Shoes off-limits to airport security – unless you're heading to the U.S.

[Newsjock]

Source: Globe and Mail

Good news for harried travellers who resent having to remove their shoes at airport security checkpoints: Now you can just say no.

Canada's airport security agency has issued a bulletin to front-line officers instructing them they cannot require domestic or international passengers to doff footwear before walking through metal detectors.

... In a major exception, however, officers can still order passengers heading for the United States to remove their shoes, consistent with higher air-security standards set by Washington.

... Tougher rules for shoe screening that followed the Reid arrest have prompted passenger complaints around the world. Numerous blogs and travel websites allege that foot diseases are being spread and that security checkpoints are needlessly clogged by people struggling with shoelaces.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/shoes-off-limits-to-airport-security-unless-youre-heading-to-the-us/article1278749/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. About time!

It is a major inconvenience...

I wear lace style shoes for comfort, and taking them off/putting them back on is a major problem.

Now if we could just get this country to follow suit!

[JenniferJuniper]

2. Between taking off the shoes, taking out the laptop, and

making sure the baggy with the 3 ounce samples is out and ready for inspection, I always end up completely discombobulated. And god forbid I have a few pennies in my pockets.....

[naaman fletcher]

4. I stopped travelling with my laptop..

just to not have to deal with that. I found that of course it made my travels much easier as I didn't have the pressure of deciding when to work and when to play during my downtime.

[JenniferJuniper]

5. I'm a business traveler. Last week,

my laptop ended up in the middle of two other identical looking black HPs coming through the x-ray machine. The other two people and I had to each open up the damn things to check we got the right ones back. Talk about chaos. But my 10 year old has now kindly slapped a Jonas Brothers sticker on the cover so it isn't likely to happen again. Lucky me.

[dflprincess]

30. I taped my business card to the top of my laptop just for that reason.

Fortunately, I don't have to travel for business too often, but I just hate it when I do.

[Sherman A1]

11. I stopped traveling by air, period

we now take long road trips each Fall to different parts of the US for our vacations and I don't have to travel on business anymore, so no more flights for me.

[a la izquierda]

18. Oh, I'm jealous...

I have to fly a lot and I completely hate it.

[Sherman A1]

20. I loved flying, but since the silly factor has been

engaged, I am off of airplanes.

[apnu]

24. I stopped traveling by plane

I'd rather drive to my destination or take a train than fly anymore. Its too expensive, too crowded, the staff are often rude, the flight is terrible and usually delayed, plus getting in and out of the airport is an ordeal, and if you're picking someone up, you're treated like a criminal. Seriously, riding the Greyhound bus is a more pleasurable experience now than flying -- and that's saying a lot.

I've flown for 30 years now, boy how the industry has changed.

[Posteritatis]

33. Did the train switch (time permitting) last year; no regrets at all! (nt)

[liberal N proud]

14. Laptop, cell phone, PDA, baggie, shoes, belt, watch and keys

Did I forget anything else?

Oh you want to see my papers? I left that with my laptop in my rush to keep from holding the line up.

[kentauros]

34. You need one of these for your loose change:

Mine was a gift but you could probably find a leatherworker that could make one for you if you can't find this kind. I believe mine is Native American made, or that's what my brother told me :)

[naaman fletcher]

3. I have a hard time believing that the risks..

from shoes outweigh the costs of this regulation. The shoes are the number one thing causing delays and hassles at the airport. I deal with it by having gone more casual in my footwear when I travel (loafers for business and boat shoes for pleasure).

[NYC Democrat]

6. actually I would say a shoe would be the most logical place to hide something like a knife.

much more likely then many of the other things that you are required to take off or out of your bag.

[JenniferJuniper]

7. We put a man on the moon 40 years ago....

shouldn't the scanning equipment by now be capable of checking shoes with or without feet in them?

[14thColony]

8. Neil Armstrong wouldn't have made that flight today

With all that junk he'd STILL be at security.

[comtec]

16. yeah it's called a metal detector

you would have to have a metal blade, because a ceramic one would snap just from being under your foot.
and a metal blade would ping, probably.
and lets be real... the chances of that happening are so rare.
9/11 happened (supposedly) because it was a totally one-off event.
NOT the normal thing that could happen.

Since lockerbie Scotland...exactly HOW MANY BOMBS have actually been found in luggage?

how common are these thing? really?

[Posteritatis]

32. Yeah, but functional security and security theatre are two different creatures. (nt)

[Warren Stupidity]

9. And your evidence for that would be?

A metal knife, by the way, would not get through the metal detector no matter where it was hidden. The naked feet are to prevent another idiotic shoe bomber episode. Not knives, bombs. Idiot bombs.

[JCMach1]

10. I never have to take off shoes on international flights from the Middle East to the U.S.

Even for U.S. carriers...

