Yes, from surfing this board, I was aware of a new rule -- but this seems way too stringent. (See my colleague's plaintive but hilarious tale below!)

Purpose is.....what? Is it a move against excessive in-flight makeup application? Or against over-reliance on thick Cosmo-type mags and pulpy airport fiction? Or use of odious inflatable "neck cushions" and wearing of tacky "flight slippers", other than airline-issued?

My colleague's tale:

'So I land with my purse and carry on (luckily I checked my brief case) and got not very far before they said "you are not going any further with two bags dearie". I nearly slugged her. She says "This is London and you can only take one bag."

"I said "I am not in London: I am in transit."

"She says "This is London and everyone knows the rules here." (I thought transit would be exempt.)

"I don't know what one is supposed to do as they set up their checkpoint just as you exit the plane area.

"So, while they let men through with fanny packs plus brief cases (equals 2) and another guy with two bags hooked togther on a pull suitcase (equals 2), I had to rearrange everything and try to squish my purse into my carry-on without causing the bag to be bigger than their measurer.

"Then I crowded through the skinny pathway they made and my bag hit the leg of the same woman and she stops me and says "I can ensure you never fly again and won't fly out -- that's assault"...when all I was struggling with was a 100 pound carry-on bag, to get it onto my shoulder.

"Right behind me was a lady with a stroller and four bags: a purse, 1 diaper bag and 2 shopping bags. Go figure."

Yikes! I presume that your colleague must have somehow managed to appease the dragon security person without being arrested.

Thanks for the warning.

Like we need more reasons to avoid LHR.

OK - how it might have looked from the other side -- <i>Woman passenger is very upset and histrionic when I politely tell her she needs to squeeze her huge handbag into her overstuffed rollie bag. She shouts and points out others w/ two bags. Problem is - they are deplaning not boarding.

She huffs and puffs and then deliberately bashes her rollaboard over my foot.</i>

Just imagining what the other side of the story might sound like. . . . . .

Knowing the individual, I would say that interpretation is a stretch. (She is one of us mousy Canadians.)

I think Ira's got it!

And I also think tegdale is a male!

Assuming the British version of the TSA is ANYTHING like the American verison. I am going with the friend being selected for the security version of &quot;let's harrass someone, it looks like we are DOING something&quot;

Really now, do you think the friend went out of her way to upset security.

And in my experience, men seem to be allowed to carry upteen things on while a woman's purse is ASSUMED to be a bomb! (IDIOTS are loose all over the world!)

sheesh - some people take things waaaay too seriously. I merely imagined how the security agent might have explained the confrontation to <b>her</b> friends/co-workers.

I fly a LOT and have never run into a gestapo TSA agent - not once. Nor BAA security staff from Hell. Sure a few have been testy and stressed - but I've never been in a &quot;confrontation&quot; w/ one.

Some people report all these horrible experiences that keep happening to them over and over. I just wonder how some are so unlucky - and just maybe they bring some of it on themselves.

for what it is worth, my husband and I and our four children received the &quot;deluxe&quot; treatment by TSa on a trip to FL last week. All six of us got the full pat down treatment. Nice way to scar the children...

If you carry on a 100 pound bag, or even two of 50 each, you should check it.
But I agree that there are a lot of double standards; some get away with much more than others.

&gt;Purpose is.....what?&lt;

Where have you been? Didn't you hear about the terrorists who were caught in London plotting to make a bomb with harmless-looking liquids that would be brought aboard the airline in carry-on luggage?

Extraordinary.

In the past week, I've been through about half a dozen airline security checks, in the UK, US and a former banana republic

As regular readers of this site may have spotted, tact and diplomacy aren't my special subjects.

Yet not once in this saga did any security or government official - in the UK, US or what's now a T-shirt republic - behave in any way other than efficiently, humorously and courteously.

And this has been - except in the US for the first few months after September 11, when the military at security were understandably a bit brusque - exactly what I've experienced everywhere in the world this century, from Britain to China to lord knows how many nearly-failed underdeveloped states.

