It's The Little Things: #3 - Airport Security

It’s the Little Things

#3 – Airport Security

You know the drill, Americans. No matter where you are traveling to by plane, it’s probably second nature by now:

-Shoes off.

-Jewelry/watches/belts off.

-Coats off.

-Liquids in a clear bag and in the bin.

-Laptop in a different bin.

Do all that and you may get away without a frisking. And then, it's the frantic shoes-back-on-jewelry-watch-belt-back-on-coat-back-on-liquids-and-laptop-back-in-bag-heel-step-touch dance before you proceed to your gate.

Recently, we made our first internal flights in Australia, traveling from Sydney to Melbourne twice. Almost everything about the traveling experience seemed perfectly familiar, except for the incredible ease of the airport security checkpoint.

They more than cut the list in half:

-Wathches/belts off (my jewelry made it through fine).

-Laptop in the bin.

Shoes and coats stayed on. No liquid check.

I am passing no judgment on whether this is a good or bad thing for security. I can only assume that there are complicated logarithms and formulas involved in deciding who and what must be checked and how (at least I hope someone is putting that much thought into it!). I just know that it is certainly easier from a traveler’s perspective. I felt over 50% less harried as I cleared security with nary a beep or buzz, and the post-security hokey-pokey was much easier to master:

You put your watch back on

You put your belt back on

And you stash your laptop away

You put your watch back on

You put your belt back on

That's what it's all about!

(No breaks for the International travelers, by the way. Leaving the country is just like home-sweet-home).