[14thColony]

25. Even inside the US

Some airports are shoe-off, some are shoe-on. From here in the UK, some airports are shoe-off, some are shoe-on, regardless of destination. No obvious reason to it.

[JCMach1]

36. Inside the U.S., yes

[Vincardog]

29. Neither have I

Of course I have never been on one of those flights

[Zywiec]

12. Flew out of Paris yesterday to Washington without removing my shoes

for security. It was a nice experience.

[Tx4obama]

13. I think...

I think that it shouldn't have been made public.
Now some idiot is going to figure out how to make a shoe bomb again...

I'd rather have to take off my shoes than have the plane blow up because of some idiot with something hidden in there.

Watched on of those MSNBC prison shows the other night and those guys hide all sorts of things in the bottom of the shoes!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Thank God that Richard Reid hid the bomb in his shoe

instead of transporting it rectally.

TSA's reaction to such an event would really stink. And slow down the line even more.

I'll remove my shoes and try to be grateful that the inconvenience is so small. Even knowing that the TSA is merely grand kabuki.

:hi:

[kath]

23. Grand kabuki.

Yep.

[Ian David]

17. Just wait until The Titty-Bomber forces all women to remove their bras at security. n/t

[customerserviceguy]

19. I wonder if we'll ever get to the day when ordinary travelers

are no longer treated like terrorists?

Can't we have some sort of "trusted traveler" program, where you pay a modest fee of $50, they do a full background search on you, and give you a card with a code that links up with an iris scan? You give your card to security, you look into a machine for three seconds, the light blinks and says that you are the person on the card, and off you go.

[thesquanderer]

21. It's been tried, sort of

There have been some attempts at a kind of "trusted traveler" program... the biggest one, Clear, just went out of business. It didn't get you out of shoe checks, but it was a step toward the kind of thing you suggest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_Traveler

Any talk about the government (as opposed to a private company) implementing something like this usually leads to discussions of a national ID card and privacy and big-brother issues.

[kirby]

31. And of course...

The Clear traveller program did not protect the privacy of the people who signed up. They lost an laptop with personal details of the travellers. The laptop did not even have encryption on it which was against the guidelines the FAA required, but never 'audited', of the private sector programs.

[customerserviceguy]

35. Yes, the National ID card thing is out there

but if it were voluntary rather than mandatory, it would be met with more acceptance.

There's no way that this should be in the hands of a private business. The US Government issues passports, they can issue "trusted traveler" cards. It's their jackboots of the TSA that runs the security program, anyway.

[Zavulon]

22. Telling the world that any particular piece of clothing is off-limits is stupid.

Just wait until some psycho takes advantage of it. This was unnecessary and dumb - what. is it designed to attract that huge and coveted demographic which really wants to travel but refuses to take their shoes off?

[sofa king]

26. It was years ago that I noticed....

...That it was taking me an entire day to fly anywhere, even if it was within my state. Things got a little better after I cut my hair: my luggage stopped being lost so much and I was not "randomly selected" for special attention. But that's no solace for anyone flying who is non-white, easily annoyed, or prone to complaining, which is now the equivalent of terrorism at an airport.

But there is much more to it than the unofficial but obviously (to me) real policy of harassment of scary-looking people. The air fleets are aging, security measure costs seem to be eating into maintenance and upkeep, and possibly also the training time of employees, and as a result delays are omnipresent and incredibly stupid shit happens whenever I fly.

The last time I flew my flight was delayed because a luggage truck crashed into a fuel truck behind my plane. Yes, my flight was delayed by an auto accident.

But I'm getting a little better at it, too. Here's a piece of advice for you: the very second that you hear the announcement that your flight is "briefly" delayed, run as fast as possible to another desk and try to find the next flight to where you're going, and get a seat on that. They're telling you your flight is "briefly" delayed because they don't want everyone to ditch that flight and take the one that's actually going to get there, but they are sure to delay your flight long enough so that the other flights get a chance to get there first. But for about five minutes, the other desks don't seem to know the plan, and if you can transfer flights you can keep going. Your luggage, of course, will be lost for days, though. But isn't it always?

My current rule of thumb is that anything on the eastern seaboard is faster by train--yes, including a seventeen hour ride to Florida from Virginia.

[Bill McBlueState]

27. When I was in a Chilean airport in January,

I could tell who the Americans were. They were the ones taking their shoes off at security, even though nobody had asked them to. Nice image we're projecting abroad.

It's good to see Canada dropping this ridiculous requirement. I was hoping we in the US would elect a federal government that would bring some sense to airport security, but it isn't happening so far.

[damntexdem]

28. I never had to take off my shoes boarding a plane from Mexico to the U.S.

However, I could not carry on board liquid purchased in the secure area of the terminal -- except, that liquor purchased there could be brought to me once I was past the no-liquids point.