Quote:
Originally Posted by chilliwilli
If there are frequent flyer's here, I'm curious to read your feedback, thoughts or experiences.
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Personally, I had five or six years in a row receiving Super Elite status on AC, which is similar to United 1K; you have to accumulate 100,000 actual miles in each calendar year to requalify. Worst year, I got there by the first week of June. Usually it took until September. I didn't qualify this year, which I suppose is a good thing. So, I am (was) a frequent flyer.
I think airport security in the US is a joke. I go to great lengths not to go through US airports any more than I have to. That includes flying from Vancouver to Toronto to then enter the US to get to eastern destinations, as opposed to connecting in the US through Denver, or Chicago. I can get to South America without landing in the US at all if I go to Toronto. In addition to the longer flight times I endure, one perhaps has to realize just how bad the airport is in Toronto to appreciate the above choices.
When organizing conferences, with international attendees, it is always a bonus not to hold it in the US. We could have anywhere from 20 to 100 people at a meeting, and we go to lengths not to have those meetings in the US. It sucks for your hotel and tourism industry, because we certainly can't be the only ones.
I don't like the US full body cameras, as they use xrays. The Canadian full body cameras use millimeter wave, which apparently is less harmfull. I don't fully understand that, but it sounds good. I don't mind them taking a full body picture, if it isn't visible to anyone but the camera operator. I would have a problem if the monitor was out in the open.
I don't like full body pat downs, I consider them intrusive. I have picked a camera over them when going through the US recently. On that occasion, everybody had a choice of a patdown or the camera, due to some heightened security issue a few weeks ago.
We had a thread on this recently, how the west over-reacted to 9/11.
http://www.xoutpost.com/off-topic/po...aucracies.html
Unfortunately, that thread degenerated into a discussion of conspiracies, while it started off talking about the effects on personal freedoms in a post 9/11 world.
Meanwhile, the economy will continue to be choked by bureaucratic restrictions placed on business and holiday travellers in the pursuit of security.