Airport security, and Stuff and Things
Mar. 21st, 2004 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulroI've just been talking to my mother about our impending visit to Portugal.
Her travel agent and some friends have told her that you're no longer allowed to lock your checked luggage on planes. Dad's friend did, security thought he had something suspicious in his suitcase and they sawed the lock off. Apparently there's big signs in all the airports telling you not to lock your luggage now. WTF is up with this? I said for my money, I'd just take a few extra suitcase locks (which, after all, cost about 50p) so you're set if they do this. I do not trust luggage handlers, plus there's the aspect of travelling by bus & train when they get to Europe - they'll want to have secure luggage then.
I'm getting majorly stressed about upcoming trips, or rather my ability to get all the Official Shit dealt with in time. Particularly the five-week window for getting my passport is worrying me, but that's all my fault because I was too avoidant to deal with it earlier. There's stuff that's not clear even on the application form downloaded from the London embassy site; so I have to call them. In the whole 4 hours a day the passport line is open. Which happens to coincide with my busiest time at work. On the plus side, the added new ID I have to supply isn't that much of an impossibility, but it's taken me until today to even read through the forms.
I also have to work out getting us both international drivers licences, because there is zero point in being in Nova Scotia without a rental car. (I kinda forgot, because I'm so used to being able to drive in all of Europe on the UK licence). I need to book a flight from Halifax to Toronto, but I need to get in touch with a couple people in Toronto to confirm best days; but nobody in TO is ever home when I call (what with them all having lives and annoying time differences and my need to sleep all hours).
That's before even getting into talking to the embassy more about immigration options (really unclear from the website), updating my CV (I can't even face seeing how many years out of date it is) and assorted Life Shit.
To top this all off, I'm painfully aware that all of this is stuff other people deal with as a normal part of life without making a big source of stress out of it, especially if one has pretentions to be a world class traveller type. I can't even begin to stress how much I hate being so completely useless at stuff I should be really good at.
Y'all can see why I'm not going to Convergence now :-)
Additionally, that'd be because the cheapest flight to Chicago I've found is in the £350 range. I could get to TO for under £200 and there's a car seat with my name on it, but I don't have that much time.
But "I'm a cretin without a passport" sounds so much better than "I'm poor".
Her travel agent and some friends have told her that you're no longer allowed to lock your checked luggage on planes. Dad's friend did, security thought he had something suspicious in his suitcase and they sawed the lock off. Apparently there's big signs in all the airports telling you not to lock your luggage now. WTF is up with this? I said for my money, I'd just take a few extra suitcase locks (which, after all, cost about 50p) so you're set if they do this. I do not trust luggage handlers, plus there's the aspect of travelling by bus & train when they get to Europe - they'll want to have secure luggage then.
I'm getting majorly stressed about upcoming trips, or rather my ability to get all the Official Shit dealt with in time. Particularly the five-week window for getting my passport is worrying me, but that's all my fault because I was too avoidant to deal with it earlier. There's stuff that's not clear even on the application form downloaded from the London embassy site; so I have to call them. In the whole 4 hours a day the passport line is open. Which happens to coincide with my busiest time at work. On the plus side, the added new ID I have to supply isn't that much of an impossibility, but it's taken me until today to even read through the forms.
I also have to work out getting us both international drivers licences, because there is zero point in being in Nova Scotia without a rental car. (I kinda forgot, because I'm so used to being able to drive in all of Europe on the UK licence). I need to book a flight from Halifax to Toronto, but I need to get in touch with a couple people in Toronto to confirm best days; but nobody in TO is ever home when I call (what with them all having lives and annoying time differences and my need to sleep all hours).
That's before even getting into talking to the embassy more about immigration options (really unclear from the website), updating my CV (I can't even face seeing how many years out of date it is) and assorted Life Shit.
To top this all off, I'm painfully aware that all of this is stuff other people deal with as a normal part of life without making a big source of stress out of it, especially if one has pretentions to be a world class traveller type. I can't even begin to stress how much I hate being so completely useless at stuff I should be really good at.
Y'all can see why I'm not going to Convergence now :-)
Additionally, that'd be because the cheapest flight to Chicago I've found is in the £350 range. I could get to TO for under £200 and there's a car seat with my name on it, but I don't have that much time.
But "I'm a cretin without a passport" sounds so much better than "I'm poor".
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Airport security
Date: 2004-03-21 01:44 pm (UTC)My SO, who works in security, made this suggestion. Attach an list of everything in your luggage to the inside of your suitcase, so the customs agents see it the moment they open your luggage, and they know that everything is accounted for. He also suggested typing, in large letters "SEPARATE COPY WITH LUGGAGE OWNER", so they can't throw out the list and claim it was never there.
If you want to go further, you can take pics of each item with digital camera and include that with your list.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-22 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-22 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-27 08:44 am (UTC)As for the IDL, is a British driver's license really not accepted in Canada? I have an IDL and the main feature seems to be the fact that it is an official translation. All it essentially does is make your license details understandable in 10 different languages.
Not locked, but close
Date: 2004-03-28 08:05 am (UTC)I get bags of black ones for about 2$USD. If they need to open the bag they can, but I'll know someone was in it. It works pretty well.
Re: Not locked, but close
Date: 2004-03-28 08:50 am (UTC)Re: Not locked, but close
Date: 2004-03-28 10:33 am (UTC)