the same knife in his hand luggage when flying from JFK to Heathrow a week earlier.

oscarward

agrinnall wrote: »

Not sure how you work that out, had you left the knife behind you could have bought 2 more when you got home for what you paid to ship it. Hardly seems a MSE solution.

As it was a personalised gift


It was personalised with his name and the location it was bought from so we couldn't replace it at home.

tonycottee

oscarward wrote: »

Now compare that to what would happen at a british airport....

What are the options at a British airport?

vikingaero

tonycottee wrote: »

What are the options at a British airport?

A dour faced agent calling over supervisor and Police for an OTT response for investigation, confiscation and possible arrest.

The-Truth

oscarward wrote: »

Now compare that to what would happen at a british airport....

That's more or less what happens in a British Airport as well! And I know it is as I work in one.

What a stupid statement you've made!

oscarward

The-Truth wrote: »

That's more or less what happens in a British Airport as well! And I know it is as I work in one.

What a stupid statement you've made!

Which airport is that?


My other experience was at BHX last year where the 'contraband' , a personal deodorant > allowed size, was binned with a stern warning and a few years earlier again at BHX the offending item was binned without any options. Colleagues who contravened the regulations had the offending items binned without any other options as well.


Your comments contradict my own and colleagues UK experience.

ThumbRemote

The-Truth wrote: »

That's more or less what happens in a British Airport as well! And I know it is as I work in one.

What a stupid statement you've made!

Which UK airport provides a facility to forward on goods that have been confiscated at security?

LilElvis

When my husband inadvertently left his penknife in his hand luggage a couple of years ago the security staff at Johannesburg just sent him back to the check-in desk. Virgin put the penknife in a huge box, sealed it, slapped a luggage tag on it and sent it down the chute with the rest of the luggage. Got it back on the baggage carousel at Heathrow. No charge and it took all of 5 minutes to organise.

ThemeOne

The-Truth wrote: »

That's more or less what happens in a British Airport as well! And I know it is as I work in one.

My experience (Gatwick and Heathrow) has been that items are confiscated / destroyed with no options given, and often a sarcastic comment thrown in for good measure.

If things have improved that is marvellous news.