New Rules for flights to the U.S.

[Eagle]

As many of you are probably aware, new regulations are now in effect for ALL flights to the U.S. While this may not affect other airport and destinations, it's possible that some of these may be applied everywhere.

Here's a basic summary of the changes:

> All passengers will be subject to a secondary screening and search prior to boarding the aircraft. This will reportedly involve both another search of the carry-on bag plus an "on person" search or "pat down".

> Only ONE carry-on item will be permitted in the cabin (NOT one plus a "personal item"). I suspect this is to make the secondary search / screening move a bit quicker).

> Passengers will NOT be allowed out of their seats for the last hour of the flight. They must remain seated with seat belt in place.

> Also for the last hour of the flight, passengers will not be allowed to have anything on their laps, including blankets, pillows, Laptops, entertainment devices, tec.

Some airlines have reportedly been switching off the in-flight entertainment systems for the entire duration of a flight (as long as 12-hours) so that passengers won't be able to see the satellite map and therefore won't know when they're over U.S. territory (seems a bit ridiculous and "heavy handed" IMHO).

More specific information can be obtained on the airport security websites for each country (TSA in the U.S., CATSA in Canada, etc.).

Hopefully these new measures will be relaxed a bit in the near future.

Cheers!

[madamtrashheap]

Thanks for posting that information Eagle. This will be helpful when planning trips for those GFErs returning from Europe on flights which go to or through the US. Guess it adds another set of rules to consider when flying and it remains to be seen the extent of these measures on airport security across other countries.

Would you mind "pinning" it to the top, under the EU Rules post? This will help with transport planning until the next update.

[Eagle]

I've watched several reports from different news agencies around the U.S., and the new rules seem to be applied differently in each location. The intent seems to be to have "random checks" so the "evil doers" won't be able to predict what type of security they'll encounter. I suspect the rules will be relaxed a bit after a few weeks or so. That's been the pattern of behaviour in the past.

This situation comes at a very inconvenient time, as I have a short holiday booked to the southern U.S. in January for a short mid-winter sun break. That includes a few days in Seattle on the way back to attend a travel conference. I was hoping to travel with "carry-on only", but it doesn't look like that will be possible now. There's NO WAY I'm checking my Camera bag so I guess that will have to be my carry-on and I'll have to check my Air Boss. Fortunately, it looks like at least some of the airlines are waiving the usual fees for checked bags.

Cheers!