But then I've never found a security check at Heathrow &quot;just as you exit the plane area.&quot; Though doubtless that's because I only use the place once a month or so.

All we know about tedgale's whingeing chum is that the chum is incapable of checking the rules and suffers from the delusion that rules she doesn't like don't apply to her.

The chum's making it up about the location of the security check and how much she was carrying. I wouldn't believe a word of any other part of her fantasising whine.

dowzerw.. scar the children? scare the children?

i don´t see how either of them should have been a major problem if explained beforehand?

have i become numbed to all this and take it in stride?

Not talking about the British security but TSA agents don't need an excuse but I was told by one there are several things that can get you pulled aside for further checking so this stupid assumption that the passenger brings it on himself is ridiculous.

Among other things using miles for upgrades may get you checked. Also, just your name can get you marked to pat-down. And there ARE Gestapo-ish TSA agents but only an insane person would argue with them.

Usually, if you look for a fight you'll get one.

That being said, I have one friend who got a water bottle through one US airport &quot;security&quot; screening lately, and another who got a water bottle through Gatwick.

The whole &quot;security&quot; thing is all for show. The more people that realize this, the better. Then we can cut it out with this stupid charade and perhaps focus energy on *real* security.

Anyone who doesn't realize that the limits of what you can carry on, and what you can get through security, are pretty much a crap shoot either doesn't travel much or doesn't pay attention when they do.

I don't really buy tedgales friends story - a 100 pound carry on? I don't think so, NO airline allows that. But certainly there are people with several bags that apparently didn't &quot;count&quot; when checking in where as the person in the next line over has their bags weighed, measured and counted. So no, definitly not fair.

And security is definitly a joke. I just came back from Spain where something in my carryon looked suspicious on the xray. I'm pretty sure I know what it was - the stand to an old fashioned copper food scale that I had bought. So I went over to the table to have it looked through. The guy rumages around and finds a glass bottle with a silver stopper and says 'that must be it', smiles and sends me on my way. Never looked deeper to find the thing that actually triggered the added check. I could have who knows what in there. And as far as water - being a good girl I always dumped out the water from my water bottle before going through security (and re-filled it at a water fountain on the other side). But on one of the legs we were rushed and I forgot to dump it. Not a problem, no one said a thing. Makes you feel so secure.

&quot;If you carry on a 100 pound bag, or even two of 50 each, you should check it.&quot; Quite right - if turbulence were to cause it to fall out of an overhead locker, it could kill someone.

I wish they'd enforce carry-on rules *more* stringently.

Both Easyjet &amp; BA have no weight limits on cabin luggage - it's a case of if you can lift it into the locker you can take it on board.

I look forward to the odd pat down - the closest to excitement I get these days!

Well, now, there is more than one fox here with feathers on his (her) mouth, as I believe the folk saying goes.

Indeed, ted's friend should have researched LHR as a major airport beforehand, so as to determine any anomalies (being in transit at many airports does not require one to re-pass security, but one should not assume this to be universally the case.)

One should also be prepared for an official's likely applying the most conservative interpretation of a rule to oneself, and the most liberal to everyone else, and to have plan B ready in the event that this occurs.

But that said, since when do 'the rules' permit an official to address a stranger in such a fashion, from the intimidating &quot;you're not going any further...&quot; to the patronizing &quot;dearie&quot;? Who was spoiling for a fight here?

What happened to the honourable British tradition, as taught to me by my own dear mom, of addressing people along the lines of &quot;I'm afraid, ma'am, that we must restrict you to one bag only. Yes, yes, terrible bore, no sense to it at all, really, but as my superiors will interpret it, you simply must...&quot

As for the bag knock, one does indeed need to use extreme care when manipulating objects in crowded spaces. That said, I believe it was English common law that gave us the presumption of innocence. Assault?

Fortunately, a sense of humour is one's best friend here. More than the American Express card of old, one should never leave home without it.