Sounds like racial profiling is alive and well in the US.....zzm9980 wrote:Flights to the US (and maybe AUS-NZ?) require this now at any airport. Perhaps Changi just does this to all flights so that they don't have to do what they do in HKG, which is dedicate specific gates just to flights to the US and setup a secondary screening there?aster wrote:This happens at the normal terminal as well. Kind of like some people have their bags x-rayed before they even go through immigration at the regular terminals at Changi.
Singapore is unique in that it doesn't have a "sterile environment" when clearing passport control - all final checks are done at the gate. Most airports do the check right at the outset so that the whole duty-free/passenger area is sterile in terms of security. So basically most airports would do this to ensure that the sterile environment is kept that way in terms of keeping planes secure (since there are no checks from duty-free to boarding), whereas Changi does this to make sure that nothing funny goes down at the terminal itself (like some wackos arriving with stuff they shouldn't have to cause trouble at the airport itself - since they would still have to face a full check if they were to board another plane anyway).
I even had to go through this at ICN on the SQ flight to SFO. You land in Seoul, you're forced off the plane and through security. Then, you have about 20 minutes to browse before you have to go back to the gate, get screened again, and get right back on to the same plane you just got off.
Btw, no liquids are allowed onto flights to the US. I used to grab Perrier out of the CX lounge and toss them in my carry-on, but security takes it away. When I was in Seoul, I was eating icecream. The girls just looked at it and had no idea what to do, kept asking each other "Ice-ka-rea-mu??" Then one just handed it back and motioned for me to hurry up and get on before someone said no.
Also, the most interesting thing I noticed was leaving SFO a few weeks ago. Just as my boarding pass was scanned, and i walked onto the jet bridge, a posse of TSA officers were just around the corner out of site grabbing people that were walking onto the flight. Two darker skinned gentlemen in front of me were grabbed right away with their carry ons yanked open almost immediately. I assumed I would be searched too, but was told in a very happy voice "Have an excellent flight, sir", which I knew meant "This is none of your business so get on the plane"
