Hand Luggage - One Bag Rule Already Relaxed?

dmg24

Greetings from Cologne!

I flew out here from EMA on Monday, and ensured I only had one bag, and all my liquids were of the correct size/ in a clear plastic bag etc. However, once at the airport it seemed that I was the only one ...

People were going through with allsorts! Several people had multiple bags, and very few were taking out any liquids to go through separately.

To add to this, my passport was not checked at any time until I reached Germany!

Well I'm back off to the airport now, will see if they are any stricter at this end! x

Jennifer_Jane

Flew Manchester/Amsterdam/Cape Town on 11th November and back on 2nd December and everyone was very strict. Saw customs ditching half a small bottle of water at Amsterdam, and there was loads of security.

Jen

dmg24

Just got back, and they were much more strict at CGN.

They were very busy at EMA, but I would rather have the wait and know I was safe ... x

LB1985

dmg24 wrote: »

Just got back, and they were much more strict at CGN.

They were very busy at EMA, but I would rather have the wait and know I was safe ... x

I fail to see how carrying more than one bag as hand luggage, or carrying more than 100ml of a particular liquid, poses any sort of risk to aviation security. These rules are quite simply moronic and cause more problems than they solve!

Inactive

You were very lucky then at EMA, I use the airport frequently and find their security OTT if anything, now Malta and Alicante, they are a joke.

dmg24

Inactive wrote: »

You were very lucky then at EMA, I use the airport frequently and find their security OTT if anything, now Malta and Alicante, they are a joke.

I always have done before. It all seemed quite surreal, I was waiting for someone to stop me, but they just seemed to want me out of the country! x

jaymac_2

I went through EMA last week, got to my destination and discovered i had a penknife and handcream in my handbag which no one had noticed.

wannabe_a_mum

My husband flew out from Manchester to Bombay via Frankfurt and we were very particular about the one hand luggage / liquids in clear bags.........

When it came to going through to the departure lounge he was asked by a lady as he went past "Any liquids in your hand luggage"? To which he just waved the already prepared clear bags and he was nodded at and went through.

We hung around for a bit as we wanted to make sure he got through security (you can see through the Fast Track Lane i fyou stand near Millies in Terminal 1!)
As we waited, several people went through with the same questions asked, but some of them blatantly had bottles of water in their hands and they just shrugged or ignored the lady asking the questions. She joked to a colleague who was walking past "I don't know why I am doing his, they aren't taking any notice". I made a comment to her that "Oh they'll soon be sorry when it's taken from them at the other end of the checks, if they have got anything!"
We struck up a conversation and she said "You'll be amazed at some of the things that people try to get through here...dead bodies as well" I though she was joking so me and my cousin laughed....to which the lady said "You think I'm joking? Seriously, they put them in a wheelchair wrap them up in a blanket and pretend that they are asleep! It cuts out the red tape...until they get caught!" I was in too much shock to comment and then my mobile rang - was hubby saying he'd got through OK.

Can you imagine that?? She really was deadly serious!!!!

Anyway, back to the point of the thread...The rules haven't been relaxed to my knowledge as there's loads of info up all around Manchester about this, plus on their website too.

teeb

They've not been relaxed officially, yet, but I've been flying about a bit and I've found that at big, busy airports they are pretty strict (hello Stansted!), and at smaller, more local airports they are more relaxed (hello Pau and Bordeaux!).

I couldn't get a bottle of water through any - I didn't mean to try, I just forgot when catching my connecting flight - but a second piece of hand baggage didn't really raise any questions. It helped that at Stansted I could prove baggage piece number 2 fitted into piece number 1, so I could technically have one piece only if I wanted.

seftonsun

LB1985 wrote: »

I fail to see how carrying more than one bag as hand luggage, or carrying more than 100ml of a particular liquid, poses any sort of risk to aviation security. These rules are quite simply moronic and cause more problems than they solve!

The one bag rule is not to do with security, but the fact that the security procedures (i.e the scanner/x-ray machines) cannot physically cope with processing more than one bag per passenger. If we all wanted ti take more than one bag then it would take considerably longer to get through the security check.

The relaxation of the rules is ties in with the introduction of new security kit that can process the hand baggage much quicker and relies more on the technology rather than the human to spot the nasties. Each new kit costs a few £m (cannot recall exact figure quotes) and some of the smaller airports (Liverpool Jihn Lennon was used as an example) will not have it installed in the immediate future andd will probably still enforce the one bag rule for the time being.

So, you need to check before travelling whether or not it is a one bag airport .

LB1985

seftonsun wrote: »

The one bag rule is not to do with security, but the fact that the security procedures (i.e the scanner/x-ray machines) cannot physically cope with processing more than one bag per passenger. If we all wanted ti take more than one bag then it would take considerably longer to get through the security check.

I largely disagree with that. The machines and staff coped before the one bag limit was put in place...